Do you protect your employees in accordance with the standards?

Occupational health affects all companies - not only in times of the corona virus. The road to an internationally uniform standard for health protection management was relatively rocky: the first version of OHSAS 18001 was published in 1999 and revised in 2007. It was based on a British standard, which was subsequently also adopted by a number of countries. The development of an ISO standard on occupational health and safety initially failed. However, ISO then decided in 2013 to develop a single standard. The result is ISO 45001, published in 2018, which is based on OHSAS 18001 and has the same structure as the management system standards ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 (High Level Structure).

The most important contents of the standard

ISO 45001:2018 is aimed at all companies, regardless of their size and activity. The standard enables organizations to establish a management system for occupational health and safety. This helps them to manage their occupational health and safety risks and improve their occupational health and safety performance through the development and implementation of effective strategies and objectives. According to iso.org, the main potential benefits from using the standard include:

• Reduction of incidents in the workplace
• Reduced absenteeism and staff turnover, leading to increased productivity
• Lower costs for insurance premiums
• Creating a health and safety culture, encouraging employees to play an active role in their own occupational health and safety
• Increased leadership and commitment to proactive improvement of health and safety performance
• Ability to meet legal and regulatory requirements
• Improved reputation
• Improved morale

In principle, ISO 45001 enables, for example, the development and implementation of an occupational health and safety policy and occupational health and safety objectives. It supports the introduction of systematic processes that take into account the context of the company, its risks and opportunities, and the legal and other requirements applicable to the company. Last but not least, the standard serves to identify hazards and assess risks and opportunities associated with the company's activities, and to implement measures to eliminate them. Thanks to its High Level Structure, ISO 45001 can be easily integrated into existing management systems based on ISO 9001.

Seize the opportunity for recertification

What does this mean for companies? Those companies that already work in accordance with the OHSAS 18001 standard will have an easy time of it. "Companies wishing to adopt the standard should have no difficulty in converting, as its requirements are in line with those of OHSAS 18001," writes SQS, one of Switzerland's leading certification bodies. So anyone who wants to switch to ISO 45001 and get certified can do so until 11 September 2021. The original deadline of 31 March 2021 has been extended by six months because of Covid- 19. The OHSAS-18001:2007 certificate can be maintained alongside the ISO-45001:2018 certification within the transition period. However, SQS points out that this procedure involves additional work. If local laws/regulations require an accredited OHSAS 18001 certification and the legislation/regulation has not been changed with regard to ISO 45001, the validity of the accredited certification according to OHSAS 18001 (or equivalent national standard) can be extended in accordance with the IAF regulation, SQS further writes.

Procedure for the conversion of the management system

For those who would now like to change to ISO 45001 and have not yet done so, the following procedure is recommended:

Conduct an analysis of the OSH context of your organization (e.g., stakeholder involvement) and the internal and external factors that could impact your organization.

• Define the scope of the system and consider what you want to achieve with your management system.
• Define your health and safety policy and objectives.
• Define the time frame in which you want to implement your system and plan how you will achieve it.
• Determine any competency and/or resource/gaps that need to be closed before implementing the standard.

Certification bodies can provide support in defining the migration process. This way, nothing stands in the way of a successful new or recertification.