by Bright Ewuru | Aug 8, 2023 | Articles
Quality and compliance—both are vital when running an accreditation program.
As an accreditation manager, it’s your responsibility to make sure that individuals and organisations seeking accreditation meet the requirements and standards set by your accrediting agency.
Ensuring quality and compliance can get complicated. So, it’s important to create a hassle-free accreditation process.
For a venture traditionally characterised by rigidity and complexity, the idea of simplifying your accreditation might seem out of reach. It’s not!
Keep reading for actionable tips on how to simplify your accreditation process.
An accreditation process is an exercise that involves the external review of an organisation (or individual) and the validation thereof to guarantee that the entity meets the criteria and standards, as set by the accrediting agency, to provide a particular service. This means that the ultimate goal of an accreditation process is to gauge and authenticate the efficiency, quality and integrity of the accreditation seeker.
The process is usually decentralised and self-regulated while the accrediting agency could either be a governmental, non-governmental or statutory body.
Accreditation is a crucial element in heavily regulated industries such as higher education, healthcare, engineering and architecture. The accreditation process for schools assesses institutions of higher education to be sure that they can provide quality education with technology and updated curricula. It guarantees that students learn what matters most in their respective fields and receive adequate preparation to become effective professionals upon completion of their program.
Likewise, the accreditation process in healthcare ensures that medical organisations are compliant, follow the ethics of the profession and have both the facility and manpower to provide quality medical services.
Accreditation isn’t always permanent. Organisations usually have to undergo the accreditation process periodically to renew the validation by the accrediting agency. This ensures they remain up to the standard set by the accrediting body.
The benefits of accreditation include:
Simplifying your accreditation process involves adopting an approach that emphasises the convenience of the accreditation seekers. Below are steps to make it more straightforward, efficient and manageable.
The first step towards creating an uncomplicated accreditation process is to set clear standards for accreditation. There should be no uncertainty about what accreditation seekers should do to receive your agency’s endorsement. The expectations, milestones and tasks should be plain and specific.
Similarly, these standards should concentrate on critical aspects of the field such as ethics/compliance, quality of service, capacity, adoption of technology and related issues. They should not focus on irrelevant issues or vain metrics that have no true bearing or influence on the standard of service delivered by the accreditation seekers.
Keep your accreditation seekers in the loop at all times. Leverage multiple communication channels to keep them informed about the details of the accreditation process. Giving them knowledge of the process timeline, expectations and criteria will erase confusion and help them prepare better.
Your organisation’s website, social media channels and newsletters are effective ways to keep applicants and potential applicants updated. You could also take it further by providing handbooks, pamphlets and other resources to help the entities prepare for accreditation. These resources should state documentation guidelines, self-assessment reports, best practices for compliance and anything else necessary for accreditation.
Understand that accreditation seekers might have questions. Act in advance by setting up in-person and online webinars to answer their questions, address their concerns, explain the rationale behind certain requirements and share the latest developments in the process.
These will provide a good idea of what lies ahead as well as what they need to do to be endorsed, ensuring a stress-free accreditation process.
A manual accreditation process can be cumbersome for both the accrediting organisation and those seeking accreditation. Such a process is prone to flaws such as missing documentation and clerical errors.
With the right accreditation management software, you’ll save time and cut down on documentation. Also, you’ll create a good experience for the applicants and your team of reviewers. For one, applications and documents can be easily submitted online. Your reviewers can effortlessly manage the applications and divert ineligible ones, making sure that only qualified accreditation seekers gain access to the full application form.
Other upsides to using accreditation software include
Learn how Award Force can power your accreditation program.
To further simplify your accreditation process, it’s helpful to provide networking opportunities for accreditation seekers. The reality is that entities seeking accreditation need all the help they can get. Sometimes, the best form of support could come from other accredited entities.
Provide a forum for them to connect and interact with accredited organisations. The latter can provide them with more hands-on tips and ideas to meet the requirements.
Streamlining your accreditation process is a never-ending journey. You have to constantly refine to eliminate unnecessary obstacles. Collect feedback from organisations after the accreditation process to get an idea of their experience. Find out their pain points and note their suggestions on improving the process.
Their unique perspective can uncover any challenges that might not be visible to you as an accreditation manager.
Conduct assessments and check in with your team regularly to identify any areas that could use adjustment. Also, if there are other accrediting agencies that have more streamlined accreditation processes, it’s important to learn from them. Find out what they did to better simplify their process.
Accreditation helps to ensure quality and give compliant entities their well-deserved recognition. Simplifying your accreditation process will save time and encourage interested organisations to apply. These tips will help you achieve a more optimised accreditation process.
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