“Audits can be time consuming and are expensive. An auditor demands to see heaps of documents and records and then comes along to watch my rafting. What is in it for me?”
First and foremost, the Adventure Activities audits are compliance audits. They are to determine whether you are complying with the Safety Audit Standard for Adventure Activities and the Rafting Good Practice Guidelines.
It’s like a Warrant of Fitness – the mechanic doesn’t tell you all the rules and requirements for your car. They check your car against the requirements. The car passes or fails and the mechanic may make some comments, like your tires will need to be replaced soon or they’ll be non-compliant.
If your auditor needs to go through all the audit requirements with you, it’s likely to increase the audit duration, and the expense, significantly. It’s also likely to lead to a nonconformity: that you are not current with the legislation and guidelines.
The best way to reduce your audit expenses is to understand the rules that we need to audit against. Use other operators and senior guides as technical advisors. Chat to people who have been audited before and breeze through their audits.
Stay up to date with industry news. AdventureMark publishes newsletters and articles can be found on the AdventureMark News web page. Subscribe to SupportAdventure newsletters, keep up to date with NZRA. Sign up to advocacy bodies like Tourism Industry Aotearoa and Recreation Aotearoa – you support them, they support you.
The value in an audit comes in several ways. Firstly, when we are working head-down in our own business, we can overlook simple things and perhaps become complacent. A fresh set of impartial eyes is a great way to pick up things that may have been overlooked. Secondly, it is great assurance that what you are doing measures up against what the rest of the industry considers good practice.
It’s also the perfect opportunity to make operations easier for you and your guide team. Despite what you may think, auditors do not like or require lots of paperwork. We will often make observations during an audit that you could streamline your documentation, or simplify an SOP. Guides can’t remember a long, complicated set of guidelines so these observations can really help you make your Safety Management System easier for everyone to follow. Your SMS is for you and your staff, not for an auditor.