What it is
A management-system review is the periodic leadership check-in on how well your integrated management system is performing — the structured meeting where leaders look at the evidence and decide what to change. Each review record captures the period it covers, who chaired it, who attended, and the structured flow from inputs to outputs to decisions to actions, with a light lifecycle from scheduled to in progress to completed.
These reviews are a backbone requirement of recognised management-system standards: leadership has to demonstrably review performance and drive improvement, not just delegate it. Recording the review here turns that obligation into evidence — a dated, attributed record of what was considered, what was decided and what actions followed, ready to show an assessor and to track to closure.
When to use it
- It is time for your scheduled leadership review of the management system
- You need to record the inputs and decisions of a review meeting
- You want to capture the actions a review produced and track them
- An assessor has asked for evidence of leadership review
- You are reviewing the management system after a major change
How it works
Step by step.
- 1
Open the review register
Each management review is listed with its period, chair and status, with start and complete actions on each row.
- 2
Create a new review
Add a review for the period you are covering, record the chair and the attendees, and save it as scheduled.
- 3
Capture the inputs
When the meeting runs, record the inputs reviewed — performance data, findings, prior actions — that the leadership considered.
- 4
Record outputs and decisions
Note the outputs and the decisions leadership made off the back of the inputs.
- 5
Assign the actions
Record the actions the review produced so they can be tracked to completion rather than lost in minutes.
- 6
Complete the review
Move the review to completed once it has run and its record is filled in, leaving a dated, attributed entry.
Worked example
Follow it through.
The scenario
You are holding the half-year management-system review for the period to 31 May, chaired by the operations director.
- 1 Open the review register and create a review for the period ending 31 May.
- 2 Record the chair as the operations director and add the four attendees.
- 3 Start the review and capture the inputs — incident trends, open findings, last review’s actions.
- 4 Record the decision to add a second forklift refresher cycle and the action to schedule it by Mon 9 Jun.
- 5 Complete the review once the record is filled in.
The result
A completed, dated management review records who reviewed what, the decisions made and the actions assigned — evidence of leadership oversight.
Tips & notes
Good to know.
- Record the actions a review produces here, not just in meeting minutes — actions captured in the register can be tracked to closure.
- The inputs-to-outputs-to-decisions structure mirrors what assessors expect, so filling it in completely is what makes the review defensible.
- Keep the period and attendees accurate; an assessor checks that the right people reviewed the right period.
- A completed review is permanent evidence — leave it in the register rather than tidying it away.
When you’re done
You have a dated, attributed record of a leadership review with its decisions and actions, ready to evidence and to track to completion.