If you have questions related to of the following topics, please contact us by email at audits@amhsa.net or call Shannon or Jessica toll free at 1-800-267-9764. | |
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Auditor Performance Management
Concerns regarding auditor performance and/or breaches of the Auditor Code of Ethics may come to AMHSA’s attention internally through our quality assurance processes or from external parties such as an auditor, employer or other individual. We have been working on the development of a formal auditor performance management process which aligns with Partnerships Standards and will be used by the AMHSA COR Team, auditors and arbitrators. The process will address the screening, investigation, decision, and appeal procedures related to these concerns. A supplementary decision tree is also being drafted to facilitate clear navigation through the process.
AMHSA will ensure that our Auditor Performance Management process is shared with AMHSA auditors and COR-holders as soon as it is finalized. The anticipated launch timeline is Q3 of 2024.
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Reminder: Audit Registration and Sampling Pre-Approval Required
In the past, AMHSA has offered auditors the option of submitting their sampling plan (“Site Sampling” and “Int. Sampling” worksheets on the Excel workbook) for approval, prior to beginning an audit. Although many auditors take advantage of this opportunity, there is the risk that auditors who don’t obtain pre-approval can submit audits that don’t meet the minimum representative sampling requirements.
Please note that effective January 1, 2024, we are requiring sampling plans (for both AuditSoft and Excel audits) to be submitted for pre-approval. During your pre-audit preparations phase, please email audits@amhsa.net with your completed sampling plan.
We also remind you to ensure that the number of sites observed and the number of interviews conducted match the approved sampling plan, prior to submitting the audit. For example, the number of interviews conducted must equal the number in the approved sampling plan for each employee level.
In 2023, completion of the Audit Registration form was made a requirement, and this continues in 2024.
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Psychological Health and Safety (PHS) Training
To support our PHS Audit which was approved as an optional element for COR in 2023, we are working on the development of supplemental training for our Health and Safety Management Systems and Health and Safety Auditing courses on psychological health and safety. The training will be ½ day in length for each course, and will assist employers with integration of PHS into their health and safety management systems, and will assist auditors with conducting PHS audits (either an optional element substitution in a COR Maintenance year or as a stand-alone audit).
Information will be shared on the training of existing COR-holders and auditors as soon as it becomes available.
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Complexity-Based Scalable Audit
In October 2023, we communicated information about the Modernization of COR, including major milestones related to the Complexity-Based Scalable Audit working group. Several of the project milestones have recently been updated, including:
- Audit prototype: September 2024
- COR-holder and auditor engagement: October-November 2024
- Phase 3 - training for employers and auditors, transition to new tool: potentially January 2026 – TBD
AMHSA’s industry engagement may include in-person or hybrid meetings, surveys, etc., in the fourth quarter of the year. As soon as details are available, we will be sure to communicate them via Auditor Updates, the AMHSA Newsletter, at upcoming safety council meetings, etc.
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New Digital Credentials for Auditors
To help learners communicate their achievements, AMHSA has partnered with Credly to provide digital version of training credentials. We are happy to announce that the AMHSA-Certified Auditor badge has been approved and will be launched soon! This digital badge will be issued to all currently certified AMHSA auditors, and can be used in email signatures, digital resumes, on social media, etc. to showcase your auditing certification. It will contain verified metadata that describes the qualification and the process required to earn it.
Visit AMHSAdigitalcredentials.ca for more information and see AMHSA credentials that are available now.
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2024 Auditing Guidelines and Deadlines
Please keep the following in mind while planning and conducting your 2024 audits:
- Audits must be registered using the Audit Registration form, and once the form is received we will supply the most up-to-date version of the audit tool to be used
- The use of all audit validation techniques (documentation review, interviews, and observational tours) is again required
- Data gathering can be conducted either remotely or in-person – please contact AMHSA for information on conducting remote observations
- 12 months of documentation is required
- Scoring requirements:
- COR Certification audits require a score of 80% overall and 50% in each element, and
- COR Maintenance audits require a score of 60% overall
Deadlines:
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Applications for use of Action Plans in lieu of COR Maintenance audits must be submitted to AMHSA on the official template, by June 30, 2024. To determine if you are eligible and to obtain the template, email audits@amhsa.net. We strongly recommend creation of the plan and application earlier in the year, to allow more time to complete the action items.
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Requests to participate in the external peer audit process are due June 1, 2024. Provide audits@amhsa.net with your request including scope information (number of permanent manned worksites and employees), month you’d like your audit conducted, auditors available to perform a peer audit at another municipality, and your contact information.
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Submission of approved action plan deliverables deadline is November 30, 2024.
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Submission deadline for COR audits is December 1, 2024, and regular deadlines for data gathering (maximum 45 days) and submission (maximum 21 days from last data gathering date) also apply.
If your audit is impacted by wildfires or related evaluations, please contact us as we may have options (e.g. COR extension).
If you are interested in volunteering to participate in an audit in 2024, please contact shannon@amhsa.net.
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Council Inclusion in COR-Audited WCB Account
When submitting your Audit Registration form, remember that you must indicate whether Council is included in the WCB account being audited for Certificate of Recognition (COR) audits (applies to both Maintenance and Certification audits). For external audits, confirm with the audit contact if this is the case for that municipality’s COR. For internal audits, you may have to check with your human resources department. If council is included, they must be counted in the interview sampling calculations and included in interviews.
We receive lists of municipal COR-holders whose accounts includes council from the WCB, and have incorporated several checks into our audit processes (upon receipt of Audit Registration forms, when reviewing sampling plans, and during quality assurance reviews). If the status of your council has recently changed (for example, they been moved to a separate WCB account not included in your COR), please let us know.
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QA Corner: 5.08 and 5.09 Scoring Link
In question 5.07, validated by documentation, the auditor addresses if the employer has a process for how they determine the competency of their workers, and the intervals at which those competency assessments are completed. In 5.08, an interview question is asked of managers/supervisors on how they ensure the competency assessments are conducted as per the process in question 5.07.
If 5.07 is awarded 0 points, 5.08 is to be scored 0 (see 5.08 guidelines). This means that even if the interviewees answer the question positively, the score is still 0 for 5.08. The Excel tool automatically awards 0 points, even though it shows a percentage of positive indicators based on the interview results.
If this happens, you can include in your justification notes for 5.08 how the competency assessments are happening according to the interviews, but that there was no documented process found in 5.07, which resulted in a score of 0 for the question.
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