Improvement in ISO 45001 standards

In March 2018, the international standard ISO concerning occupational health and safety (OHS) management systems : ISO 45001 was published, replacing the OHAS 18001, with a high level standardized structure to facilitate the integration with other management system standards (ISO 9001 and ISO 14001). This structure is based on ten clauses, from the definition of the field of application, to the improvement which represents the tenth and the last clause of the standards having the same framework.

In this blog post, we will focus on the last point: Improvement.

PDCA concept (Plan – Do – Check – Act)

The occupational health and safety (OHS) management system approach used in ISO 45001 is based on the PDCA concept (Plan – Do – Check – Act) that can be applied to the whole management system as well as to each element of the system. This through the Planning, Realization, Evaluation and Improvement. PDCA concept is registered in the new structure of the standard by creating an operational correspondence between the four phases of the concept and the terms of the standard.

Planning : For this point, please referd to the previous published blog entitled « The integration of OHS management into the general management systems of businesses ».

Realization : This phase corresponds to the clause 7 on the support and implementation of operational activities, divided into two main components, the first part is related to the planning and operational management aspect in order to meet the requirements of the OHS management system, while the second focuses on the organization’s reactivity through emergencies preparedness and response.

Evaluation : Corresponds to the ninth clause of the standard in the performance evaluation where the processes for monitoring, measures, analysis and performance evaluation of occupational health and safety management system must be in place, which gives the organization the opportunity to adjust the observed deviations with respect to the objectives and expected results by adopting a system including internal audits and management reviews.

Improvement : It’s the last clause of the standard. Emphasis is placed on continually identifying opportunities for improvement and equivalent actions to achieve the expected results of the OHS management system.

Continuous improvement terms in ISO 45001

Since the risk of an accident or any undesirable event affecting health, the safety and the physical integrity of the workers is a probability which never result in a value of zero, it therefore becomes necessary to start with some mitigation measures. In addition the employer must use improvements by following the occurrence of unwanted events or detection of nonconformities, using technical and organizational tools to achieve this purpose.

The standard also requires the organization to continually improve the relevance and effectiveness of its OHS management system by improving OHS performance, promoting a culture that is supportive of the OHS management system, encouragement of involvement and participation of workers in continuous improvement actions.

Finally, to ensure the success of the implementation of an OSH management system, it’s essential that any action is powered by the leadership of the management and the active participation of the organization’s employees. Intervention Prevention inc. can reinforce these actions with many available tools