The key elements of ISG are:
- Management systems — these are required to ensure best practice is implemented, managed and ongoing.
- Best practice standards and requirements — these are industry specific and form part of and underpin the contractor's quality management systems.
- Competency and training requirements — these are mandatory and are based on industry best practice, for given levels of responsibility.
- Auditing — internal and external evidence-based audits are required to ensure ISG requirements are being met in practice.
- Benchmarking — this is required so that contractors can measure their performance against Standards and other industry members. Contractors that fall below the industry average need to develop and progress improvement plans to maintain their accreditation status.
- Collective industry approach — this is necessary to determine and improve best practice, through a continuous improvement approach.
- Industry process and peer review — through Reading New Zealand an ISG Accreditation Board approves/declines applications, and maintains accreditation registers.
Industry Self Governance
Roading New Zealand adopted the concept of industry self governance (ISG) at a strategic planning workshop in 2002. This workshop included input from Government departments, crown entities and local government representatives.
ISG involves industry taking responsibility for ensuring that best practice occurs on a day to day basis, including but not necessarily limited to compliance with relevant legislation. It aims to allow industry members to meet their stakeholder and client needs through externally reviewed self regulation.
ISG has been applied to several key areas of our business, including health and safety, the certification of bitumen sprayers, and accreditation of asphalt plants.
Details of how the Operate Safe ISG system works can be found at www.operatesafe.org.nz.
A key area currently under development for ISG is that of environmental management, where increased Government and private sector focus on sustainability demands that new management practices be put in place.