Vendor Compliance

Vendor Program Audit

May 18, 2009

Our school system gives each student an agenda at the start of the school year.   It’s a basic utilitarian calendar — columns for each day of the week, rows for each class, and a resulting grid where they can write daily assignments and tests.   My middle-schooler has had one of these for seven years now.   Using an agenda should be second nature by now.

It’s not.

That’s why when we started noticing an increasing number of forgotten assignments, my wife and I instituted the Agenda Audit.   Each night when he announces he’s finished his homework, one of us asks to see his agenda.   The resulting conversations go something like this:

Me:   Why aren’t there any assignments written down for Spanish this week?

Him:  I wrote down the test.   Was I supposed to write homework assignments, too?  

or

Me:   Have you finished all your homework for tomorrow?

Him (with exasperated voice and rolling eyes):   Yes

Me (opening agenda):    Where’s this math assignment?   Let me see that one.

Him (bewildered):   Math?   Oh I forgot about that.

I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.  I don’t think that he’s intentionally forgetting assignments.     But to a 13-year-old, homework only gets in the way of what’s really important — video games and sports.

Several of our customers have noted the same thing with their vendor programs.  Initial enthusiasm and participation dies down.  Staff and reps start forgetting the procedure.

Maybe you need a Vendor Program Audit.   Over the next couple of posts, we’ll give you tips from hospitals who have conducted their own Vendor Program Audits to give you some ideas.

Entry Filed under: vendor management. .