Risk Based Certification™ - Get more out of every audit

Organisations today must constantly manage new complex issues alongside existing demands. Scrutiny is only increasing and stakeholders demand independent proof of performance. Combined with best-practice auditing techniques and remote delivery options, DNV's Risk Based Certification™ approach lets you leverage on your management system to support you in more ways than one.

Get more out of every certification audit

A well-functioning management system certified to ISO or other best-practice standards is a structured approach to meet requirements and improve performance. It helps you identify risks and implement business processes that are working effectively to meet customers’ and other stakeholders’ demands.

Risk Based Certification was developed by DNV to help customers leverage on their management system in more ways than one. Achieving certification is paramount. Going beyond compliance, building on your management system to improve where it matters most means that it can support specific business goals.

When you identify topics critical to your business success, DNV’s auditors use Risk Based Certification to assess how well your management system supports these Focus Areas while checking compliance against the chosen standard.

How does Risk Based Certification work?

All DNV customers automatically get access to Boost My Audit. This digital tool contains 200+ pre-defined Focus Areas. Browse the most common Focus Areas by standard, risks and process to identify Focus Areas best fitting your needs. You can also filter by industry and check which UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and ESG dimension each Focus Area supports. Each of the Focus Areas has a corresponding checklist to guide the audit. These can also aid any internal audits you may have planned.

Ask your auditor for guidance to identify existing pre-defined or bespoke Focus Areas that could fit your needs. Make sure that the Focus Areas reflect your strategy and business goals. Top management should be involved at this stage to ensure commitment.

Before the audit, you and the DNV auditor(s) agree on Focus Areas to be assessed (typically 1-3 areas dependent on the audit extent, etc.). The auditor(s) will formulate what activities and processes to be assessed. The management system’s performance in the Focus Areas will be checked together with compliance to the chosen standard(s) requirements.

Assessing your Focus Area performance is done without adding cost or time. The results are presented at the closing meeting and in the audit report. It includes a summary of audit findings and Focus Area performance. Reflecting strengths and weaknesses, it provides a quick insight for you and your management team. For complex multi-site projects, all details are also made accessible for further analysis, comparisons and trends in the My Certification Dashboard.

Use the audit insight to improve your management system as it helps you identify mitigating actions to a broader set of challenges, whether it be operational issues today or barriers to long-term objectives.

Focus Areas can be repeated year-on-year or new ones chosen depending upon the management system’s performance. For complex multi-site projects, DNV will ensure that all teams used are calibrated to audit consistently across all sites.

Partner with DNV

Risk Based Certification is DNV’s standard approach to audits. It targets your management system and certification audits to improve in areas that matter most. Choose DNV as your certification partner and build confidence in your management system’s ability to comply with the standard(s) requirements and support your business goals.