ISO 45001 – Occupational health and safety management

What is ISO 45001?

The purpose of ISO 45001, Occupational health and safety management systems – Requirements with guidance for use, is to provide organisations with a systematic and structured framework for preventing work-related injury and illness, creating safe and healthy workplaces, and continually improving occupational health and safety performance. The standard helps organisations identify, assess and manage occupational health and safety risks, as well as make use of occupational health and safety opportunities, in a proactive and integrated way.

ISO 45001 is an internationally recognised management system standard that can be used by any type of organisation – regardless of size, sector or level of maturity. The standard can be implemented as a standalone occupational health and safety management system or integrated with other management systems such as ISO 9001 (quality) and ISO 14001 (environment).

The standard sets out requirements for an occupational health and safety management system and also provides guidance on how the requirements can be put into practice. It covers the entire PDCA cycle (Plan–Do–Check–Act) and includes, among other things, leadership and employee involvement, risk assessment, planning of objectives and actions, operation, monitoring, evaluation and continuous improvement.

Organisations can be certified to ISO 45001, which in many situations is a customer requirement, both nationally and internationally.

ISO 45001 places strong emphasis on:

• management's responsibility and the anchoring of occupational health and safety in the organisation's strategy
• active consultation and involvement of workers and occupational health and safety representatives
• systematic identification of hazards and assessment of risks and opportunities
• integrating occupational health and safety into the organisation's strategic business processes

With ISO 45001, you get:

• a shared, internationally recognised foundation for systematic occupational health and safety management, including mapping of internal and external requirements and key stakeholders and their requirements and expectations regarding occupational health and safety performance
• a clear structure for identifying, managing and reducing occupational health and safety risks
• stronger management commitment and employee involvement in occupational health and safety work, with top management taking responsibility for occupational health and safety and working purposefully towards continuous improvement in occupational health and safety performance and collaboration
• a solid foundation for legal compliance, proactive prevention and a more resilient and sustainable organisation
• the opportunity for certification and integration with other management systems and business processes