Health and Safety (ISO 45001) - 10 Reasons to Get Certification

ISO 45001 Health and Safety Certification is the most effective way to ensure you are on top of your health and safety regulatory requirements. Additionally, the use of this important management standard will improve and possibly simplify your entire approach to this vital work area. This standard will help you isolate and mitigate risks that threaten your organisation. It also fits into the harmonised ecosystem of ISO Standards overall. In particular, that includes the ISO 9001 Quality Management Standard.

We have set out ten top reasons you should put this vital ISO Standard into your integrated management system.

1. Protect Your Employees, Reputation and Profits

ISO 45001 Health and Safety Certification improves the perception of a safe and caring organisation. It looks after the background control of H&S within your business. More important, certification organises management of the risks to employees, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders. It helps protect your reputation.

2. Manage your Health & Safety Responsibilities and Risks

Traditionally health & safety documentation has been built up to comply with the latest legal requirements. This has led to fragmented, confusing and often contradictory documentation.

ISO 45001 ensures that your management of the documentation is effective, clearing away confusion and old document versions. It helps you to focus on legal requirements too. Essentially, it manages your resources and ensures you consider your legal responsibilities and then manage the resulting risk.

3. ISO 45001 Health and Safety Certification Involves External Checks

Internationally recognised auditors come into your organisation and check your regulatory compliance. Further, they look at your management of the risks, implementation, documentation and other aspects of health and safety in your organisation. You will get supportive comments and corrective actions to focus your attention in problem areas. This ensures you maintain and improve your systems.

The auditors will be auditing similar organisations daily. Therefore you can benefit from the auditors’ experience to identify possibilities and opportunities.

4. Tendering and Government Contract Opportunities

It is always a bonus to increase the opportunities for more work. ISO 45001 Health and Safety Certification can really help you increase business opportunities. Where health and safety is a tender-level consideration you just state in your tender that you have ISO 45001. They will immediately recognise that you continuously monitor and update your response to risk and H&S. It is a saving for your customers as they often have limited resources to check Suppliers out.

Consequently, your customers can take your ISO 45001 certification as assurance that they do not need to carry our costly on-site audits. Your Management Standard acts to verify your company works safely through the health and safety Standards. Thus, at a glance, your customer can see your status. This Standard is one extra tick in the box toward them accepting your tender.

5. Manages your Health and Safety Risks

The ISO 45001 Health and Safety Certification is a management Standard. Certification means that you are managing, and actively improving, your handling of your Legal obligations in this area. It is one less thing to check for your customer and, one less worry for you. You can rest assured that your risks are known and your compliance is up to date.

6. Employee Involvement in ISO 45001 Health and Safety Certification

ISO 45001 is a gift to the manager. It is a stress reducer to know your health and safety obligations are properly managed. So, give your employees the right tools, training and responsibility. Then they can manage and improve their own health and safety within the ISO 45001 Health & Safety System. Employee involvement will improve your overall H&S record. It will also make the management of risk easier if everyone is risk-aware and keen to report and improve their work conditions.

7. Reduce Your Accidents and Costs

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) calculated that work related injuries and ill health cost British Employers £16 billion. That represents 32 million lost days. Better management of H&S through ISO 45001 Health & Safety Certification helps reduce lost days and, consequently, costs. The savings come through a better safety record, evidence-based management of risk and staff involvement. Thus, these are tangible benefits.

8. Clear Instructions and Records

ISO 45001 Health & Safety Certification brings other clear benefits. If you are unfortunate enough to have an accident or emergency, ISO 45001 Health & Safety Certification really helps. It ensures the right actions are taken to reduce the impact.

Additionally, it creates a framework for the management of the process and corrective actions you can take to prevent future recurrence. Consequently, much of the stress of emergency management is handled with ease and efficiency.

9. Handling Mishaps and Emergencies with ISO 45001 Health and Safety Certification

Accidents and near misses are a big waste of time and money. They take up management time and divert employees from the work task. In addition, they drain resources. Therefore, it is very important to identify actual and potential accidents. Then, to investigate them and agree and implement corrective actions to reduce the risk of recurrence. Those corrective actions are an integral part of the ISO 45001 Health & Safety Certification. It is important to get past outdated or problem processes and improve your systems. As Albert Einstein pointed out, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. With ISO 45001 you can get past the insanity of repeated H&S problems.

10. Continual Improvement

Business activities and risks continually change. Business needs to improve and change to meet those changing conditions. A successful business makes decisions based upon sound knowledge and evidence. ISO 45001 Health & Safety Certification, like all the Management Standards, has a focus on continual improvement. With this framework in place your business can meet changing conditions with a robust response, change for the better and at the same time reduce your costs. So, monitor the important H&S Indicators for your business and make the appropriate, fact-based decisions.

Ultimately, your actions are more likely to move your business forward in terms of Health & Safety, but also through sound management principles.

Don’t Just Put a Sticking Plaster on Your Problems

ISO 45001 Health and Safety Certification is a solid and sound basis for safety management. It is also a fundamental part of your business strategy. It is a strategic method for contracts, tendering, employee involvement and successful and risk reduced business management. At Charter 4 we have an established background in assisting the implementation of core management Standards and integrated additions. We can help your organisation move forward its response to risks and improve its overall management. Please contact us for further information and advice.