When employees continue to get injured on the job, it costs not only time but money and even loss of projects. Implementing an ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Management System can help establish a good health and safety culture, starting with the leadership of all the workers within the organization. It all starts with the culture of the organization. All organizations have a safety culture, either a good or bad one.
To successfully implement ISO 45001 it is critical to establish a clear safety culture. Safety culture begins with the leaders, typically including Top Management, but can also be anyone within the organization that others follow. Management will need to establish a Health and Safety Policy that is focused on the prevention of work-related injuries or illnesses. When decisions are being made by management health and safety should always be factored in. Profits should never be put over the health and safety of the organization and employees.
Discontinuing the practice of reprimanding employees for incidences that are reported will encourage reporting of future incidences and gain employee participation. A good health and safety culture starts with gaining employee buy-in and participation. Consider establishing a Health and Safety Team to gain employee part
ISO 45001:2018 is the occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system standard developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This standard helps organizations of any size in any industry reduce workplace injuries, illness and risks by promoting a safe and healthy workplace for their employees and visitors. Companies should work to implement a good, sound safety culture in their workplace.
Organizations that lack adequate health and safety programs face devastating and costly consequences. Here are common impacts that organizations with a poor health and safety culture can expect:
- When there is an increased incident rate in the workplace it reduces an organization’s ability to qualify for work. As a result, there is a loss of potential business.
- When employees are out due to an illness or injury, workplace productivity decreases. This may cause other employees to be pulled away from their core responsibilities to help fill in. The employees who are filling in may need to undergo task-specific training, which results in a further loss of productivity.
- Several legal costs come along with employees getting injured on the job. These may include paying workers compensation, compensating for sick time and paying higher insurance claims depending on incident rates. An unsafe work environment can lead to costly compensation, claims, legal fees and even hefty OSHA fines.
- Unsafe working conditions increase the opportunity for workplace injury, disease, illness and worse – death. There is no greater loss than the loss of life.
Companies should work to implement a good, sound safety culture in their workplace. Organizations and businesses that are new to ISO 45001, or have previous experience with OHSAS 18001, should be aware of the key elements of the standard:
• The Annex SL structure that ISO 45001 follows is the same high-level structure shared by other ISO standards, such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. This means that with the right expertise, ISO 45001 can be integrated into existing ISO management systems.
• Top Management should emphasize their commitment and leadership to building a culture of safety within their organization. A productive health and safety culture starts with strong commitment, clear responsibility and accountability from those in leadership.
• Organizations will need to establish a documented OH&S policy, which reinforces their commitment to providing safe and healthy working conditions, meets legal requirements, eliminates hazards and reduces OH&S risks. Consult with and involve workers in the continual improvement of their ISO 45001 management system. The OH&S Policy will provide the framework for the measurable objectives.
• Companies will need to proactively identify hazards in all aspects of their business – from workloads, to work hours to the culture of their organization. Hazards have the potential to cause illness and ill health or have the potential to cause harm. This includes reviewing both routine activities, such as maintenance, and non-routine activities that could impact their workers, contractors and even visitors.
• Once hazards are identified, companies will need to assess their occupational health and safety risks and opportunities. Risks are defined as the likelihood for a work-related hazard, event or exposure to occur, and the severity of the resulting injury or illness. Opportunities are defined as circumstances that can lead to the improvement of OH&S performance.
• ISO 45001 breaks down the levels of controls to be taken to eliminate hazards and reduce OH&S risks. An example of a control may include conducting a Job Safety Analysis (JSA), where jobs are broken down to the task level, hazards are identified at each step and the safest method of performing the task is determined.
• Workers will need to be properly trained and will need to demonstrate the competency that they can properly identify OH&S hazards and address the risks associated with their work, and the workplace. The appropriate competence should be determined for each role; workers may even assist in determining the competence needed. They should have the capability to remove themselves from situations where serious danger could occur.
• Organizations will need to establish, implement and maintain processes to determine and manage incidents and nonconformities. This includes the reporting of incidents, investigating and taking appropriate actions. The sooner incidents are reported and investigated, the sooner hazards can be eliminated and OH&S risks can be minimized.
• Changes that impact occupational health and safety performance will need to be controlled in a planned manner, whether they are planned temporary or permanent changes. This includes adding new or changing existing products, services and processes, including workplace locations, the organization of work, working conditions, equipment and more.
• Processes will need to be in place to determine, assess and eliminate hazards and reduce OH&S risks of products and services before they are brought into the workplace. This includes assessing products, hazardous material, substances, raw materials, equipment and services. Organizations are also responsible for the occupational health and safety of contractors. Examples of contractors could include maintenance, construction workers, security personnel and consultants.
• Organizations working to implement ISO 45001 will need to establish, implement and maintain processes in the event emergency situations occur. This includes preparing for emergency situations, providing training on the response plans, and even testing and exercising the response plan periodically. The emergency response plans will need to be communicated to contractors, visitors, government authorities and the community. During the development of the planned emergency response activities, the needs and capabilities of the identified interested parties should be taken into account.
• An internal audit will need to be conducted at planned time frames. ISO 45001 internal audits will determine if the OH&S management system meets the requirements of the standard, the requirements of your organization and whether it has been effectively implemented and maintained.
ISO 45001 was developed with consideration of other related standards, such as OHSAS 18001, Occupational health and safety management, the International Labour Organization’s ILO-OSH 2001 guidelines and various national standards, and is consistent with the ILO’s international labour standards and conventions. The risk-based approach ensures ISO 45001 is effective and undergoes continual improvement to meet an organization’s ever-changing context.
Developed under the ISO system, with the input of experts from more than 70 countries, it provides an international framework that takes into account the interaction between an organization and its business environment. This framework is designed to facilitate the integration of new management topics into an organization’s established management systems. In addition, ISO 45001 was designed to follow ISO 14001 fairly closely, as it is recognized that many organizations combine their OH&S and environmental management functions internally. This will simplify the integration of ISO 45001, particularly for those who are familiar with ISO 14001.
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