What Are the Mandatory Documents for the ISO 22301 Certification?

Summary

The article will list the mandatory business documents that must be present for the ISO 22301 certification. It aims to help business owners streamline their business continuity management certification process.

Are you considering applying for the ISO 22301 certification in Australia for your organisation? Then one of the first questions you that must have asked yourself is what documents I need!

Don’t worry. You don’t have to search the internet for each document required for the external and internal audit services for the ISO 22301 as the following section has created a comprehensive document list for you. So, continue reading!

What Are the Mandatory Documents for the ISO 22301 Certification?

Before jumping into the documentation part, learn what the ISO 22301:2019 is. The ISO 22301 standard aims to help companies implement, maintain, and improve their business continuity management system. With an effective business continuity model, your company can respond and recover from disruptions quickly and effectively. This standard has seven clauses that will assist you in outlining your business continuity management model. You can learn more about the ISO 22301 from professional business continuity training in Australia.

A List of the Mandatory Documents for the ISO 22301:2019 Certification

● According to the ISO 22301 clauses, you should have documents supporting your company’s legal, regulatory, and other requirements.
● The ISO 22301 certification process demands documents on the score of the BCMS and descriptions of exclusions.
● Business continuity policy defining management responsibilities and intent.
● Business continuity goals stating measurable objectives.
● Competencies of personnel describing skills and knowledge.
● Business continuity procedures and plans, including response, restore, recovery, communication and return activities.
● Documents on communication with interested stakeholders, parties, or government officials.
● Records on crucial data regarding disruptions, the actions you took to address them and the decisions you made.
● Results of measurements and monitoring.
● Data on internal audit programs and results of internal audit services.
● Result and information on management reviews.
● Nonconformities, their nature, cause, and actions are taken to address them.
● Corrective action results.

Non-Mandatory Documents for the ISO 22301 Certification

Besides the above information, companies often provide the following documents to make a lasting impact.

● Data on the procedure conducted for identifying regulatory and legal requirements.
● Implementation strategy for achieving the BCMS goals.
● Business continuity training and awareness plan.
● Testing and exercise strategies.
● System for maintaining documented data.
● Contracts and agreements on service and partnership.
● Methods for risk assessment and business impact evaluation.
● Result of reviews, risk analysis and business impact assessment.
● Business continuity solutions and strategies.
● Post-exercise data.
● Incident scenarios.
● Post-incident review results.
● Tactics of evaluation, analysis, monitoring and measurements.
● The procedure of the internal audit services and corrective actions.

It’s noteworthy that one can document some regulations and requirements through several other documents. For instance, you can provide contextual information about your organisation through legal and regulatory documents. Also, you can combine some of the paperwork into a single file as this can be particularly timesaving for small companies. For example, you can provide reports of your risk assessment and business impact evaluation through the documentation for business continuity strategy.

Final Thoughts

Adding the ISO 22301 certification to your organisation can be incredibly helpful in improving its resilience in the face of disasters. It can help you save money, avoid risky incidents, recover quicker and improve customer satisfaction. Hence, even if the list of documents seems overwhelming, don’t let that discourage you from achieving the accreditation. Find business continuity training in Australia to help you smoothen the process.

Author Bio

Damon Anderson is an ISO consultant and training provider. He works with clients seeking to improve business continuity and risk management systems.