ISO 45001: 2018 - Occupational health and safety

ISO 45001 is the internationally recognised Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) Management System Standard. It was introduced in March 2018 to replace and expand upon the guidelines in the OHSAS 180001 Standard.

The Standard sets out the requirements for an organisation wishing to ensure a safe and healthy workplace, and to prevent work-related accidents and ill-health. It also includes mechanisms that will enable you to meet your Health & Safety obligations.

ISO 45001 is applicable to all organisations, regardless of size, industry or nature of business. It is designed to be integrated into your existing management processes and follows the same high-level structure as other ISO management system standards, such as ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management).

ISO 45001 enables you to put in place an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system. This will help you manage your OH&S risks and improve your OH&S performance by developing and implementing effective policies and objectives. Key potential benefits from use of the standard include :

• Reduction of workplace incidents

• Reduced absenteeism and staff turnover, leading to increased productivity

• Reduced cost of insurance premiums

• Creation of a health and safety culture, whereby employees are encouraged to take an active role in their own OH&S

• Reinforced leadership commitment to proactively improve OH&S performance • Ability to meet legal and regulatory requirements • Enhanced reputation

• Improved staff morale