Manila - The Institute for Labor Studies concluded its first Quality Management Systems (QMS) Internal Audit with a closing meeting attended by the management, employees, and process owners led by the newly reconstituted IQA Team on June 14.

The QMS Internal Audit commenced from June 10 to 14, 2024, in line with the mandate of the QMS Committee to ensure that the Institute remains compliant with the established requirements of the QMS applicable to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards and assess the progress of agreements made during the Management Reviews conducted and the status of previous internal and external audit findings, specifically on the Corrective Action Reports.

The audit criteria were based on ISO 9001:2015, QMS, and previous audit findings. The audit scope comprised 17 processes in labor and employment research covering annual planning, management review, customer satisfaction measurement, the conduct of research, technical advisory support, preventive and corrective maintenance of facilities and vehicles, procurement of goods and services, supplier selection and evaluation, disbursement, annual budget preparation, recruitment, selection, selection and placement, training and development, control of documented information, performance management, and risk and opportunities management. Two processes under the Advocacy and Publications Division were included: the advocacy and development event and the publication process.

During the closing meeting, the Audit Team discussed the audit findings per process, opportunities for improvement, observations, and a few non-conformities. In response, the ILS management and the process owners acknowledged the findings and vowed to address the concerns, specifically the identified nonconformities proactively.

The newly reconstituted Audit Team is comprised of Lead Auditor Miraluna S. Tacadao of the Workers’ Welfare Research Division (WWRD), and support auditors namely Franchesca Rose S. Castillo (WWRD), Michelle Ann A. Ruiz and Marc Raphael A. Peñaredondo (Advocacy and Publications Division), Caryl Jannie C. Lazo and Franz Brien C. Arceleta (Finance and Administrative Division), and Arvin Jae A. Sanchez (Office of the Executive Director).

The external audit is scheduled to be conducted in July of this year.

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