ISO 45001 Occupational Health & Safety Management System

ISO 45001 is a framework for addressing these issues.

Does my organization need to be ISO 45001 compliant?

The short answer is yes. Much of 45001 is related to existing health and safety laws in most countries across the globe. Running a business within the boundaries of these laws isn’t exactly optional.

An organization can be “compliant” without certification. Certification, on the other hand, is a demonstration of compliance that is recognized globally.

The more an organization relies on physical or mechanical effort to produce its goods, the greater the need for compliance and certification.

What is less obvious is how it applies to clerical or professional environments. Stress and psychological factors in a workplace are as relevant as the effects of physical factors for a healthy and safe workplace.

The precursor to ISO 45001 is the OHSAS 18001 – the former benchmark for Occupational Health and Safety. It served as the British HSE standard for many years and received adoption by many countries. ISO 45001 draws on many aspects of OHSAS 18001. However, it is a new standard with significant differences. The biggest difference in the two standards is their proactive vs reactive approach.

ISO 45001 is proactive, requiring risks and hazards to assessed before problems arise. OHSAS had a re-active approach, dealing with risks more than solutions.

OHSAS 18001 was an excellent starting point for health and safety in the workplace. ISO 45001 is an evolution – the next generation – of workplace health and safety standards. The shift to a proactive approach is a major step forward.

OHSAS was retired in March 2021, and has been replaced by ISO 45001, with most organizations having migrated to it as of March 2021.

How ISO 45001 helps organizations

Implementing ISO 45001 may help your organisation demonstrate compliance with health and safety law. In many ways, the standard exceeds legal requirements.

Adopting the ISO 45001 standard is not complicated. Especially if your organization has adopted other management standards (like ISO 9001) or developed a health and safety program of your own.

Organizations tend to have some common challenges, such as:

• Interpreting what the standard asks for
• Gauging what a proportionate implementation looks like
• Adopting the standard (or any other standard) as a supply-chain requirement

These are common reasons organizations seek the guidance of T-Next in navigating the compliance landscape.

Certification vs Compliance

Your organization can be compliant without certification by applying the standard to your activities (in part, or whole) and providing evidence of good health and safety management.

Certification requires full compliance and full implementation of the standard, along with an independent audit to qualify your implementation. Only certification can act as the public demonstration of compliance.

Audit

Lead Auditors and certification bodies accommodate the many differences from one organization to another. The key elements for compliance for audit purposes are:

• The implementation of the standard has been tailored to an organisation’s size and level of complexity
• The implementation is in proportion to the risks of the business

The onus is on the organization seeking certification to ensure that evidence of implementation of, and compliance with a standard is presented to convey risk sensitivity.