Auditor Won't Leave...how can I respectfully kick them out?

Hello,

We recently have had a slew of customer auditors who just won't leave. Their own agenda would state the audit is from 9am-5pm but they just keep going until 6pm or 7pm. We try to be accommodating, but I have a life outside of work.

What can I put in place to prevent this in the future so I can respectfully, but forcefully, kick them out at 5?

Thank you.

Maybe before they arrive, supply them with an agenda of their visit.  Break down the whole day in to chunks.  Starting with a opening meeting and ending with a closing meeting.  This might help them keep their time in check.

Hope this helps

As a former 2nd, 3rd and SQF Auditor we always issued an itinerary and stuck with the program flow as best we found.  There were a couple of times that I had to disengage employees and owners from gabbing, telling them if they continued to interrupt the process that they would be staying late and would have to buy me dinner.  We never ran over time except for one gigantic failure of an audit that never seemed to end, and I so badly wanted it to be over with.

Tell the Auditor your closing policy and what you expect - everybody goes home on time and no, they spend the night and do more the next day.

This has happened at our facility a few times, with both SQF and customer auditors.  First, we try to manage the schedule throughout the day to keep the agenda moving forward - you know your facility and systems best and what is the most efficient way to tackle it.  Quite often, we will advise that we should move a few things around or tackle certain elements before lunch, etc. 

As the end of the day approaches (about 1-2 hours before 5pm), we politely remind the auditor that the office will be closing so we need to wrap up.  Most auditors move a little more quickly and we make sure to note that we can always answer any follow-up questions after the audit.  

...they spend the night and do more the next day.

I think even that is unreasonable. We provide 8 full hours to audit our facility and systems. Plenty of auditors seem to handle it just fine, and it is the recommended time under IAF MD5.

I feel like we need to have a written policy to show them so they don't gump about it. I don't really tick these people off.

Perhaps, it is up to the culture. Here in Asia, we feel okay if an auditor needs more time to finish their work.

My company has got audited by the certification and customers every year. They are from Europe. Each time, they had to spend an extra hour on the first day and we stayed with them. We were really pleased to see them not delaying any task on that day. I think it is the sympathy in cooperation.

You have the right to ask them out after 5pm or the end of agreed itinerary. But it may leave negative feelings and impressions to auditors. For customer auditing, IMO, we couldn't predict the affects on business.

My stance is much the same as beautiophile's; as long as it's not rediculous I'm happy to stay later and the auditor to take as much time as they feel necessary, within reason. My BRC auditor last week was on site 8am-6pm both days. However I can appreciate that people will potentially have other things outside of work they may need to attend, which is especially significant now that more audits are unannounced - for example if a Technical Manager picks up their child from day care at 5pm, an auditor surely can't arrive on site that day and expect the TM to stay until 6 and be forced to immediately re-arrange things outside of work. So I think it would be reasonable and probably sensible to explain perhaps in the opening meeting that so-and-so needs to leave at a certain time, or security lock up at 5/6. If you do want the auditor to be gone by a certain time, I'd make clear that requirement first thing so they can plan as necessary. Also I agree agendas where possible make life easier.

This will sound rude, but probably the easier would be just to remind them 1-2 hours before the scheduled ending time that you are worried that they will not finish in time. The problem is that you have an appointment at the ....(there must be an institution where you can still have appointments so late in the afternoon) and because they sent you a plan of the audit, you didn't (or couldn't) cancel anymore your appointment. In the worst case you can send them some extra documents on email next day, but you really have to go. This actually happened with me for real, during an internal audit a few years ago. There was a new auditor from the consultancy company, who didn't tell me in advance how much time she will spend in the company, so I assumed everything will go like with her previous colleague. Because I had an appointment in the hospital, we stopped earlier than she would have wanted and I emailed her some documents. But of course you have some people who are workaholic, have no personal life or can't manage their time.