Our ISO 9001 accreditation

On 14 December 2023, following years of hard work, Wessex Translations celebrated achieving ISO 9001:2015 accreditation. What a Christmas present! After riding the high for a few months, we wanted to share a bit about what the process entailed and what ISO accreditation means for Wessex and our clients.

What is ISO 9001?

ISO 9001 is a globally recognised standard for quality management. It is not specific to the translation industry, but is instead focussed on quality systems and their application in ensuring a high-quality end product or service. This inter-industry standard is the benchmark for quality and enables buyers to have utter confidence in the product or service they are purchasing. This assurance is achieved through creating, documenting and strictly adhering to set quality processes throughout the life of a project. To quote ISO: “Implementing ISO 9001 means your organisation has put in place effective processes and trained staff to deliver flawless products or services time after time.”

Our accreditation process took place through the UK’s translation industry association the Association of Translation Companies (ATC), who supported us in achieving accreditation.

Why pursue accreditation?

ISO accreditation, for us, has been about 10 years in the making, with a hiatus around 2015, due to the standard requirements changing from 9001:2008 to 9001:2015. In the last couple of years, ISO has been a major focus and it definitely felt like the right time for it.

We have always known that our Quality Management System (QMS) meets the stringent requirements of ISO 9001, something our existing clients can recognise in the service and work they receive from us. However, for new and prospective customers, a universally recognised ISO accreditation will enable them to understand our commitment to quality from day one. Particularly in today’s market, we understand that buyers need an objective indicator of quality that can be trusted.

What did the accreditation process entail?

Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, we looked at the extensive existing QMS documentation we already had in place, and updated it where necessary to tie in with the requirements specific to ISO. Some changes were required at this stage, but this was predominantly to bring terminology in line with ISO requirements, as the documentation itself was, for the most part, up to date and reflective of our processes. In fact, our processes have changed very little in their substance over the years, as our general values and ways of working have remained remarkably consistent over our 52 years in business.

It was important for the QMS team to communicate this to the rest of the Wessex team: ISO accreditation does not involve changing the way we work, we are simply updating our documentation to ensure it correctly reflects the processes that we have always followed and continue to follow, so that it can be formally reviewed and certified.

Once we had thoroughly reviewed our QMS documents and were happy with them (of which there were many that had gone through numerous rounds of edits), we standardised all of them and conducted several training sessions for the team. These sessions brought everyone up to speed with what we had done, with the aim for everyone to become more comfortable with the new (ISO-specific) terms, so that it would all feel less daunting and unfamiliar.

The Stage 1 Audit (in August 2023) was an interesting and intense experience for the QMS team. It was the first time that any of us had been thrown into the deep end, when the auditor read through all of our documents with a fine-tooth comb and picked out anything which may have raised concerns for the Stage 2 Audit. Thankfully, there were only a few minor observations made, which better prepared us for the second stage in December. It definitely gave us a bit of a confidence boost, but only gave us a few months to get ready!

The auditing process and structure, at first, was completely unknown to us and was a learning experience for everyone involved. Between October and December, we conducted several internal “rehearsals”, trying to mimic how we thought the Stage 2 Audit would go. For some of our colleagues, these may have felt a bit intimidating at the time, however we felt these were a good way for all of us to practise and to remember that actually, it is only a case of describing exactly what we’ve always done.

With a huge thanks to the entire team for their commitment, hard work and support throughout, we were successful first time round! But, of course, the hard work doesn’t stop there! This is an ongoing process and we will continue to be subject to monitoring and regular audits, to ensure that we continue to meet the quality standards expected of us. This will help us, at Wessex, to constantly improve the way we work so that we can be even better at what we do!

Written by

Anne-Marie Chaloner