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ISO 45001:2016
THE NEWW INTERNA
INTERNATIONAL
ATIONAL STANDARD FOR
TIONA STANDARD
TIONAL FOR OCCUPATIONAL
OCCUP
PATIONAL
ATIONAL
TIONA
HEALLTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT
HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
SYSTEMS
A shor
shortt and simple
simple guide

By Chris Caldwell
Caldwell

ISO 45001:2016
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR OccUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETy MANAGEMENT SySTEMS
A short and simple guide
INTRODUCTION
There has never been a more interesting
time for organisations to be in business.
Geographical barriers that once made it dicult
to develop commerce with other businesses
around the world have been removed by
technological, transportation and political
advances. We truly are in a period of extensive
globalisation and becoming increasingly
connected with international business partners.
First class businesses seek to work with high calibre
associates who demonstrate exceptional performance in
quality, environmental stewardship and occupational
health and safety (OHS). These criteria are incredibly
important for business resilience and eective business
planning. Poor OHS performance leads to devastating
consequences which impact the very societies in
which we live.
1
2
3
4
2
To emphasize this point:
2.2 million workers lose their lives globally every year
due to work-related accidents and diseases
4% of the worlds GNP is lost due to work related
accidents and diseases2
6,300 workers die every day as a result of
occupational accidents or work-related diseases3
26.4 million UK working days were lost due to work
related illnesses and workplace injuries4
Injuries and new cases of ill health in the UK from
current working conditions cost society an estimated
14.2 billion in 2012/134
Organisations increasingly want to understand their
suppliers OHS practices and performance in order to
protect their own brands. There are negative impacts on
a business for working with organisations that do not take
OHS seriously. Historically, it has been a challenge to nd
an international benchmark of OHS best practice as there
were no globally harmonised management systems.
This is all about to change.
US Department of Labor Report 2013
Global and Asian trends for Safety and Health at Work 2006
Intl Labour Organization
UK HSE
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 3
ISO 45001:2016
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR OccUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETy MANAGEMENT SySTEMS
A short and simple guide

BS EN OHSAS 18001 ISO 45001:2016

The rst British Standard for occupational health and
safety management, OHSAS 18001, will be phased out in
the near future (see Timeline, page 7). OHSAS 18001 has
been more successful than the original international
committee thought possible and recent gures indicate
there are over 60,000 organisations in 125 countries
certied to the standard.
Due to an unprecedented international need for a globally
harmonised occupational health and safety management
system (OHSMS) thats suitable for all business sectors
and sizes, the decision was taken by the ISO Project
committee to develop ISO 45001. Its anticipated that
third party certication to the standard will have
international signicance, clearly demonstrating OHS best
practice across countries, cultures and continents.

The primary function
of OHSAS 18001 is to keep
people safe and to maintain
compliance. ISO 45001 is no
dierent in this regard; it just
goes about addressing these two
objectives in a slightly more
pragmatic way.
THE STRUCTURE OF
THE NEW STANDARD
A High Level Structure
Theres a new high level structure which will apply
to all ISO management systems going forward.
ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 27001:2013
have all been developed using this structure called Annex
SL which denes the framework for a management
system. The Annex SL structure will be a large proportion
of any ISO management system and it is estimated that
somewhere between 30% 40% of any given
management system will comprise of this basic structure.

Prior to 1999 when OHSAS rst came on the scene there

were numerous OHS standards and certications which
led to ambiguous and fragmented evaluations of OHS
Annex SL
1 - Scope
performance. It was a mineeld to determine which 2 - Normative references
standards eectively managed health and safety and to 3 - Terms and denitions
identify the certications that were more than a badge 4 - context of the organisation
on the wall. This paved the way for the OHSAS Project 5 - Leadership
Group to collate the benecial elements of the various 6 - Planning
7 - Support
standards into one formalised, clearly written standard
8 - Operation
that would prove to be an excellent benchmark of 9 - Performance evaluation
OHS performance. 10 - Improvement Source: ISO.org

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ISO 45001:2016
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR OccUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETy MANAGEMENT SySTEMS
A short and simple guide
WHAT ARE THE CHANGES?
Terms and Definitions
Terms and denitions are being amended to bring the
standard more in line with all sectors and to make
terminology more relevant for organisations of any size.
The key changes to the terminology listed in bold have
been explained below:
Hazard identification
The new standard will move away from
the denition of hazard identication
as this is a concept that relates
mostly to manufacturing and doesnt
really apply to some sectors such as
the service industry. The terms likely
to be used will be risk identication
and risk control to encompass a
broader concept than hazard
identication.
Risk
The fundamental concept of risk will remain the same
and organisations must continue to assess the likelihood
and consequences of a particular hazard. The major
change here is the need to understand risk in the wider
context of the management system, for example, those
tasks that are outsourced.
4
Worker / workplace
Denitions of workers and workplaces vary in dierent
countries. clarication of the denition of employees,
non-employees and workplaces will be included in the
new standard to ensure, without a shadow of a doubt,
which comes under the scope of the OHSMS.
Legal and other requirements
compliance obligations will replace
legal and other requirements to
emphasise one of the most
important elements of an OHSMS,
ensuring an organisation is
proactively fullling its obligations
under the law.
Preventive action
Preventive action will be excluded from
the standard as its perceived as unnecessary.
The OHSMS itself is intended to prevent accidents and
incidents from occurring so preventive action has
become redundant.
Documents and records
Documents and records will be referred to as
documented information to better reect the modern
way in which organisations operate across the digital
environment and with processed data.
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 5
ISO 45001:2016
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR OccUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETy MANAGEMENT SySTEMS
A short and simple guide

Context of the Organisation organisation to address these perspectives and

chapter four of Annex SL is entitled the context of the
organisation which essentially means that organisations
must look beyond the immediate OHS issues and focus
on a much bigger picture in relation to performance.
Organisations must take into consideration not only the
internal context of OHS risks but the external
circumstances as well. To emphasise this point, several
internal and external factors that might be considered are:
Take into account the expectations of wider society
Think about contractors, suppliers and
other third parties
Consider neighbours in the surrounding area
Globalisation
Rapid growth of small businesses
Non-standard patterns of employment and
availability of suitable employees
Information, communication and technology
Demographic issues
Adverse weather events
This list is only a sample of factors to consider.
Organisations will be expected to spend a sucient
amount of time thinking about the context of the
organisation and OHS performance asking questions
such as, What risks might these factors introduce?,
or, How will these risks be controlled?.
understand where the boundaries lie in terms of the OHS
impacts of products and services, the procurement
processes and the supply chain.
The standard will not require a comprehensive life cycle
and/or value chain analysis but itll be crucial that these
two perspectives are addressed.
Thisll require organisations to consider and address OHS
risks associated with outsourcing services utilised by the
business. In the event of a serious OHS accident or
incident caused by the negligence of an outsourced
subcontractor, the potential for reputational and nancial
damage to the organisation could be very signicant.
This risk must be identied, understood and mitigated.
PLANNING
CLOSURE TENDER
DELIVERY
PROCUREMENT

An important element pertaining to the context of the

organisation is expected to be the life cycle and value SETUP OUTSOURCING
chain perspectives. Its the responsibility of an

Life cycle & value chain perspective

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ISO 45001:2016
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR OccUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETy MANAGEMENT SySTEMS
A short and simple guide
Leadership
current standards make reference to top management,
requiring them to set policy, objectives and ensure
eective communication takes place. Theres going to be
a step change in the requirements on leadership under
this new standard, especially for those whove previously
delegated OHS responsibility to others in the
organisation. This type of arrangement will no longer be
acceptable under the new ISO 45001 criteria.
OHS will need to be embodied in the overall
administration of an organisation with stronger buy-in
from its management and leadership. The
integration of OHS aspects must be entirely
included in the organisations operations
and core organisational processes.
OHS performance is expected to be SPEcIFIc
considered in the strategic planning MEASURABLE
process and organisations will need
AcHIEvABLE
RESPONSIBILITy ASSIGNED
to build links between the OHS
TIME BOUND
strategy / risks and the overall
EvALUATE
business strategy / risks. REvIEW
Previously leadership requirements
werent suitably addressed due to diculties
arising from unclear denitions of roles and
responsibilities, providing an eective barrier to auditing
leadership practices. ISO 45001 seeks to clarify these
requirements ensuring theres unambiguous criteria which
leadership can be audited against.
Leadership will be responsible for understanding the
needs of all stakeholders and how the organisation can
best engage them to ensure that OHS performance isnt
compromised.
6
Improvement, Risk Evaluation and Opportunities
Improvement will continue to be an important
requirement of the standard and itll be emphasised that
improvement should be closely aligned with business
opportunities. Organisations must not only think about
the OHS risks but the opportunities available that provide
maximum benet, taking into consideration safety,
nancial rewards and any other applicable advantages.
Improvement should be inextricably linked with
opportunity which will demonstrate and enhance the
value of OHS interventions.
Performance
The primary function of OHSAS 18001 is to
keep people safe and to maintain
compliance. ISO 45001 isnt dierent
in this regard; it just goes about
addressing these two objectives in a
slightly more pragmatic way.
An excellent example of this is the
requirement to set OHS key
performance indicators that clearly
identify trends in OHS parameters
which can be used to implement practical
safety measures. Key performance
indicators must be specic, measurable,
achievable, responsibility assigned, time bound, evaluated
and regularly reviewed.
Key performance indicators should be normalised against
other data whenever possible to ensure the trends give an
accurate description of the OHS performance of an
organisation.
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 7
ISO 45001:2016
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR OccUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETy MANAGEMENT SySTEMS
A short and simple guide

BENEFITS
The benets to an eective OHSMS are proven and will
only be augmented when driven by a more relevant,
clearly outlined management system. ISO 45001
encourages organisations to quantify the benets in
nancial terms looking at the comprehensive added
value. This should be relatively straightforward as a
robust OHSMS will reduce the risk of causing harm to
people at work, helping organisations reduce accidents
and ill health and avoid the potential for costly
prosecutions.
Furthermore, the Annex SL will ensure that ISO
managements systems can be integrated much easier as
a signicant proportion of all ISO standards will
eventually be built on the same framework.
The ultimate benecial outcome of an organisation that
demonstrates excellent OHS performance is the creation
of a culture of positivity. If people are safe and welfare is
properly managed theyre typically more content, engaged
and productive.

A key benet of ISO 45001 is that certication will be

meaningful around the world as the standard has been
developed to address the globalisation of organisations.
The standard will link like-minded organisations that have
prioritised excellent OHS performance as an essential
part of doing business.

THE ISO 45001 TIMELINE

1999 JUL 2007 MAY 2014 FEB 2015 MAR 2016 OCT 2016 OCT 2016
The OHSAS Project OHSAS 18001 was ISO/cD 45001 ISO/DIS 45001 ISO/FDIS 45001 ISO 45001:2016 UKAS will no longer
Group published adopted as a (rst committee (rst draft (nal draft to be published accredit certication
the OHSAS 18000 British Standard draft) was international international bodies to certify
series published standard) to be standard) to be OHSAS 18001
published published

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ISO 45001:2016
THE NEW INTERNATIONAL STANDARD FOR OccUPATIONAL
HEALTH AND SAFETy MANAGEMENT SySTEMS
A short and simple guide
CONCLUSION
It appears the new international standard is
making some signicant changes for the better
starting with more clearly dened terms,
denitions, roles and the scope to be considered.
The context of the organisation is a major
overhaul compared with previous standards
which will require careful consideration and
planning before moving into the implementation
phase where leaders will be required to take
charge and embed OHS factors into their day to
day management practices.
8
It can only be a good thing to have a modern,
international OHSMS on the way to address the
contemporary business practices weve become familiar
with as part of a global economy. Organisations are
increasingly under pressure to look beyond the nancial
bottom line, addressing the triple bottom line which
includes not only economic success but OHS excellence
and operating in a way which benets society.
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