ISO 45001:2018   Occupational Health & Safety Certification

The world's first global health and safety management system.

The Occupational Health and Safety Standard is good for your organisations well being and provides a framework for managing Health and Safety responsibilities.

What is ISO 45001?

ISO 45001 enables organisations to manage and improve their own Health & Safety Risks and Performance.

This Occupational Health and Safety Management System incorporates core organisation processes and provides the opportunity for senior management to be more involved.

It also stresses the need for worker participation in the functioning of an Occupational Health & Safety Management.

How will ISO 45001 help my business? (Benefits)

ISO 45001 ensures your organisation has a management system in place to reduce health & safety risks within the workplace – protecting workers from potential harm and increasing profitability at the same time. Other benefits of ISO 45001 include:

• Reduced overall costs of incidents.

• Reduced risk in downtime and the costs of disruption to operations

• Reduced absences and employee turnover rate.

• Recognition for achieving an international benchmark.

• Increase organisational resilience through proactive risk prevention, innovation and continual improvement

• Strengthening of legal and regulatory compliance whilst reducing business losses

• Demonstrates brand responsibility by committing to safe, healthy and sustainable work

• One global occupational health and safety system for all businesses, of all sizes

• Reduced cost of insurance premiums.

• Improved ability to respond to legal and compliance requirements.

Challenges of Implementing ISO 45001

ISO 45001 certification is of immense value. Implementing this Occupational Health & Safety management system has been shown to directly lead to more efficient use of resources and less waste. This is an extremely easy way to increase profitability. It has also been proven to reduce the risk of prosecution and insurance claims stemming from Occupational Health & Safety issues. Finally, customers are reassured by the standard’s ethical basis.  Here are some of the challenges sometimes associated with ISO certification:

1. Getting Started

The first major challenge in ISO 45001 implementation is to get started. Organisations feels the complexity of ISO 45001 implementation. Understanding of standard, placement of documents, training of persons are some of the challenges. Too often companies complain that they are not ready to start, and they want everything to be perfect before they begin the certification process. However, ISO implementation is considered an ongoing process which will never be perfect.

2. Setting Goals

Companies aiming for ISO 45001 certification set their own Occupational Health & Safety targets. A company knows its own capabilities and limitations best and should be able to set realistic goals. In theory this can allow very conservative, easy-to-attain goals to be set simply for the sake of attaining certification. Given the expense of ISO certification, companies should create realistic goals to maximize return on investment.

3. Problem Solving

Most organisations find that once they understand their Occupational Health & Safety issues and impacts, implementing ISO 45001 is relatively simple. In some cases however, it can be significantly more complex. Sometimes a detailed statistical analysis may need to be carried out, with the necessary statistics being hard to record and more difficult to analyse.

 

 

4. Applying Relevant Regulations

A successful ISO 45001 implementation usually requires more than just a list of acts of legislation. You should also understand in plain English how each piece of legislation applies to each part of your business, including sites, organisations and people. Legal registers such as Pegasus are available to help achieve this for a fraction of the cost of legal advice.

5. Self-Management

ISO 45001 implementation is self-managed, and its success mostly depends on the enthusiasm of the organisation’s management. Many ISO 45001 certification failures are due to the management’s lack of awareness of the resources required. Managers may also set unrealistic, ultra-lenient goals to portray their organisation in a better light than is justified.

6. Transparency

Ensuring the correct information is shared with all employees is another major challenge of ISO 45001 implementation. Frequently, information about the implementation process is not disseminated to the levels required for the maximum return possible. Customers have also been known to make purchasing decisions based on ISO 45001 certification, so they should also be informed.

How does my business gain ISO 45001 Certification? (Need)

Generally organisations start their ISO journey with ISO 9001, as this puts in place quality management procedures that can be extended and developed to include health and safety.

How can ZQI help my business to gain 45001? (Support)

With Zenith Quality you can realise the Truth of Transformation.

We Drive Excellence & Inspire Innovation.

Real Challenges, Real People & Real impact.

• ZQI work alongside your existing health and safety professionals to work out the most effective way to implement ISO 45001 in your business. This may include presentations to your senior team, training and support on production of policies and manuals.

• ZQI has team of Experts, Assessors, Trainers & Consultants who will make this process simple, less time taking: support and guide your business towards certification using hand hold practices. 

• Our experienced assessors will help your business audit and improve its quality management systems, offering training and support where necessary.

• The standard is designed to be generic, so can flex around the organisation – our assessors are there to help you identify what is relevant for your business, whatever its size or turnover.

• We strive to make ISO certification as simple as possible for our clients. 

• With a flexible approach, we work with your business to make the process of gaining ISO 45001 as painless and yet as beneficial as possible.    

• Our role is to support and guide your business towards certification. We will look at your business needs and existing systems and advice you on what is right in ISO 45001 for your business.

The certification process is very similar to ISO 9001, working on the principles of:

“Say What It Does” – document day to day operating procedures and systems
“Do What It Says” – work in accordance with those procedures and systems
“Prove It” – with a certification audit which confirms, from records, that the procedures and systems meet the requirements of ISO 45001 and are operated in accordance with the standard.

With a fixed fee and flexible approach, our assessors are focused on making standards work in your business.

For further details, please contact us.