The Certification Process

Initial Presentation and Fee Proposal

• Your Global-Mark Client Manager may at your request conduct the initial visit to gain a good understanding of your operation, team, products or business and your certification requirements. This can happen either over the phone or with a visit to your office. Your Client Manager will also provide you with all the information you need about certification, Global-Mark's processes, a fee structure and what will be required from you. Once your Client Manager understands your requirements, he or she will provide you with a fee proposal detailing fees and costs. This is a free service and carries no obligation to proceed.

Application: Becoming a Global-Mark Member

• Once you have reviewed and accepted the fee proposal and wish to commit to the Global-Mark certification process, an approved signatory from your organisation should complete, sign and send Global-Mark the Client Agreement Form. This form is a formal contract between your organisation and Global-Mark Pty Ltd, and outlines your acceptance of the certification process, the rules governing certification and related accreditation marks, appeals and contractual terms and conditions.
• Once Global-Mark receives the Client Agreement Form and payment of your Application Fee, we will send you an acknowledgement of your application and in some cases (depending on the program) issue a Certificate of Membership. Your Certificate of Membership is valid for 2 years, and does not signify that your organisation has achieved certification but may be useful for demonstrating your commitment towards gaining certification.

Document Review

• Document Reviews are a requirement of certain programs (refer to the specific Program Information Brochure) and are conducted to ensure that the structure of the Management System is likely to meet the requirements of the standard. At the conclusion of the Document Review you will receive a report or letter outlining and explaining what we believe has been missed or is not clearly addressed. The report will also explain if a further Document Review is needed or if you may progress to the next stage.

Pre-certification Review

• A Pre-certification Review is required of some programs and is optional for others (refer the Program Information Brochure). The Pre-certification Review is carried out at your office or on-site. It reviews the nature of the site processes, hazards, environmental impacts and aspects (as appropriate) and also verifies to a smaller extent the existence of systems as appropriate to their working context.
• The aim of this step is to ensure that your organisation is likely to be ready for the Certification Review. At the conclusion of the Pre-certification Review you will receive a Report supported by Review Findings, if any.

Certification Review

• The Certification Review is carried out to determine whether your Management System or Product complies with the certification standard. The length of time that it takes to carry out the Certification Review will depend on your organisation, the standard, number of employees, shifts, products, process complexity and the number of sites that will be pre-arranged with you.
• At the completion of the Certification Review your Client Manager will hold a closing meeting where she/he will present the Review Findings and conclusions. These will be documented at the closing meeting and presented verbatim to your team. You will then receive a Review Report and Review Findings that will detail any areas of Non-conformity, Improvement Requests and Observations and a Post-Certification Review Plan.
• If there are no Non-conformities your Client Manager will recommend certification to the Managing Director. The Managing Director assesses the recommendation and if approved Global-Mark will inform you in writing that you have been successful and issue your Certificate of Approval.  
• Your organisation will then be granted the use of the Trust-Mark® and the JAS-ANZ mark (where appropriate) on stationery and marketing material. Your organisation will also be listed on Global-Mark's Register of Certified Organisations and, if applicable, the JAS-ANZ Register of Certified Organisations.

Post-certification Review

• Our programs contain a requirement for Post-certification Reviews to be carried out at predetermined intervals from the date of your initial certification. These reviews are carried out in the same manner as the Certification Review and are necessary for Global-Mark to be assured that your system continues to comply with the standard and for certification to continue to be maintained. Post-certification Reviews are generally shorter in duration due to the fact that only portions of the standard are being reviewed.

Re-certification Review

• Once every 3 years after the Certification Review or last Re-certification, a full Business Review of the system as a whole needs to be completed. The aim is to confirm that the systems in their entirety are working well and that the links between proceses are sound. The duration of the Re-certification Review is generally longer than a normal Post-certification Review, but shorter than the original Certification Review.
• Based on the outcomes of the review, the Global-Mark Client Manager will recommend that certification be renewed, withheld or suspended. Generally a new Certificate of Approval is issued after a successful Re-certification.

Follow Up Review

A Follow Up Review is needed if:

• there are a large number of Improvement Requests
• there are one or more Non-conformity(ies)
• there are changes within the Client's organisation
• when a complaint has been raised with Global-Mark or a breach has been reported to Global-Mark or a related stakeholder
• other conditions as determined by Global-Mark, where the integrity or compliance of the system, process or product needs to be verified
• a Client wishes to extend the scope of their certification
• there is a change in the certification standard or requirements