If you only started your business recently, you may be unfamiliar with the world of quality management systems. But hiring a quality consultant to help you plan and implement a QMS can bring many benefits to your organisation.

What is a quality consultant?

A quality consultant is someone who works with an organisation to design and implement a quality management system (QMS). This system drives continuous improvement and helps the business to keep its customers satisfied. Once your QMS is in place, you can apply for ISO 9001 certification.

Why hire a quality consultant?

With the help of an experienced quality consultant, you will be able to construct an effective QMS that allows you to deliver reliable and consistent results to your customers. Your quality consultant will be able to formulate a strategy that gives your organisation the tools it needs to improve, all while keeping your business goals in mind.

Finding the right consultant for your business needn't be complicated. Here at NPT Management Solutions, our charted quality professionals are industry experts who have helped many businesses to implement their own management systems.

If you would like NPT Management Systems to help you design a quality management system (or review one that is already in place), please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Contact NPT Management Systems

Broadly speaking, a management system is simply a set of processes and company policies that is designed to help an organisation achieve a particular goal. That goal could be anything from improving customer satisfaction to reducing waste and being more environmentally-friendly.

There are many different types of management systems, and companies all over the world use them in various combinations to drive consistent improvement and ensure maximise efficiency. Here are some of the most common management system types:

• Quality Management System - Focuses on meeting customer requirements and maintaining high quality across all products/services. The international standard for quality management systems is ISO 9001.
  
  
• Environmental Management System - Focuses on minimising the environmental impact of the company's operations (making the organisation greener, in other words). The international standard for environmental management systems is ISO 14001.
  
  
• Information Security Management System - Focuses on keeping information (e.g. financial information, passwords, personal details) secure. The international standard for information security management systems is ISO 27001.
  
  
• Energy Management System - Focuses on reducing energy usage within the organisation. The international standard for energy management systems is ISO 50001.
  
  
• Occupational Health & Safety Management System - Focuses on protecting the health and safety of everyone within the organisation, as well as members of the public who may be affected by the company's operations. The current standard for health and safety management systems is OHSAS 18001 (also known as ISO 18001), although ISO are currently developing a new standard called ISO 45001.

If your organisation needs help implementing any combination of the above management systems, please contact ISO experts NPT Management Systems today.

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Do you frequently feel overwhelmed by the size of your to-do list? Are you stressed because, no matter how hard you work, there never seem to be enough hours in the day to address everything that needs addressing?

If so, you may just need to adjust your approach to time management. Here are 5 quick tips to help your working day feel like less of an uphill struggle:

• Prioritise! It's unlikely that all the tasks on your to-do list are equally urgent. Identify the most pressing matters and deal with them first before moving on to other things.
  
  
• Try to avoid multi-tasking. You might think that you can double your productivity by working on two things at once, but this rarely works as well as we'd like it to - you'll likely work faster and better if you focus on one thing at a time.
  
  
• Set time limits for yourself. Try to have a clear idea of how long each task on your list ought to take. Your allowance for each item doesn't necessarily have to be set in stone, but you should find that things get done more quickly when you've already told yourself that each task will only take an hour to complete.
  
  
• Don't be afraid to delegate if you can. If you have a team of employees or co-workers on hand, let them help you! It can sometimes be difficult to escape the 'only I can do this right' mindset and relinquish control of a task/project to someone else, but it's important to feel that you can trust your colleagues and allow them to shoulder some of your burden.
  
  
• Shut out distractions. You've probably found that many tasks end up taking far longer than they should because your workflow gets interrupted by little things - emails that you feel compelled to answer straight away, breaking news stories that you're keen to check up on, phone calls from clients with questions to ask. Some of these distractions are unavoidable, but if you're serious about managing your time more effectively, you need to do whatever you can to shut them out. Close all tabs that aren't relevant to the task at hand. Ask your colleagues to handle phone calls and emails where possible. And most importantly, forget about the other tasks on your list until you've completed the one you're currently addressing!

NPT Management Systems specialise in helping businesses implement quality management systems that improve efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction. Contact us for details.

As more or less anyone who’s ever had a job will testify, joining a new company can be a very daunting experience. The first day tends to be the scariest, but even with that hurdle out of the way, it can still take weeks or even months for a newcomer to really settle in and become integrated with the rest of the team.

Of course, as an employer, it’s very much in your best interest to get each new recruit into the swing of things ASAP. Here are a few tips for helping a new employee to get comfortable with their role and fit in with everyone else:

• Give them a proper welcome. If you’re constantly very busy (as most business owners are), it can sometimes be difficult to find time for a new arrival – many bosses simply tell their new recruits to get stuck right in, possibly asking another staff member to show them the ropes as they go. But it’s better for everyone if you make time to sit down with the new employee on their first day and give them a full briefing: welcome them to the company, explain their role in detail, go over what they will be expected to do during an average day, and encourage them to ask questions if they’re unsure of anything.
  
  
• Introduce them to their new colleagues. Don’t just point at everyone and reel off a list of names – call a staff meeting and make sure the newcomer knows who everybody is and understands each person’s role within the organisation. Equally, you’ll want to ensure that your old hands know who the new individual is and what they’re doing here too. This meeting should be held as soon as possible – you may even wish to gather everyone around on the Friday afternoon before the new recruit officially starts work.
  
  
• Make yourself available. Your new employee is bound to have a lot of questions on their first day, and more questions will likely arise as they get to grips with the tasks you assign. Make sure you’re around to answer them, or the newcomer will quickly feel disconnected and uncertain about their new role.
  
  
• Get them up to speed with any systems you already have in place. This could be anything from an ISO 9001-certified quality management system to the system for taking your lunch break. Any systems, processes or protocols – no matter how informal or self-explanatory they might seem to you – should be explained right away to help the newcomer feel like they’re truly in the loop. Of course, if you do have a formal management system in place, it’s doubly crucial to ensure that the new person is working in the same way and to the same standards as everyone else!

Image by Kanban Tool

Christmas may seem a long way off at the moment, but with autumn closing in, now is very much the time to start thinking about your staff do. Leave it too late and there’s a chance that everywhere will be fully booked, in which case your Christmas party – a seasonal staple for many businesses and a great way to reward your employees for another year’s hard work – may not even happen.

So gather your team around, ignore their cries of ‘Do we HAVE to start talking about Christmas already?’ and find out what everyone wants to do this year. If you’re struggling to come up with any ideas, here are a few fun suggestions that are slightly more adventurous than just having a few beers in the office...

• Go-Karting: If you want to celebrate the festive season with a little friendly competition, why not take the team down to your local go-kart centre and see who’s the fastest in the company? Don’t worry if there’s a sore loser amongst your staff – they’ll have the whole Christmas period to get over it!
  
  
• Room Escape: These Crystal Maze-style games are very popular right now, with room escape centres popping up all over the country. The goal is simple: escape from the room by solving a series of puzzles and unlocking the door before time runs out! The puzzles, which tend to blend physical tasks with mental challenges, are great fun, and this could be a great choice of activity if you want to sneakily boost everyone’s team working and problem solving skills!
  
  
• A Meal Out: If the above suggestions sound a little too exhausting for you, you may prefer to go a more traditional route and take the team out for drinks and a sit-down meal. Find a nice restaurant in your town, book a table now (before all the other businesses in your area have the same idea), and remember to bring along some crackers for everyone to pull!

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