What is ISO 45001?

The ISO 45001 (Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems – Requirements) workplace safety standard will replace the current standard, BS OHSAS 18001. ISO 45001 is currently in development, and the final standard is expected to be published late 2017/early 2018.

Why implement an occupational health and safety management system?

If your organisation has OHSAS 18001 certification, or other ISO certifications like ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, you probably have first-hand experience of the benefits of implementing a management system.

Benefits organisations can reap by implementing a management system include:

• Assisting compliance  with regulatory and other mandatory or voluntary requirements
• Improving performance in a structured manner
• Implementing a system to manage risks and opportunities systematically
• Driving to improve cultural change.

In the case of an occupational health and safety system, there are other benefits. These include:

• Proving a commitment to worker occupational health and safety
• ​Protecting your employees and contractors
• Potential for reducing workers’ insurance premiums
• Improving productivity through a commitment to the prevention of workplace injuries and ill-health.

Although many of the ISO management standards emphasize employee knowledge and participation, ISO 45001 goes even further. It will be a requirement to focus on employee participation. Some of the clauses contained within the new standard, such as “Context of the Organization” and “Leadership,” specifically address the role employees have in developing the occupational health and safety management system alongside top management and staff.

A new Standard
The new international standard is designed to allow organisations to tailor occupational health and safety management systems to their workplace more effectively. The requirements for ISO 45001 are process-oriented instead of focused on ensuring that a specific procedure is adopted. This will allow organisations to develop an occupational health and safety management program that addresses the specific risks of their workplace.

The new standard uses a common framework (Annex SL) which is aligned to other management systems including ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015.  This means the requirements of this standard will be harmonized with the requirements of other standards making integration into an existing management system far easier.

Once ISO 45001 is published it is expected that holders of OHSAS 18001 certification will have a three-year transitional period to migrate their certification to the ISO 45001 standard. The dates of this transition period will be set once the final standard is published.

What is the significance of a common approach (Annex sl)?
Although each standard e.g. 9001/14001/45001 will have discipline-specific clauses, many of the overarching terms, references and clauses will be shared.  Annex SL contains a high level framework, required appendices, some core language and common terms. It functions as a template for a variety of different management system standards.

By using the same structure and shared terms and definitions, the Annex SL format reduces any conflicts between standards. The very goal of management standards is to increase productivity. Duplicating processes is an inefficient use of resources, and ISO recognises this. That’s why Annex SL was introduced.

Who does ISO 45001 apply to?

Health and safety management systems apply to any type of business with employees - both large and small organisations can obtain this certification. 

Migrating from OHSAS 18001 to ISO 45001
Whether you’re considering obtaining ISO 45001 certification from scratch or already have an OHSAS 18001 certification, the certification process is similar.
Here are a few tips to make the migration easier:

1. Get a copy of the ISO 45001 standard and study it. You can buy one from www.iso.org
2. Identify information about legal and other requirements for occupational health and safety programs and how they will evaluate compliance with these requirements to demonstrate effectiveness
3. Review workplace hazards and develop a risk assessment methodology
4. Conduct a gap analysis. Contact NQA to get your copy: sales@nqa.com