In this article, Membership and Certification Coordinator Valerie Shuford, of the AABC Commissioning Group and Energy Management Association, details her organizations' experiences with ANAB accreditation renewal and shares the lessons she has learned while working to maintain the accreditations for each organization's credentialing program.
About Accreditation The AABC Commissioning Group (ACG) and Energy Management Association (EMA) both participate in the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB)’s accreditation program for their certification programs. For both ACG and EMA, this accreditation falls under personnel credentialing, which signifies that ANAB has reviewed our program and determined that the credentials awarded by our associations meet credentialing requirements laid out in ISO Standard 17024. It also shows that our organizations have met and continue to meet standards for quality improvement.
To maintain ACG and EMA accreditations, we must complete a new application every five years. In addition, each certification program is reviewed and reassessed on an annual basis. Each year, ANAB assessors review our programs to confirm that they still meet the required accreditation standards. Preparing for the yearly review has taught me the importance of fully understanding and reviewing our programs’ policies and procedures and how they relate to the ANAB requirements, as well as the value of planning ahead and staying organized throughout the accreditation review process.
The process of gathering the information for the yearly assessment can be time-consuming and may involve multiple people. I have learned that the key to success is to plan ahead and be prepared. I normally estimate about 60 days to prepare for assessment from when I start the application to when I am ready to submit the final application and the supporting documentation. This gives me and my coworkers time to review the assessment materials, gather everything we need, and compile our application without the stress of rushing to finish it by the deadline.
The ANAB accreditation program requires that we maintain policies and procedures that meet ANAB standards and that we can provide evidence that we are continuing to follow them. The policies and procedures are core components that guide how our programs are operated and maintained. When preparing for an annual review, it is important for me to be familiar with our policies and procedures because they detail requirements and operating procedures that are specific to our organization. When developing policies and procedures, organizations consider things like who monitors the policies, who is allowed to make changes, and how often the documents will be reviewed and updated.
Policies are laid out in accordance with ANAB standards, but also based on what is realistic and beneficial for each organization. During annual review, auditors assess our programs not only based on their adherence to ANAB and ISO requirements, but also by what was written and approved in our policies and procedures. This makes familiarizing ourselves with these documents an essential first step in maintaining our accreditation year after year.
In addition to understanding the importance of adhering to the policies and procedures, I learned the importance of keeping everything current. Everything must be documented to provide evidence that we are following our procedures. Whether it is material used in marketing, applications, or handbooks, all changes to documents must be tracked. We must always make sure that all our material is not only the current version, but that we have notified all interested parties of any changes and why the changes were made. Maintaining detailed records of changes to program materials is essential to maintaining accreditation — even something as simple as updating an address on an application needs to be documented.
During the review, it is also essential to understand what can be used for evidence as supporting documentation to show that we are maintaining our programs. In addition to procedure documentation and material changes, we must provide evidence that we maintain our certifications in a fair and equitable manner, from who applies and how, to determining whether they meet eligibility requirements, to the exam security and how our exams are conducted.
This involves conducting a yearly internal audit of the program, health checks for the exam, an impartiality threat analysis, and “management reviews” summarizing all important information for a given year. During the yearly assessment, the assessor will not only review all the materials but can also request to review individual program applications to confirm that we are maintaining our program based upon the ISO standard and our policies.
Maintaining accreditation through ANAB has been a learning experience for me and for all ACG and EMA staff. It is an involved, time-consuming process that requires a lot of focus on details and procedures. However, by planning ahead and starting early, keeping detailed records throughout the year, and staying familiar with our organization’s policies and procedures, we have been able to successfully pass our reaccreditation reviews and maintain our programs’ accredited status since 2017/2018.
