ISO 45001 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION: THE SECRET TO CLAUSE 9
Clause 9 covers all requirements for monitoring, analysis, evaluation of compliance, internal audit and management review. To comply, your organization has to determine what issues need to be monitored, measured, analyzed and evaluated within the organization but also how and when to do so. Examples of issues that you might choose to monitor are accidents, incidents and worker competence. The process for monitoring, measuring, and evaluating should be developed with your organization’s specific needs in mind.
The Secret
However - whisper it - the secret to ISO 45001:2018 Clause 9 is that it does not really make any significant changes to OHSAS 18001! Of course, it is important, but for organizations migrating from the previous standard, it should not present too much of a challenge to comply with its requirements.
The majority of the general requirements for performance evaluation found in Clause 9 are present in Clauses 4.5 and 4.6 of OHSAS 18001.
A change of emphasis
That said, ISO 45001:2018 does make a few important tweaks to the emphasis and specific requirements for performance evaluation that must not be overlooked. For example, the new standard stipulates that management review must not be a mere presentation of results, but a strategic evaluation of senior management to establish possible improvements and analyze results.
As was the case with OHSAS 18001, internal audits are obligatory in ISO 45001:2018 to ensure that your management system conforms to the standard. However, ISO 45001 also obliges you to evaluate compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements, industry requirements, and requirements of interested parties. Furthermore, internal audits must go beyond assessing compliance and evaluate effectiveness. The clause also stipulates that the internal audit process must include communication with workers, and it specifies that non-conformities found during the audit process must be properly addressed.
You should also note that the requirements for determining what should be monitored, measured, analyzed or evaluated include the need to document criteria. Your organization is required to document information (see also Clause 7, Step 4; this replaces the OHSAS 18001 procedural requirements).
Migration to ISO 45001:2018
From the publication of the standard (March 12, 2018), organizations already certified to OHSAS 18001 have three years to migration to ISO 45001 (until September 30, 2021). It will take most organizations around one year to migrate fully; and since ISO 45001 requires both senior management leadership and employee consultation, it is wise to begin as soon as possible.
Bureau Veritas is a world leader in certification. Building on our auditing and training experience, Bureau Veritas is providing a range of e-learning courses and IRCA trainings to support your organization in migration to ISO 45001 smoothly and with minimal fuss.
