ISO 45001:2018
Occupational Health & Safety Management System
WHITE PAPER

ISO 45001
Occupational Health and
Safety

Background and
overview to the
ISO 45001:2018

The ISO’s aspiration is that “the ISO name and the recognition will give further credibility to the new Standard and lead to even wider adoption of health and safety management systems in the workplace.”

The ISO 45001 standard provides a framework for managing the prevention of work-related injuries, ill health and death. The intention of this international standard is to improve and provide a safe and healthy workplace for workers and other persons who may be interacting with the organization. This includes the development and implementation of an OH&S policy and objectives which take into account applicable legal requirements and other requirements to which the organization subscribes. This standard does not state specific criteria for OH&S performance, nor does it provide a specific method for the design of the OH&S Management System.

This is the first International Standard for Occupational Health and Safety management systems. In the past there have been standards issued by other standards organisations such OHSAS 18001 and AS/NZS 4801 neither of which have been seen as nor designed to be an international standard. The ISO 45001 Standard has been developed in response to the increasing numbers of work related deaths worldwide. Certifying to the standard can:

Enable organisations to provide safe and healthy working environments
Be generic and relevant to all types and sizes of organisation irrespective of where they operate increasing global nature of organisations
Be capable of being applied to all organisations irrespective of their OH&S system maturity
Specify the essential components of an OH&S management system
Enable organisations to systematically identify and manage their OH&S risks and opportunities
Provide the framework for improving OH&S performance
Align with other management system standards.

ISO 45001:2018
clauses

Key clauses of ISO 45001:2018

Following the new structure of the ISO 45001 is organized into the following main clauses:

Clause 4: Context of the organization Clause 5: Leadership and worker participation Clause 6: Planningg Clause 7: Support

Clause 8: Operation Clause 9: Performance evaluation Clause 10: Improvement

Key
Areas

New ISO 45001:2018 Standard

What does the new ISO 45001 look like?

Clause 4

The organization is free to define the scope of the OH&S Management System but must determine the external and internal issues that are relevant to its purpose and that affect its ability to achieve the intended outcomes of its OH&S Management System, such as: The needs and expectations of workers and other interested parties, Determining its scope in terms of organizational units, functions, and physical boundaries, The effect of its activities, products, and services, Applicable legal, regulatory and other requirements to which the organization will comply.

Clause 5

Top management shall demonstrate leadership and commitment with respect to their overall responsibility and accountability for the protection of workers, and with respect to the integration of the OH&S Management System processes and requirements into the organization’s business processes. The engagement of top management is essential in order to support the organization through the provision of resources and to promote continual improvement. Furthermore, top management must demonstrate leadership through supporting other management roles in enhancing the OH&S management system, and to ensure continual improvement is achieved by dealing with nonconformities, risks and hazards, and the identification of opportunities for improvement.

Clause 6

This is one of the most critical clauses since it is related to the establishment of strategic objectives and guiding principles for the Occupational Health and Safety Management System as a whole. The OH&S objectives, which can be integrated with other business functions, are the expression of the intent of the organization to treat the risks identified. When determining the risks and opportunities that need to be addressed, the organization shall take into account:

OH&S hazards and their associated risks, and opportunities for improvement
Applicable legal requirements and other requirements
Risks and opportunities related to the operation of the OH&S Management System that can affect the achievement of the intended outcomes
Be updated as appropriate

Clause 7

The necessary resources for each task. This includes having competent staff with the appropriate training, support services, and with effective information and communication means. The organization will determine what documented information is necessary for the success of the system. Documented information is a new term in the standard, which means the information can be in any format, media or from any source. Respectively, the terms ‘document and record’ became obsolete in the new standard, which uses the term ‘documented information’ instead, for the purpose of maximizing the confidence to share information through any media.

Clause 8

Operational planning and control on multi-employer workplaces; whereby the organization shall implement a process for coordinating the relevant parts of the OH&S management system with other organizations. This clause includes the requirement to reduce risks by implementing a "Hierarchy of Control" approach as used by the European Union Legislation. In that regard, this is a system of prioritization which ranks hazard elimination as the preferred control down through a series of controls which are less effective.

Eliminating hazards and reducing OH&S risks requires the organization to establish, implement and maintain a process(es) for the elimination of hazards and reduction of OH&S risks. In order to ensure that this is done properly, the organization shall use appropriate controls.

Management of Change requires the organization to establish a process for the implementation and control of planned changes so that the introduction of new products, processes, services or work practices do not bring with them any new hazards.

Procurement requires the organization to establish, implement and maintain a process for the control of procurement services so as to ensure that they conform to the requirements of the standard. In addition, the standard requires from the organization to coordinate the procurement processes with its contractors and to identify the risks that arise from the contractors’ activities. Furthermore, the organization should ensure that outsourced processes which have an impact on its health and safety management system are appropriately controlled.

Emergency preparedness and response requires the organization to identify emergency situations and maintain a process to prevent or minimize OH&S risks from potential emergencies.

Clause 9

The organization must establish a system that involves the monitoring, measurement, analysis and evaluation of its OH&S performance. It should decide what to measure and how, for instance, accidents or worker competence. Moreover, internal audits must be established along with regular management reviews, in order to see the progress made towards the achievement of OH&S objectives and the fulfillment of ISO 45001 requirements.

Clause 10

The organization should react accordingly to nonconformities and incidents, and take action to: control, correct them, cope with their consequences, and eliminate their source so as to prevent recurrences.

PDCA
Cycle

ISO 45001: 2018
Environment

PLAN

Determine and assess OH&S risks and opportunities, alongside other risks and opportunities.
Establish OH&S objectives and processes that support the organisation’s OH&S policy.

DO

Implement the relevant OH&S processes as planned.
Eliminate hazards and reduce OH&S risks.
Prepare for and respond to potential emergency situations.

ACT

Take actions to continually improve the OH&S performance to achieve the intended outcomes.
Report, investigate and take action, to determine and manage incidents and nonconformities.

CHECK

Monitor and measure activities and processes against the OH&S policy and report the results.
Evaluate compliance.
Review the organisation’s OH&S management system.

ISO 45001
Links

Integration with
other management systems

Link between ISO 45001:2018 and other standards

ISO 45001 will be internationally recognized, coherent, aligned and fully integrated with other ISO standards including ISO 9001 (Quality Management) and 14001 (Environment Management), as well as other IMS that are currently being developed. These types of standards follow the high level structure of Annex SL and are developed by National Standards' Bodies and in the case of ISO 45001, with the involvement of the International Labor Organization.

An integrated management system is implemented to simplify the work, to avoid conflicts and to reduce the duplication of documents.

The main reasons for implementing integrated management systems are to:

Reduce risks and increase profitability, thus improve competitiveness
Harmonize and optimize practices
Eliminate conflicting responsibilities and relationships
Balance conflicting objectives
Formalize informal systems
Reduce duplication and therefore costs
Ensure the sustainable success of the organization
Focus on business goals
Ensure consistency
Improve communication
Facilitate training and awareness

Benefits

ISO 45001
What are the benefits?

Occupational Health & Safety Management– The Business Benefits

The adoption of an effective health and safety management process within an organization will have benefits in a number of areas, examples of which include:

Provide clarity on OH&S management system issues
Enhance leadership involvement and worker participation in the OH&S management system
Implement risk based thinking for the OH&S management system as well as for OH&S risks
Align the OH&S policy and objectives with the strategic direction of your organisation
Integrate the OH&S management system into your business systems and processes
Simplify language, common structure and terms across your systems providing one common language
Demonstrate to your customers, stakeholders and the community your commitment to improving overall OH&S performance
Assist in meeting corporate and statutory due diligence requirements
Improve your ability to manage regulatory compliance
Reduce the overall costs of incidents
Reduce downtime and the costs of disruption to operations
Improve contractor management
Assist in meeting due diligence requirements and help avoid costs associated with penalties and litigation
Reduce the cost of insurance premiums
Reduce absenteeism and employee turnover rates
Be recognised for having achieved an international benchmark (which may in turn influence customers who are concerned about their social responsibility)

ISO 45001
Certification

Certification
Steps

Certification of Organizations

The usual path for an organization that wishes to be certified against ISO 45001 is the following:

1. Implementation of the management system:

Before being audited, a management system must be in operation for some time. Usually, the minimum time required by the certification bodies is 3 months.

2. Internal audit and review by top management:

Before a management system can be certified, it must have had at least one internal audit report and one management review.

3. Selection of the certification body (registrar):

Each organization can select the certification body (registrar) of its choice

4. Pre-assessment audit (optional):

An organization can choose to perform a pre-audit to identify any possible gap between its current management system and the requirements of the standard

5. Stage 1 audit:

A conformity review of the design of the management system. The main objective is to verify that the management system is designed to meet the requirements of the standard(s) and the objectives of the organization. It is recommended that at least some portion of the Stage 1 audit should be performed on-site at the organization’s premises.

6. Stage 2 audit (On-site visit):

The Stage 2 audit objective is to evaluate whether the declared manage - ment system conforms to all requirements of the standard, is actually being implemented in the organi - zation and can support the organization in achieving its objectives. Stage 2 takes place at the site(s) of the organization’s sites(s) where the management system is implemented.

7. Follow-up audit (optional):

If the auditee has non-conformities that require additional audit before be - ing certified, the auditor will perform a follow-up visit to validate only the action plans linked to the non- conformities (usually one day).

8. Confirmation of registration:

If the organization is compliant with the conditions of the standard, the Registrar confirms the registration and publishes the certificate.

9. Continual improvement and surveillance audits:

Once an organization is registered, surveillance activi - ties are conducted by the Certification Body to ensure that the management system still complies with the standard. The surveillance activities must include on-site visits (at least 1 per year) that allow veri - fying the conformity of the certified client’s management system and can also include: investigations following a complaint, review of a website, a written request for follow-up, etc

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ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health & Safety Management System

ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health & Safety Management System WHITE PAPER

ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety

ISO 45001:2018clauses

Key Areas