International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) is a global international standard for regulatory compliance across a range of business fields. The most common is ISO 9001 for quality management standards. Companies with ISO Certification, like Challenger®️, are regularly audited by independent accreditation organisations and issued with improvement notices if required, together with updated re-certification. ISO Certification is the gold standard in terms of measuring a service provider’s processes, systems and adherence to the standards.
When choosing an Outsourced Service Provider, its imperative that they are compliant with such standards. A part of ISO accreditation and ongoing compliance is record keeping, and this is key to ensuring your service provider remains compliant with ISO regulations. Always ask your service provider for a copy of their ISO Certifications. In addition, their policies and procedures will also reflect ISO guidelines, so request copies of these. This should give you further insight into the quality of their service and how compliant your provider is with ISO standards. At Challenger, we choose to display our certifications clearly online, so that our clients feel rest assured at all times.
In addition to ISO compliance, each state in Australia has WHS Legislation, that provide guidelines and regulations relating to health and safety in workplaces. Without reading each regulation word for word, it is generally understood that if a company is fully compliant with these WHS regulations they will have an individual assigned to this role and an extensive process for adherence such as, for example, providing safety information on site, Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for hazardous materials on site, and much more. Refer to sites such as safework.nsw.gov.au for expert advice, and to gain an understanding of service provider obligations in relation to compliance with the WHS Act 2017 (NSW).
Australian Workplace Law is enforced by the federal government’s Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), who’s role it is to ensure organisations remain compliant and productive workplaces. Organisations not demonstrating compliance to FWO regulations can face harsh fines together with reputation damage. The FWO regularly investigates workplaces and issues compliance and infringement notices for underpayment, non compliance to award conditions and many other offences relating to workers pay conditions. Companies can check a service provider’s compliance with FWO regulations by requesting copies of employee entitlement paperwork and cross checking against awards and agreements.
If you're unsure if your current outsourced cleaning service is compliant with Australian Workplace Laws (which you could be held liable for), take the test to receive a personalised score card or contact us to discuss.