Responding is Greg Duncan, MELP, CSP, senior EHS and ESG content manager, VelocityEHS, Chicago.

Since its introduction in 2018, the International Organization for Standardization 45001 occupational health and safety standard has become the benchmark for workplace safety management. ISO 45001 offers a comprehensive framework to help employers develop and maintain a proactive workplace safety program founded in continuous improvement principles and integrated with a organization’s operational goals. Organizations that want to achieve the highest levels of OHS performance look to certify to ISO 45001.

As you can imagine, though, making such a substantive change to your safety program can introduce challenges that have the potential to discourage, delay and even derail implementation and certification. Anticipating these challenges and positioning your organization to achieve successful long-term implementation of ISO 45001 requires leadership, planning and commitment.

Getting started

ISO recommends that organizations take the following steps to begin the transition to ISO 45001.

1. Organizational context
Analyze your organization’s context regarding OHS, including the internal and external factors that influence your business. Internal factors include identifying job hazards and how they impact worker health and safety, as well as any gaps in resources, tools and methods for completing core safety management tasks. External factors include safety requirements related to regulatory agencies, contractors and temporary workers, distributors, and other value chain partners.

2. Scope
Determine the scope of your safety management system and what you want it to achieve. Include the business activities, products and services within your organization’s control or influence that can affect OHS performance.

3. OHS policy and objectives
Your policies and objectives – because of your assessment of the larger context of your organization – will be specific to your organization, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach that will work for everyone. However, ISO 45001 lays out some general guidance for what your policy and objectives should include:

• A commitment to provide safe and healthy working conditions
• A commitment and plan to identify and fulfill legal requirements and other requirements
• A commitment to eliminate hazards and reduce OHS risks
• A commitment to continuous improvement of the safety program
• A commitment to consultation and participation of workers and workers’ representatives
• Metrics and a framework to evaluate progress toward safety program objectives
• A strategy for alignment of the safety program with overall business objectives

4. Implementation timeline
Identify a realistic timeline for ISO 45001 implementation and establish milestones. Discuss with organizational leadership and other affected stakeholders how quickly you can incorporate these policies, and how long before you can initiate the certification process. Then, get everyone’s buy-in and sign off on the timeline.

5. Competence and resource gap analysis
One of the things that can undermine implementation of ISO 45001 – or any safety program improvement – is failure to identify competence and/or resource gaps. Identify what gaps could prohibit or impede implementation. If you haven’t made an honest assessment of where your program is and what your objectives are, you won’t know where you’re starting from or what success looks like.

Editor's note: This article represents the independent views of the author and should not be considered a National Safety Council endorsement.