Tips and Tricks of the Trade – Christel Fouche

Christel Fouche is the health & safety coach at BEACON Auditing, Coaching and Training, based in New Zealand. She is one of five lead auditors registered with Exemplar Global for ISO9001, 14001 and 45001 in New Zealand. She also acts as a contractor auditor and tutor for various certification bodies and undertakes corporate social responsibility (CSR) and SMETA audits.

With an impressive career packed with so many achievements, Christel said that its helpful for auditors to build a toolkit of #TipsandTricksoftheTrade as they progress throughout the different stages of their careers in the industry.

“Having a strong set of tips and tricks that you can call on helps auditors to be more productive and sometimes even makes it easier for the auditee to participate during an audit,” she said.

“Every auditor adapts their way of conducting audits over time. They adapt processes to better suit their personality and experience. Being different, can add value – bringing a new or different perspective when auditing sometimes find issues overlooked during previous audits.”

Overall, Christel’s best tip that she has picked up over the course of her career is reframing her title from ‘auditor’ to ‘continual improvement partner’ to clients/auditees. This has helped her build trust with them and emphasizes the value that she adds to their audit experience.

“Once auditees accept that I am on their side, I can certainly expect a much more relaxed audit – the fear factor is removed,” Christel explained. “Clients tend to share more information and become my partners instead of being adversaries.”

“I have also noticed that auditees want me back because of this value-adding auditing approach and the certification bodies also appreciate retaining happy clients,” she continued.