ISO45001:2018 Occupational Health & Safety Management

ISO45001:2018 Occupational Health & Safety Management is the leading internationally recognised standard for an occupational health and safety management system.

Implementation of ISO45001 can take place in many ways. If a company has the resources and the time they may very well attempt to do it internally by purchasing the standard and starting from scratch. The manager may decide to do this or a team may be set up to handle the implementation aspects of ISO45001.

If you take this route you must remember the time commitment involved; learning the standard and making sense of it can be a time consuming process.

Consultation

By using the services of a consultant the time you have to spend will be greatly reduced and will ultimately work out cheaper. A good consultant should always set out with the goal to empower management with a working knowledge of the standard which will eventually lead to the company seemingly integrating and managing the practices with little to no help from the consultant, or simply calling the consultant in if things get to hectic or for specific advice or assistance.

Continual improvement is a major factor of ISO45001 and this includes improving the management’s knowledge of the standard. The standard itself even goes through revision and continual improvement . At Revision Management System we like to think we will enhance management’s knowledge of the content of the standard as well as implement a fully working Occupational health and safety management system that is compliant with the requirements of ISO45001.

Be wary of consultants who aim to make the standards appear to be overly complex or some sort of guarded secret. By allowing a ocupational health and saftey system to be implemented that you do not fully understand you run the risk of relying on that consultant full time to run your system. That’s very good business for the consultant but not so good for the company. If you want to have regular visits from a consultant then this is fine but it should be because you want them in order to enhance operations and for assistance not because you have to due to the fact you don’t fully understand your own quality management system. A consultant should act as a health and safety advisor during the implementation process and it is critical to have a competent person involved . A formal qualification in health and safety should be a mandatory of anyone who is assisting in the process.

At Revision Management System we follow the following stages to successful implementation. Remember this is not set in concrete so if you require more or fewer visits this can be arranged. This following method applies to companies starting from scratch with no prior knowledge to ISO45001

The certification process is carried out by a UKAS accredited certification body

This happens in two stages. First we review your organization's preparedness for assessment by checking if the necessary BS OHSAS 18001 procedures and controls have been developed. We will share the details of our findings with you so that if we find gaps, you can close them. If all the requirements are in place, we will then assess the implementation of the procedures and controls within your organization to make sure that they are working effectively as required for certification.

When you have passed the formal assessment you will receive a ISO45001 certificate, which is valid for three years. Your client manager will stay in touch during this time, paying you regular visits to make sure your system doesn’t just remain compliant, but that it continually improves.

• Financial benefits by ensuring you are following legislation
• Legal benefits by avoiding prosecution from not following health and safety law
• Moral by providing the safest working environment for yourself and your employees