What makes an effective quality or HSE management review meeting? I personally believe that Top Management is the critical ingredient that makes management review meetings effective. Throughout my career, I’ve participated and led management review meetings and one common challenge was always getting the other members of management actively involved in the management review.

 Quality or HSE Manger NOT Solely Responsible

In many organizations it’s either the Quality or HSE Manager solely responsible for preparing, facilitating, and presenting during the review meeting. If the Quality or HSE Manager is the only individual preparing for and presenting during management reviews, the message is that quality or HSE is departmentalized versus being a shared responsibility of all members of management and employees.

For instance, ISO 9001 and OHSAS 18001 states that, “Top Management shall review the organization’s quality or HSE management system, at planned intervals, to ensure their continuing suitability, adequacy, and effectiveness. Well, who is Top Management? Based upon an organization’s structure, Top Management may be the collective members of executive, middle, and possibly line managers. Top Management is surely not the Quality or HSE Manager alone; as they may or may not be part of Top Management.

Make Management Review Useful not just a Compliance Checklist

Many organizations treat the management review as simply a formality needed to generate meeting minutes to demonstrate compliance to the certifying body’s auditor. If audit compliance is the driver for the management review, the organization is missing the main objective of having management reviews, which is a time of collective critical reflection and strategic thought to move the management systems of an organization forward.

The Quality or HSE Manager is the management representative, such as the Finance and Accounting Manager is the management representative for an organization’s financial and accounting management systems. Throughout my career I’ve often seen various members of Top Management from the, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, President, and Middle managers frequently engaging the Finance or Accounting Manager(s) to discuss the organization’s financial performance, policies, goals, objectives, needed changes and resources, and strategies for improvement. This is because they recognize the finance and accounting function as being an integral element of the success of the organization. They also understand that each of them individually plays an active role in the financial performance of the organization. Similarly, Top Management must realize and act like quality and HSE are integral elements of the organization’s success and that each and every manager and employee plays a role in the systems’ success. Management reviews are critical to the success of an organization and every member of Top Management must and should be involved and engaged for them to be effective. Here are several strategies that can assist in making your management reviews more effective.

Speak their language

One key way to get other members of Top Management actively engaged in management reviews is to speak in their language. That is the language of business, which means explaining the profitability impacts of the systems. What has the quality and HSE systems contributed to the organization beyond audits, safety awareness poster programs, and certificates on the wall? Quality and HSE Managers must speak in the language of business, such as Finance and Accounting Managers do when discussing the company’s financial performance. Top Management must see how the organization’s financial performance and performance of its management systems are correlated. The management review is a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the business value the systems add to the organization.

For instance, if the organization has increased its market share since the implementation of its quality management system, it’s fair to attribute the quality system as one contributing factor of the increase. This is the cause and effect principle. Before the system was implemented the company had X percent of the market, but three years after its implementation the company has gained X percent of the market.

Likewise, if HSE performance has resulted in a reduction of employee injury claim costs, which has resulted in making the company more profitable, this point should be clearly communicated during the management review. A common way to accomplish this is to compare the organization’s pre-implementation position with the company’s post-implementation position. This type of communication will help engage all the members of Top Management and make management reviews more effective.

It is the role of the HSE Manager to make sure that all members of Top Management are aware of these types of correlation. This is what the Finance or Accounting Manager does when he or she provide the monthly financial statements to the other members of Top Management. In most cases the statements are grouped by each business unit or department. All members of management can clearly see how their business unit or department is contributing to the company’s overall financial performance.

Share the responsibility

Often times the Quality or HSE Manager feels that he or she are solely responsible for the organization’s management systems. Quality and HSE is the responsibility of every manager and employee, although being at varying levels. Yes, the Quality or HSE Manager is responsible for the overall day-to-day of the management system, but each manager and their employees are responsible for system implementation. Similarly, each manager is responsible for managing their part of their fiscal budgets throughout the year. Quality and HSE managers must work to share and most importantly delegate each Department Manager their responsibility for their respective element of the quality or HSE management system. For instance, if the Marketing Department is responsible for communications with clients, what department would be better to report on customer concerns or satisfaction during the management review meeting? Likewise, the Training Manager should report on training compliance and the Operations Manager on process performance and product or service conformance. Maybe the organization is experiencing a high level of returns due to product defects. This may indicate quality issues within the manufacturing process. Prior to the management review the Quality Manager should ask the Manufacturing Manager to be prepared to discuss the root causes, corrective actions, and financial impacts the product returns have had on the organization. The Quality Manager may be able to assist the Manufacturing Manager in his or her preparations, but should fight the temptation to take over in the root cause and corrective action discovery process. The Manufacturing Manager owns the manufacturing processes and the Quality Manager should assist the Manufacturing Manager to uncover the root cause and corrective actions by using quality tools, such as root cause analysis.

The more each Manager takes ownership for his or her respective element of the management system that they oversee, they will be more engaged during management review.

Socratic Method

I am a big proponent of using the Socratic method during management reviews to stimulate critical thinking. In the quality or HSE profession, many refer to this as the Five Whys. The Socratic method is when one asks leading questions with a goal of inspiring critical thought by the other party. I have often used this technique already knowing the answer, but my goal was to have the other party go through the critical thought process to arrive at the same conclusion. This process is more time consuming compared to just giving the answer, but it has great returns on the time investment. The Quality or HSE Manager does not have to have all the answers or come up with all the corrective actions. Many times the other members of Top Management have the answers to develop the corrective actions to the quality or HSE problems that are being encountered within the organization, but no one bothered to ask them. In many cases, we have not; because we asked not. When discussing internal audit finding in the management review, ask the other members of Top Management what they think the root cause(s) of the problem(s) may be. This will drive the necessary ownership and involvement during the management review.

In the example of the returns, the Quality Manager may work with the Manufacturing Manager to prepare for the management review by simply using the Socratic method. Believe me, the other managers would rather hear about the root causes and corrective action regarding manufacturing processes from the Manufacturing Manager.

Conclusion

Effective management reviews should be measured based upon their outcomes and actual achievements for the organization after the meeting. The Quality or HSE Manager should serve more as a facilitator during the management review meeting and participate on elements he or she is ultimately responsible for, such as possibly conducting the internal audit or working with the other managers in writing or developing company processes and procedures. Speaking the language of Top Management, sharing responsibility, and using the Socratic method will lead to more effective management reviews for the organization.

Contact Us Today