Top Management and the ISO 45001 Audit Checklist

Our audit checklists, internal audit programmes and procedures templates are designed to assist your organization in staying compliant with standards. In addition, these resources offer invaluable insight into the state of your management system compared directly with those standards.

This article will highlight some of the key elements of an ISO 45001 audit checklist for top management, such as leadership and worker participation. Furthermore, we will explore requirements related to hazard identification and control.

1. Management Review
Top management plays a pivotal role in the overall success of an OHSMS (or quality and health and safety management system). They set the direction for their organization and link quality improvement activities to business goals. In order to maximize results, it’s vital that key people participate in your management review process.

Management reviews are the regular evaluation of a management system to assess whether it is meeting its desired results. They serve as an intermediary between day-to-day activities and formal audits; just like doctors give patients checkups, management reviews ensure your quality or OHS management systems remain healthy and producing desired outcomes.

At each meeting, it should be chaired by someone from top management; but attendees should include responsible operational managers for every management system in your organisation. Furthermore, these meetings should occur with optimal frequency to maintain ongoing effectiveness of management systems while exploring potential improvements.

2. Continuing Improvement
The ISO 45001 audit checklist details many requirements organizations must abide by in order to achieve 3rd-party certification of ISO 45001 (formerly BS OHSAS 18001). This international standard covers occupational health and safety management practices.

Leadership is at the core of this standard, and top management must fully embrace its implementation process. They should demonstrate they are providing protection to workers while driving improvement in the workplace.

Have the roles and authorities for managing occupational health and safety been assigned and communicated across the organisation as documented information?

Make the case that your OH&S management system is continuously improving by reviewing performance, risks, opportunities, and impacts. These internal audit checklist templates for ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 will assist in gathering all the documentation required by these Standards as well as acting as valuable aids during certification audit processes.

3. Documentation
Documentation is an integral component of ISO 45001 compliance and involves more than just paperwork – it means making sure that your team understands processes, communicates effectively and is generally ready for audits.

Note that top management should regularly conduct reviews of their OH&S Management System to ensure it remains suitable, adequate and effective. This review should include reviewing any actions taken from previous management reviews as well as an assessment of resources required for continuing operation of this system.

ISO 45001 contains over 80 requirements organized into 23 clauses, making compliance difficult for organizations. To make things as straightforward as possible for organizations, ISO 45001 attempts to simplify things by breaking all clauses and requirements down into manageable pieces (documented information), which helps eliminate confusion during third-party certification processes.

4. Reporting
Auditing your OH&S management system’s effectiveness aims to identify any areas for improvement so as to meet or surpass ISO 45001 requirements. As with any type of internal audit, preparation is key.

This includes having clear documentation in place for your OH&S management systems, an effective process for recording incidents, accidents and near misses as well as responding appropriately. Furthermore, an employee communication program must also be put in place in order to demonstrate the importance of these OH&S systems working together as one unit to keep everyone safe.

Finally, it is necessary to establish a process for conducting regular management reviews of your OH&S management systems to ascertain their ongoing suitability, adequacy and effectiveness. Top management should conduct these reviews at an interval defined in your OH&S management systems document; our templates make this easier by offering an audit checklist designed for ISO 45001 that meets these requirements accurately.