Company Profile

The High Performance Assessment Limited (HPA)

• The HPA is a member of the High Performance Organisation Group Ltd (The HPO) that provides 3rd party audits against International, European, British, Sector and Company standards & frameworks. It is totally unique, having developed fresh approaches to the provision of 3rd party auditing. These aim to:
  
  
  • Increase your confidence that the registration reflects what is actually happening across the organisation - increasing belief in the value of the registration by all who need to consider it.
    
    
  • Increase the value to the organisation undergoing the audit - by relating the results to business performance drivers, not just to its conformance to elements of the standard.
    
    
  • Reduce the cost of this expensive overhead for many organisations.
    
    
• Accreditation
  The HPA has been accredited by ASCB(E) for the certification of ISO9001:2000 Quality/Business Management Systems, using its unique mix of On-line and reduced dependency on On-site assessments.
  
  ASCB(E) recognise the new dynamic that the HPA's assessment process and associated tools bring to the third party assessment market, and have welcomed this innovative approach to ensure more value from certification. They will continue, as part of their regular accreditation and surveillance activity, to monitor the unique approach of The HPA, to ensure that it provides customers with the assurance they need of a supplier's management system. ASCB(E) will also review the potential additional value which it has been designed to provide.
  
  
• Field of Activities of The HPA
  The HPA is currently providing 3rd party registration against ISO9001:2000, and is developing a similar service for BS 15000:2002.
  
  Our intention is to create further 3rd party registrations against other standards and frameworks (International, European, British, Other National, Sector, etc.) as our customers demand them. We work with a number of industry competent specialists across a wide range of sectors, countries and specialisms, and always involve them when developing such new products and services. This ensures that the power of the online assessment tools is backed by recognised expertise in the field being assessed.
  
  
• The Registration Process
  The process by which Registration is delivered is different to the ones used by 'conventional' registration bodies. It is designed to reflect the aims of The HPA's approach, as outlined above, and to guide the registering organisation towards a best-practice interpretation rather than just 'applying the words'.
  
  In line with our philosophy, we aim to ensure that organisations that gain an HPA registration will have the best possible interpretation of the standard and therefore a management system that should form the foundation for sustainable performance and future development. The ongoing review of the management system, after initial certification, also drives business improvement as well as identification and rectification of non-conformances. Our registration process makes the whole experience more informative, reliable and valuable than traditional approaches.
  
  Our registration process also recognises that every organisation will have a Management System that is at a different level of maturity to others'. The method of assessment does not therefore give a simple 'pass or fail' result, but provides an indication of its actual maturity compared with 'best practice', supplemented by similar maturity 'scores' for a range of key generic business performance drivers. This method greatly enhances the ability of organisations to focus on performance improvement areas as much as non-compliances and to see their change in performance over time.
  
  Click here to view the registration process used by The HPA
  
  
• The HPA Organisation and our Management System
  The HPA and The HPO both share the same thinking and philosophies on business management and management systems, although their separate focus on their own operational activity and the way they carry it out are independent of each other. They seek to apply their common beliefs in process management within the way they work, and look to create economies of scale where appropriate and where this does not affect the independence of their operational activity. Both therefore operate within a joint management system, which allows their independence of operation to be maintained whilst jointly applying common processes where both can benefit.
  
  Click here to view the management System used by The HPO Group and The HPA
  
  The HPA is managed and directed by its own board of directors, who work closely with the board of directors of The HPO. A primary focus of this working relationship is to ensure that there is clear independence between the ways the two organisations carry out their operational activities. This separation is achieved mainly through The HPA's use of the online assessments.
  
  The automated analysis of findings produces the results, which are key to the award of a registration certificate. Because of this unique method, the result cannot be influenced by anyone except those taking part in the assessment - the result is the result. Other parties outside The HPA cannot therefore influence the award of their registration certificates, and importantly, this can be seen to be the case. The two boards do however seek to maximise the opportunity to share ideas, resource and intellectual property, allowing both to independently offer variations of the online assessment tools to their different markets.