Employees form the backbone of a company and the real force behind its success. The safety and well-being of workers are vital in the workplace. Any accident or mismanagement can lead to great destruction and loss both physically and financially.

ISO 45001 certification emphasizes implementing and supporting measures for ensuring the health and safety of employees. Third-party auditors assess the companies’ compliance with international standards for health. Therefore, achieving ISO 45001 certification requires streamlining activities, policies, and procedures with international standards.

In this article, we explain ISO 45001 certification, discuss its importance, and provide a walk-through of the essential steps to achieve the certification.

What Is ISO Certification And Why Do Companies Need It?

ISO certification is an accreditation awarded by an independent third party after assessing and auditing a company’s compliance with international standards. It works like a seal of approval which makes the company known as a recognized and trusted business in its field.

With the enormously growing industries, it is more important than ever to build a strong image in the sector and grab your top-paying clients’ attention. You can easily attract stakeholders globally with minimal effort only if your business is ISO certified.

ISO Online certifications enable accreditation options for companies located in remote areas. This became more feasible during covid-19 when even giant industries went towards digitalization. Therefore, no matter wherever you stay on the planet, achieving ISO certifications is not hard anymore.

Types Of ISO Certification

ISO certifications can be divided into several different types and categories. The three primary and popular types of ISO certifications are:

• ISO 9001
• ISO 14001
• ISO 45001

ISO 45001 Certification – Managing Health and Safety Systems

Wondering what is ISO 45001 certified hype all about? We have got you covered.
To begin with, ISO 45001 provides a framework and guidelines for organizations to prevent accidents and injuries in the workplace. It enables them to develop and practice a system that guarantees a healthy and safe work environment while eliminating hazards and risks.

ISO 45001 guides on proactively improving and maintaining the systems for occupational safety to take advantage of better opportunities. However, organizations need to integrate all possible health and safety aspects, including worker well-being.
Unlike other ISO standards, ISO 45001 is not relevant to property damage, environmental issues, or product safety. Rather, it solely focuses on helping an organization set up a healthy system for its employees.

Steps To Achieve ISO 45001 Certification

ISO 45001 is openly applicable to any global organization irrespective of its type, size, and plans. To implement practical solutions for employee safety, your company needs compliance with ISO 45001.

Like other popular ISO certifications, organizations must follow a complete procedure for achieving ISO 45001 certification. We have listed a 10-step process to achieve ISO 45001 certification.

Understand ISO 45001 and Learn About Health Safety Systems

Before implementing ISO 45001 or just any other standard, the first step is to understand the purpose of the certification and why you need to achieve it.

You must investigate how your organization can benefit from this implementation. Next, dig into the requirements of ISO 45001 and how it can impact your business.

Assess Your Existing Safety System And Perform A GAP Analysis

To be able to successfully place ISO 45001, you need to examine your current system and understand how it can properly fit in. This involves analyzing the standards and processes in place already.

For instance, if a business has gained ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 standards, its compliance with ISO 45001 would become less complex due to the existence of core features.

Involve Your Stakeholders And Create A Plan

When you make any change in your processes, your stakeholders are directly affected. Therefore, it is advised to discuss the plans and anticipated outcomes with those individuals.

Involving your stakeholders in this practice would make them feel safe, heard, and connected.

Identify Your Priorities And Highlight Your Goals

Using the information collected from the stakeholders, work on determining the priorities of your organization. Identify your goals for implementing a health and safety management system for your workers.

If organizations align their business health goals in terms of ISO 45001, tracking the progress and making improvements becomes easy.

Document The Plan And Design The System

After assessing your current system, you can modify the structure and redesign it to incorporate ISO 45001 requirements.

Once you are done with the modification and development phase to meet the ISO standards, you must document the process.

Educate Your Workers And Train Them

To ensure the successful implementation of ISO 45001, you must bring your workers in the loop and discuss why you are planning for this standard.

Moreover, educate and train them so that they know how to fit into the system.

Use And Improve Your Organizational Health Safety Management System (OHSMS)

After developing and documenting your system, your next target is to bring it into practice. When your workers follow those procedures, you can gather data and record their performance.

You can make improvements to the system after assessing those records.

Internally Audit The Performance of Your OHSMS

Before appearing for the actual third-party assessment, you should conduct internal audits to verify the performance and see how your system is working.

Figure Out The Problems and Implement Corrective Actions

From the audit results, find and note down the weak areas. Identify the processes that should be fixed and devise a corrective action plan to implement solutions.

Register and Conduct Third-Party Certification Audits

Finally, choose the third-party registrar. After the registration, a team will be sent to evaluate your procedures, plans, and processes.

If they are satisfied with your health management system and compliance with ISO 45001, they will issue you the certification.

Bottomline

The evolving business trends and developments call for modern solutions and digital recognition. Businesses can earn a trustworthy position and a well-established structure in the industry by adopting ISO certifications.

ISO 45001 is one popular international standard accreditation that shows an organization’s commitment and effort toward worker safety. ISO 45001 certified companies gain global recognition to attract top-tier clients.

Therefore, encouraging sound health and well-being of your workers must reflect with your ISO 45001 accreditation.