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An expert helps you find the most appropriate solutions for your environment
How could by-products be used in the company's operations? Could the costs perhaps be turned into profits, or at least reduced?
Yes, you can. And this is one aspect that goes hand in hand with all our work on quality and safety. I always focus my work on the specific environment of the client. Environmental safety, among other things, has a lot of potential that has not yet been realised.
Solutions that meet regulatory requirements can also be productive
Before joining Protect, I worked at Eurofins Scientific Finland as an Analytical Services Manager and Technical Manager in the Microbiology Department. I was responsible for accreditation related issues, including analytical methods, quality and reliability, customer service and stakeholder and regulatory liaison.
At Protect, I draw on my wide range of expertise in different sectors. I work as an expert with a focus on chemical, environmental and food safety. My specific areas of expertise include chemical and environmental licensing, ISO/IEC 17020, ISO/IEC 17025, ISO 22000, self-monitoring, food safety and risk assessments (HAZOP, POA and HACCP). I am a biochemist by training and my background is deep in the laboratory world - especially in microbiology. As an expert, my role is to help my clients develop their quality and safety operations.
When I look for solutions to improve quality and safety, my aim is always to do it economically and in a way that respects the customer's environment. Therefore, a large part of my work is about looking at the big picture through questions and examining cause and effect relationships.
Although an expert is often hired to "put the documents in order" for an audit, the collaboration often extends to other areas. When the client realises that compliance brings clarity and order to the whole business, this leads to savings and positive feedback from staff. These moments are the highlights of my work!
Compliance requires a systematic approach and common understanding
My background is in the laboratory world, so let's take an example from there. For example, how do you get compliance into laboratories where testing and calibration play a big role?
An accredited laboratory operates in a systematic and regular manner. To achieve this, the whole must be seen from many different perspectives, not least from a practical point of view.
Compliance requires a clear organisation with a clear division of responsibilities. Systematic follow-up must be in place and the important role of skills and training must not be overlooked. Tools and facilities must also be in place. For everyone to do their job properly, they must have not only the knowledge but also the will to do it.
It is the will that enables the quality of compliance to be achieved.
How can self-monitoring be put into practice?
I know from experience the challenges that compliance brings to management and the daily lives of employees. An important insight is that perfection is something to strive for, but an adequate level is also good in situations where perfection is not achieved, whether due to time pressure or other reasons. The key to implementing self-monitoring plans is that the people implementing them really understand why certain routines are repeated and what their significance is. When people understand the reason, a will to do the work according to the rules is created.
I recently completed Finas' Expert to Assessor training, which broadened my perspective in this role as well. Having previously been in the role of respondent, I am now able to act as a questioner and assessor. I believe that this is very useful for our clients: when you can ask the right questions, you can get to the heart of the challenges and therefore find solutions more quickly.
Tarja Honkarinta