What to do after failing an audit? 6 Steps | CEICIA
What to Do After Failing an Audit: 6 Steps for Your Company
Has your company failed an audit? You are not sure what to after a failed audit?
Whether you've failed an ISO audit, received major nonconformities or received an unsatisfactory internal audit report, the next steps are to learn from mistake and find way to improve.
The positive side of the failed audit is that it may reveal weaknesses in your company's processes, risk management or organisational culture. Transform the failed audit into an opportunity for your company and your team to grow and get ready for potential disruption.
A failed audit allows you to find solutions before the risk happens and anticipate.
Here are six steps to help your company address audit findings and prevent future failures.
1- What Happens If your company fails an audit?
Depending on the audit type and severity of the findings, your company may face:
- Minor or major nonconformities.
- Requests for corrective action.
- Follow-up audits or reassessments.
- Certification delays or suspension.
- Potential contractual or regulatory consequences.
The first step is to understand the findings, required actions and deadlines.
2- What should you do immediately after a failed audit?
Review the audit report carefully and identify which requirements were not met thus you can assign responsible individuals, address urgent risks and establish a corrective action timeline. Avoid rushing to update documents without understanding why the problems occurred, discuss with your team to understand the deeper issue.
Your objective is to prevent it from happening again, to do so you need to prepare your people and review processes.
3- Why did your company fail the audit?
Common reasons for audit failure include:
- Missing or incomplete documentation.
- Employees not following procedures.
- Inadequate corporate training or supervision.
- Weak internal controls.
- Poor communication and unclear responsibilities.
- Ineffective risk management and organisational culture.
Keep in mind that sometimes the problem goes beyond procedures and can a people problem or leadership issue. For example, employees may know the correct reporting process but avoid reporting incidents because they fear criticism or negative consequences. In this situation, you have a leadership and psychological safety issue in your team, thus updating the procedure alone will not solve the problem.
Understanding the root cause of an audit failure requires examining people, processes, leadership and organisational behaviours.
4- How do you fix audit nonconformities?
Develop a corrective action plan that identifies:
- What didn’t work.
- Why it happened.
- What needs to change.
- Who is responsible: role and responsibility.
- When actions must be completed: deadline.
- How improvements will be verified: control.
Remember that correcting a problem is not the same as eliminating its root cause. The objective is to solve the root cause rather than being a fire fighter.
Effective corrective actions address why the problem happened, not just what the auditor discovered.
5- How can you prepare for your next audit?
Before the next audit, ensure that corrective actions have been implemented, testing and are working on the long term. Verify that employees understand procedures, managers apply controls consistently and supporting records are available. Conduct internal checks and review whether previous findings have been resolved. The objective should be sustainable improvement, not simply preparing documentation for the auditor.
6- How can you prevent future audit failures?
If your company repeatedly receives the same audit findings, the underlying issues may involve organisational culture, leadership or employee behaviours.
Ask yourself:
- Why are employees not following procedures?
- Why are the same audit findings recurring?
- Why are risks not reported or addressed early?
- Why do corrective actions fail to deliver lasting improvements?
Preventing recurring audit failures should take into account people, process and compliance, isolating one of them will result in having constantly the same problem. It requires a strong risk culture where employees and leaders understand their responsibilities and actively manage risks.
How can CEICIA help your company after a failed audit?
Sometimes audit problems are not caused by missing policies, but by how people understand and apply them. At CEICIA, we help organisations identify and strengthen the human and organisational factors that contribute to recurring operational and compliance weaknesses.
Our services include:
- People Risk Assessment — Identifying people-related risks that affect organisational performance and internal controls.
- Risk Culture Diagnostics — Understanding how employees and leaders identify, communicate and manage risks.
- Leadership Development — Strengthening accountability, decision-making and risk awareness.
- Risk Culture Training — Helping employees develop the behaviours needed to support effective risk management.
CEICIA's approach complements technical compliance and audit remediation services by addressing the organisational factors that may contribute to repeated audit findings.
Our focus is not simply on helping organisations prepare for the next audit, but on strengthening the way people, processes and risk management work together.
Frequently Asked Questions About Failed Audits
- Can you fail an ISO audit?
Yes. Significant nonconformities can delay certification or put an existing certification at risk. However, not every audit finding means certification has been lost.
- What is a major nonconformity in an audit?
A major nonconformity generally indicates a significant failure to meet a requirement or a weakness affecting the effectiveness of a management system.
- What happens if a company does not fix its audit findings?
Depending on the audit requirements, consequences may include additional assessments, certification delays or suspension, or contractual and regulatory action.
- Why does my company keep failing audits?
Repeated audit failures may indicate ineffective corrective actions, poor accountability, inadequate training or weaknesses in organisational culture and leadership.
- Should we hire an external consultant after failing an audit?
External specialists can help identify root causes and develop improvement plans. Technical audit specialists address formal compliance requirements, while organisational risk specialists can help with people-related and cultural issues.
Failed an Audit? Let's Address the Root Causes.
If your company has failed an audit or continues to experience recurring audit findings, it may be time to look beyond documentation and procedures.
CEICIA helps organisations strengthen their risk culture, leadership and people-related risk management capabilities.
Address the underlying problems that cause them.
Contact CEICIA to discuss your organisation's audit challenges.
