ISO 10018 – What Many of Us Don’t Know

Almost six years have passed since the ISO 10018 People Involvement and Competence guidelines were created, and many have wondered why it has taken so long for someone to create a formal certification.

As you may know, ISO 10018:2012 provides guidance on engaging people in an organization’s quality management system, and on enhancing their involvement and competence within it.

“The standard hasn’t caught on because nobody knows about it,” explained Peter Merrill, who was convener of the original Working Group that created ISO 10018.

However, Merrill believes the Quality Management and related Innovation field have a growing respect for the role of people and culture and will be receptive to an accredited certification.

A certification program has now been created by the Enterprise Engagement Alliance’s Engagement Agency, and it is applicable to any organization, regardless of size, type, or activity.

“I think that there’s an understanding after all these years of the importance of people involvement and culture,” says Merrill.

Others have also expressed their perspectives and experiences on the subject of engagement.

Larry Fink of BlackRock Group, the world’s largest private investment firm, recently called upon public companies to make larger and more strategic investments in human capital and emphasized the need for far greater disclosure on actual practices and results.

In a study published in HBR in 2016, Alex Edmans, Professor at the London Business School, found that companies on the Great Places to Work™ list consistently outperformed the stock market indices over nearly three decades.

Similarly, the Engaged Company Stock Index, managed by analytics firm McBassi & Co., which uses 12 sources to identify companies with high levels of customer, employee and community engagement, has outperformed the S&P 500 by 25.6% over the last four years.

For additional information, you can review this complete summary of ISO 10018 standards and how organizations can become certified.