Who are the Interested Parties in Your Business?
A requirement for any organisation seeking certification under any of the International Standards is that they identify and understand the needs and requirements of all interested parties in their business as related to the chosen Standard.
Who are the interested parties?
So, what does this mean and who are these “interested parties”?
The obvious candidates are the customers since, without them, there is no business. The next obvious one is your staff since, again, there are few businesses that operate without any staff. Even if it’s a one-person business, there’s still that one person!
Generally, the needs and requirements of those candidates are fairly easy to define. Customers require the business to provide the product or service that they have contracted to provide at the contracted time and the contracted price. Staff can be a little trickier since, beyond being paid the right amount and on time, there are often other considerations such as working conditions, career development, recognition, involvement etc.
But what about suppliers? Again, the obvious point is that most suppliers are concerned that they get paid on time but maintaining a good relationship with suppliers could well involve a lot more than that. Understanding what their requirements are could be a key to the success or failure of the business.
Regulatory Authorities and Other Stakeholders
Most businesses are governed by regulations from government and/or independent regulatory bodies, for example, safety at work regulations or environmental protection regulations. These need to be thoroughly understood, complied with, and monitored for any changes that might need commensurate actions.
There are many other possibilities: shareholders, stakeholders, lenders, family. They can all potentially influence the organisation and its ability to consistently provide products or services to meet customer demand.
PerformancePlus helps organisations seeking International Standards certification to identify and understand the needs and requirements of all relevant interested parties. We’ll help you to implement systems to document and monitor those parties for any significant changes.
Visit us at the Norfolk Chamber B2B Exhibition
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PerformancePlus works with small to medium size businesses across the East Anglia Region in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge.