Now more than ever, we’ve seen the importance of occupational health and safety issues. That’s why these structures have continual development in mind to achieve occupational health and safety (OH&S) successes through top management techniques. Therefore, ISO 45001 has been created and is viewed as a big accomplishment in health. It is a completely new standard that will replace the OHSAS 18001 over three years. Organizations will have to up their standards so that they’ll stay compliant with the new, international standard.
KEY CHANGES TO OHSAS 18001
The ISO high-level structure did so well that ISO 45001 adopted the Annex SL to be closely formulated with other ISO like the ISO 14001. The key changes in include:
- Process-based structure
- Dynamic in every single clause
- Considers possible risks and opportunities
- Is inclusive of interested parties’ views
HOW TO EFFICIENTLY MIGRATE FROM OHSAS 18001 TO ISO 45001?
The management approach that was formed in OHSAS 18001 will be a key element to migrate to the new, better standards. If you’re certified with OHSAS 18001, you’ll have to deal with the transition.
How to Handle the Transition Period
- Figure out what risks there are internally and externally and from all interested parties and how they can be controlled by your OH&S management system.
- Establish what your system standard requires and consider the goals of your system.
- Use the above-mentioned information to establish your OH&S risks, evaluation and assessment of your occupational health and safety management system, and most importantly, the processes key performance indicators.
- Speak to professionals that will help guide you through the transitioning period. You can also outsource a change agent for your business to make sure the transition is implemented with ease.
ISO 45001 Certification from Best Practice
Requirements in ISO 45001
You’ll have to make sure that you follow the correct requirements so that your OH&S performance will be effective when there are actions to address or when you have to do hazard identification on your products or services. Let’s look at a summary of the requirements:
- You’ll have to prepare documents on how the context of the organization fits with OH&S management.
- Someone with the required leadership skills should be chosen to act as a leader for employees. It’s also mandatory that all the employees participate actively in all processes in ISO 45001.
- The OH&S policy should be followed in detail.
- You should be able to plan to identify hazards and assess risks and opportunities.
- You should make sure that OH&S objectives will be achieved.
- You must make sure that the implementation of the system has all the support it needs, including resources, competence, awareness, communication, and documentation.
- The operation should be done effectively in all areas, including operational planning and control, hazard elimination and risk reduction, change management, procurement, and emergency readiness.
- The second to last step is to conduct a performance evaluation to ensure that everybody’s behaviours are on the standard, including monitoring, measuring, and analysis, as well as internal audits and management reviews.
- And finally, the last thing you should consider is an improvement. This includes improvements on incidents, nonconformity, and corrective action as well as documentation, communication, and lastly continual improvement.
Conclusion
There is a lot to think about when we are transitioning from one OH&S management system to another. It might be a good idea to get an expert on board to help you with the documentation required. All-in-all, if you do your homework correctly you’ll be able to do it yourself since there is an abundance of resources that can help you, and don’t forget that you received a generous time frame for when your system has to be ready.
Best Practice is a JAS-ANZ accredited Certification body that aims to provide ISO Certification globally, with a range of in-house training and support systems to help you on your journey to continual improvement.
