Recognised organisations have said that they want more involvement and ownership of their post recognition reviews. In 2002 Investors in People UK launched Internal Review (IR); a continuous improvement tool for recognised organisations, irrespective of size, sector or complexity.
Internal Review involves training a number of employees within the organisation to the approved national standard that enables them to participate in reviews as part of an internal team led by an external Managing Assessor. Anyone who makes a significant contribution towards the aims and objectives of the organisation, its parent or subsidiary, can be trained to carry out the Internal Review process and perform the role of Internal Reviewer. The role involves gathering Investors in People evidence during an assessment under the direction and control of the Managing Assessor.
For recognised organisations, the most evident benefits of Internal Review are to develop Investors in People knowledge and quality auditing skills in–house, ensuring that continuous improvement remains firmly on the corporate agenda, and longer term reductions in external assessment time and cost.
The value of internal review
- Greater internal commitment to effective development and performance management
- Clearer understanding of internal culture and climate
- Improved cross boundary cooperation
- Accelerated sharing of best practice
- Developing key transferable skills (auditing, investigation and communication)
- Customised Investors in People assessment
- Re-appointed assessment costs
- Greater ownership of the Investors in People philosophy.
Overview of Internal Reviewer Development Programme
The Internal Reviewer development programme comprises four key stages dependent upon whether:
- the organisation wishes to undertake internal health-checks with no official outcome, (core two day Internal Reviewer programme)
- the organisation wishes that the Internal Reviewers play an integral part in the review process - interviewing others, gathering the evidence, and under the guidance of the Managing Assessor, write a report that makes a judgement against the indicators of the Standard (core two day Internal Reviewer programme plus day three ‘Approval’).
