EGQS Update Spring 2026

The annual EuRA Conference gives us an unrivalled opportunity to help members with any questions or queries they have about the EGQS and gaining their certification and Premium Member status.

In Malta come and meet the team.  Our project lead Martina Scharwey will be at a desk by the check in area of the Hilton Malta Conference Centre along with our lead auditor Jochen Muskala.  Between them they can help with any questions you may have about the EGQS Standard and the audit process itself.  Those of you who have been audited know how helpful Martina and Jochen are in the lead up to becoming certified.

We also have three mentors.  As part of my role as COO, I am taking on a larger role within the EGQS Project as the Quality Standard Mentor.  I have worked on this project since the very start in 2008 and have been part of every annual update to the Quality Standard, the document that forms the backbone of the certification.  When approached for the first time, the Quality Standard can seem daunting.  It is a 37 page document laying out all off the requirements you need to fulfil to build your Quality Manual.  The Quality Manual is the document you will use to prove to the auditor that you have reached all of the requirements that are set out in the Quality Standard.  On the next couple of pages you will see all of the help that is available to you while going through this process for the first time.  But our assistance doesn’t end there!   When we update the Quality Standard each year in November, we design a whole range of training and Briefings to help already certified members to update their Quality Manual in line with any new requirements.

If you are starting out to build your Quality Manual before your first audit and you hit a part of it you don’t understand, reach out to me and I will do my very best to help you to fit that requirement to your company’s processes.

A good example would be a query I dealt with recently.  The EuRA Member was in the middle of their audit and the auditor wasn’t sure about how they were proving the KPI on meeting the response times to enquiries for clients.  This KPI is based on a return email or phone call.  This EuRA Member has an extensive Client Management System that tracks many parts of its operations, but it doesn’t track email replies.  The auditor and the member were not sure how to prove they had met this KPI and I was able to reassure them both that a random sample from the Outlook mail client of a team member was enough to get the information that an email enquiry was replied to within the time frame set out in that KPI.  It’s very often the simple things that can become complex like with anything in life!

We also have two brilliant EGQS Timeframe to Audit mentors who are there to help you to hit the deadlines you decide upon when going through the process of initial certification or re-certification.  Åse and Michéle are there to set three meetings with you so they can help you to stay on track as you build your Quality Manual.  The process is simple.  Contact Maree at the EuRA office and she will send you all the documents you need to start.  The Quality Standard and all of the policy templates you need to add into your Quality Manual.  You then contact Åse or Michéle and they will set three deadlines;

1. When to complete the EGQS online training and start to build your Quality Manual
2. When to complete the building of the Quality Manual
3. When to arrange for final audit

Just having someone helping to set those goals has proved to an invaluable tool to many members looking to get certified.

Come and find us and take advantage of all the help we can give at no charge!

EGQS - YOu Can Do It With Zero Cost Help!