ISO 45001:2018 Standard Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) is a system for detecting, controlling, and managing risks and opportunities related to occupational health and safety. It also allows comparing OHS practices to the world’s finest practices. This standard is based on leadership-led strategies that put a constant emphasis on improvement and aim to guarantee a safe workplace. Along with other standards like ISO 9001 for quality management and ISO 14001 for environmental management, it also has management concepts in common with other standards.
Without a checklist, it is quite simple to forget important parts of the ISO 45001 standard and fail an audit. Anyone will be in a great chance to obtain and keep the ISO 45001 certification with a few helpful checklists and a solid grasp of what the ISO is all about. ISO 45001 gap analysis checklist is crucial for many individuals at this point since many businesses are concentrating on switching their management systems and processes to the ISO. To make sure they are well-prepared and don’t waste time with quickly fixable problems and several (failed) audits, the majority of businesses also depend on an internal ISO 45001 checklist before setting up the official audit.
When evaluating its OH&S management system and establishing how well it adheres to the ISO 45001 standard, an organization may use an ISO 45001 audit checklist as a tool to help. By addressing important ISO 45001 audit questions based on its major clauses, this checklist may also be utilized by businesses as they get ready for ISO certifications.
What Should Be Included on an ISO 45001 Audit Checklist?
The ISO 45001 standard’s seven clauses should be covered by the effective ISO 45001 audit checklist, which is divided into the following sections:
- Context of the organization
- Leadership
- Planning
- Support
- Operation
- Performance evaluation
- Improvement
Here are the crucial areas that need to be present to better direct folks using the checklist on how these parts need to be audited:
- Leadership and worker participation – Make sure that senior management is dedicated to providing a safe and healthy workplace and that employees are involved in the creation, implementation, and ongoing improvement of the system.
- Hazard identification, risk assessment, and control – Identifying dangers, evaluating risks, and putting procedures in place to reduce or eliminate risks.
- Objectives, targets, and performance indicators – Establishing OH&S management system goals and targets that can be measured, as well as keeping track of and evaluating performance about those goals and targets.
- Communication, participation, and consultation – Ensuring that employees have access to efficient lines of communication to raise health and safety concerns and that they are consulted on OH&S-related issues
- Performance evaluation – Examining performance data and performing internal audits of the OH&S management system to find areas for improvement.
Why Use a Checklist for Conducting ISO 45001 Audits?
For performing ISO 45001 audits, using a checklist may be quite advantageous for several reasons, including the following:
- Ensures comprehensive coverage – This checklist includes all of the major requirements of ISO 45001, making it thorough and precise and ensuring that no significant requirement is overlooked during the audit.
- Increases efficiency – An auditor can more easily, quickly, and rationally progress through the audit process with the aid of a pre-defined set of questions and requirements. This can assist the auditor to focus on areas of higher concern or interest by saving time and money.
- Improves communication – Another tool that keeps all parties involved in the audit process involved is a checklist. Communication between the auditor and the organization may be enhanced, resulting in more efficient collaboration, by having a clear knowledge of what is being audited and how the process operates.
The process of generating an ISO 45001 audit checklist for your business may take many steps to ensure that every relevant topic is covered. You can adhere to the following essential steps:
- Choose the procedures and areas of the organization that will be audited. This will assist you in identifying the exact topics that must be covered by the checklist.
- Examine the requirements of the ISO 45001 standard and note those that are pertinent to the audit’s scope. These should serve as the foundation of your checklist.
- The checklist should be organized by classifying the criteria into areas like leadership and employee involvement, risk identification and control, legal and other requirements, and so on.
- Include clear, brief questions for each requirement that will help to evaluate if the organization is fulfilling the criteria.
- Sort the items on the checklist out of priority to the company’s OH&S management system.
- Before implementing the checklist formally, test it by performing a trial audit to assist you find any holes in the checklist and improve it.
ISO 45001 Certification Requirements 