Remote Audits in Pandemic Conditions

Restrictions associated with the pandemic and the transition of employees to remote work have posed a serious challenge to HSE management systems. The inability to take regular business trips requires a review of traditional approaches to on-site safety control. Under these conditions, remote audits become not just a temporary measure, but a necessary tool for continuous monitoring of production sites. During his presentation, Pavel Mitrokhin, Head of HSE at Oriflame Cosmetics in Russia and the CIS countries, shares practical experience in organizing online inspections.

Advantages and Pitfalls of Online Audits

The key advantage of the remote format is the ability to quickly assess the condition of any department, regardless of its geographical location, saving time and financial resources. However, the speaker draws attention to the specific risks of this approach. Often, the managers of the inspected areas may unintentionally or deliberately distort the picture: for example, moving the smartphone camera too quickly during the video broadcast, preventing a detailed examination of the workplace, or providing blurry scanned copies of documents. To minimize these factors, it is necessary to test the connection quality in advance and not hesitate to ask the auditee to stop and focus the camera on specific details.

Step-by-Step Inspection Algorithm

The presentation details the process of preparing and implementing a remote audit, which includes several mandatory stages:

• Planning and choice of tools. It is important to consider time zone differences and agree in advance on a convenient messenger (WhatsApp, Teams, Telegram) for video communication.
• Opening meeting. A critical stage for establishing contact. The goal of the audit is not to find the guilty and punish them, but to identify areas for improvement and provide assistance to the department.
• Virtual walkthrough and interviews. Assessment of the actual condition of equipment, labeling, and order at workplaces via video link. Special attention is paid to conversations with line personnel to verify actual knowledge, rather than the formal presence of signatures in briefing logs.
• Documentation analysis. Verification of orders and logs is carried out in parallel through screen sharing or by requesting photos and scans.

Working with Results and Monitoring Improvements

The speaker emphasizes that identifying a violation is only part of the work. It is much more important to determine the root cause jointly with the department manager, rather than single-handedly. Preliminary discussion of the report before its official publication helps avoid misunderstandings and immediately outline realistic deadlines for eliminating non-conformities.

To prevent situations where agreed-upon measures are forgotten due to daily routine, the practice of regular follow-up meetings (for example, once a month) has been introduced. This allows tracking the status of tasks and promptly adjusting the action plan if objective difficulties arise.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to prepare the manager of the inspected department for an online audit to avoid a formal approach?
• What technical and organizational nuances should be considered when conducting a virtual walkthrough via video link?
• How to properly build communication at the opening and closing meetings to increase staff engagement?
• How to organize effective control over the elimination of identified violations at remote sites?
• How to jointly conduct a root cause analysis of incidents and non-conformities with site managers?