A Guide to Understanding Management Reviews

What is a Management Review?

A management review is a regular evaluation of the performance of management systems based on their purpose and goal, as well as whether they are producing desirable results aligned with the organization’s needs. Often, an organization’s top management conducts management reviews to continuously improve processes and standards toward proactively addressing concerns and issues.

Purpose

While management review meetings aren’t part of the requirements of running a management system certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), companies’ top management teams still have to conduct management reviews. This is because they are an essential component of completing and following the compliance requirements in the management system performance evaluation set out by the certification standard.

It’s also worth noting that management reviews play a significant role in an organization’s collective efforts toward continuous improvement. Reviewing the standards and guidelines established in the management system helps leaders and key personnel identify areas requiring correction or improvement. This ensures alignment with the organization’s goals and objectives.

Inputs and Outputs

A management review, being part of the requirements of an ISO-certified management system, has specific inputs and outputs that must be taken into account by the top management. The inputs are key elements that serve as the basis for the review to be conducted. The outputs, on the other hand, are the items or steps to be taken as a follow-up from the management review.

In detail, the following are the specific inputs and outputs of a management review:

What are the inputs of management review?

• Results of past management audits (e.g., internal audits )

• Relevant customer feedback

• Process performance

• Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA) progress

• Follow-up from previous management reviews

• Changes that have a direct impact on the management system (e.g., incident statistics and review of recent accident investigations , environmental impact and aspects, and relevant legislative changes)

• Improvement recommendations from internal audit results

What are the outputs of management review?

• Action items for improving the management system

• Product improvement steps to address customer requirements

• Resource needs

• Opportunities for investments and expansion

• Employee development programs

A Practical Guide to the Process

Conducting management reviews can be time-consuming and seemingly complicated. Without an established process and guidelines to help make it practical, the results may fail to satisfy the management system’s goals and objectives.

That said, it’s crucial to understand and implement the overall management review procedure, which involves 3 critical stages:

1. Preparation and Planning

Establish a clear agenda for the review to be conducted. It’s also best to set out a feasible schedule and make sure to let everyone required to attend the meeting know the specifics of the review.

Preparation is key to ensuring that such reviews are going to be practical and well-thought-out. During the first stage, gather insights and data that represent actual results of how your organization’s management systems are performing. Depending on the format that’ll best demonstrate and summarize such data, collect reports from respective departments or point persons to prepare for presentation during the review meeting. These can then serve as guiding documents for discussion and evaluation.

Some guide questions to ask while collating insights and data include the following:

• What is the status of the conducted internal audits? Are there any risks and opportunities discovered?

• Any progress on our CAPAs?

• Have the current suppliers we have continuously supported the organization during the past 6 months?

2. Management Review Session

As a requirement of an ISO-certified management system, the discussions, evaluations, and results from management reviews must be well-documented. This is where the management review outputs come into play. The most common ones include the minutes of the review meeting, the recommended next steps, and key resource needs to carry out the goals and objectives of the improvement plan.

The plan must now include the following and more, depending on the discussion:

• Clear details of what needs to be done

• Defined roles and responsibilities of people in charge

• Feasible timelines and schedules to accomplish the next steps and plan the necessary follow-ups

• Outlined resources and other requirements

• Established metrics and processes for evaluating results

Using a management review template also helps guide the management team and other leaders on how to conduct a management review meeting. The template form can make the process of documenting the minutes of the review meeting more efficient while recording the discussion points and analysis results during the review proper. To help you better visualize what it looks like, here’s an example that you can use in SafetyCulture:

3. Monitoring and Follow-Up

Reviewing the performance of management systems doesn’t stop at documenting the required inputs and outputs. It’s also important to set up a process of monitoring, reporting, and following up on the status and progress of the action plan.

As a management best practice, establish a culture of accountability and ownership so that each aspect of the improvement actions is continuously being worked on and monitored. With this, having Objective Key Results (OKRs) in place can help in objectively measuring the success of every action item. Lastly, ensure that there’s an agreed-upon schedule of the succeeding reviews and/or follow-up review meetings to be conducted.

Common Errors in Conducting Management Reviews

Even with a structured management review process in place, you may still encounter challenges. Some of these include:

• Considering management review as a formal document instead of a significant tool to improve management systems

• Forgetting to include top management or relevant stakeholders

• Not completing the required inputs in compliance standards

• Insufficient reporting on measure actions and outcomes

• Collecting obsolete information and incomplete data

• Spending an ample amount of time preparing for the review