Published 30 Nov 2022
What is ISO 45001:2018?
ISO 45001:2018 is an international standard for the Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) management system. It serves as a framework in establishing, implementing, maintaining, and improving an occupational health and safety management system for organizations. Failure to comply can lead to workplace accidents and diseases, lawsuits, and cost overruns.
ISO 45001:2018 Audit Checklist
This ISO 45001:2018 audit checklist can be used by businesses to perform self-assessments and identify gaps in achieving ISO 45001:2018 certification. This audit readiness checklist also breaks down each of the key ISO 45001 clauses into sections:
4) Context of the organization;
5) Leadership;
6) Planning;
7) Support;
8) Operation;
9) Performance Evaluation;
10) Improvement.
Each section assesses your organizations preparedness in implementing a certified OH&S Management System. Respond with “Ready”, “Nearly Ready,” or “More Work” to assess preparedness and track your overall % score. The ISO 45001:2018 readiness checklist is the first step in determining and prioritizing what aspects of your business to focus on next. The digital safety checklists below can assist with your overall compliance and streamline the burdensome ISO reporting requirements.
This document has been adapted from SGS’s ISO 45001 readiness checklist into a digital SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) template. Feel free to download this ISO 45001 pdf if you prefer but we do encourage you to try the digitized checklist on the SafetyCulture mobile app for you to reap the full benefits of a powerful auditing app.
In this article
- What is an ISO 45001 Audit Checklist?
- How to prepare for ISO 45001:2018 certification
- ISO 45001 Audit Report Sample
- ISO 45001 FAQs
- ISO 45001:2018 Auditing Tool
- ISO 45001 Checklists
What is an ISO 45001 Audit Checklist?
An ISO 45001 Audit Checklist is used to determine how prepared your organization is for certification. The checklist should cover ISO 45001 audit questions based on the 7 key clauses of the standard which are grouped into the following sections:
- Context of the organization
- Leadership
- Planning
- Support
- Operation
- Performance Evaluation
- Improvement
How to prepare for ISO 45001:2018 certification
Below are steps to get started in achieving certification for ISO 45001:2018:
- Obtain a copy of ISO 45001:2018.
- Identify gaps in the existing OH&S Management System by conducting a gap analysis or readiness test to meet ISO 45001:2018 requirements.
- Develop an implementation plan using the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle.
- Define your organization’s competency and training requirements for ISO 45001:2018.
- Ensure competence needs are met and that all parties involved are kept in the loop.
ISO 45001 Audit Report Sample
Below is an example of a filled out ISO 45001:2018 Audit Checklist.
ISO 45001 FAQs
ISO 45001 is valuable for organizations of all sizes and industries because the standard aims to help in developing a safe working environment. Below are some benefits of certifying for ISO 45001:
- Reduces workplace injury and illness;
- Boosts productivity and lowers insurance costs;
- Gives you a competitive advantage as you publicly demonstrate your commitment to safety and continuous improvement.
In some countries, having an HSE management system is a requirement. For the US, below are requirements of ISO 45001 that can be used by organizations to implement an Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) Management system:
- Determine the context of the organization. (refer to clause 4)
- Executive leadership should take responsibility in implementing the OH&S system and setting roles and responsibilities within their team. Lastly, draft and publish an OHS policy. (refer to clause 5)
- Establish plan for actual development and implementation of an ISO compliant OH&S management system. Identify and assess hazards, risks, and opportunity of each hazard. Lastly, establish objectives and goals to address identified risks and to maintain continuous improvement of the OH&S system. (refer to clause 6)
- Develop support needed to pursue compliance and certification to ISO 45001 through resource, competence, awareness, communication, and documentation. (refer to clause 7)
- Implement plans and focus on the effectiveness of each. Processes and controls should be established to ensure consistent progress towards OH&S goals. (refer to clause 8)
- Develop a process for performance evaluation. This will provide the necessary proof needed for compliance or certification. (refer to clause 9)
- Develop a process for investigations and reporting of incidents and non-conformity. It should be well documented and appropriate corrective actions should be made to aid further improvement plans and effectiveness. (refer to clause 10)
Conducting an internal audit ISO 45001 can be summarized into 5 steps:
- Assign an internal auditor
- Develop a consistent internal audit program
- Use an ISO 45001 audit checklist
- Assess findings and generate comprehensive report
- Create and implement corrective actions
A general ISO 45001 checklist is used to assess an organization’s OH&S management system and determine how aligned it is with the ISO 45001 standard. As a checklist that contains the important points of the ISO standard, an ISO 45001 checklist can be used by companies when preparing for ISO certifications.
ISO 45001:2018 Auditing Tool
Paper-based audits can be burdensome and time-consuming. Time spent on documentation and manual filing of records can be better spent addressing the actual hazards found during audits. SafetyCulture, a powerful mobile auditing app, can help organizations comply with regulatory requirements and eliminate workplace dependence on paper checklists. SafetyCulture lets you:
- Create mobile-ready ISO checklists
- Empower teams to conduct efficient monitoring procedures and analysis using a smartphone or tablet
- Save hours in report writing with a mobile app that generates comprehensive reports as you finish an audit
- Save all reports online and automatically share it with members of your organization. Preview a sample report here.
- Use for free with small teams. Unlimited reports and storage for premium accounts.
Here is a collection of our carefully prepared workplace safety checklists you can browse and use as part of achieving ISO 45001 certification and ongoing compliance.
ISO 45001 Checklists
ISO 45001 Safety Plan Template
An ISO 45001 Safety Plan Template can be used by organizations to create plans to monitor, measure, analyze and evaluate safety hazards. To achieve ISO 45001 certification, an organization must plan, document and evaluate their performance against stated safety objectives. This template is designed to capture the following information:
- Safety Hazard: description of the safety hazard and stated objective
- Risk Level: the level of risk severity this hazard poses
- Monitoring: type of monitoring activity/ planned inspection process
- Analysis: key insights and trends to examine from monitoring records
- Evaluation: what to do in order to improve safety performance
- Supporting Photos: ability to attach supporting photos to this template
ISO 45001 PDCA Template - Planning
This template is based on the PDCA or “PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT” cycle. Use this template to establish OH&S objectives by identifying hazards and determining legal and other requirements. Create implementation plans to achieve continuous improvement in your OH&S management system.
ISO 45001 - Hazard Identification Checklist
Use this hazard identification checklist to help assess potential risks (e.g noise, manual handling, excavation, etc.) at the worksite. Capture photo evidence of hazards found and assign urgent tasks to immediately address more pressing issues even while a site check is ongoing. Complete the assessment by including some comments and providing the overall rating. Analyze data collected to create better safety plans and strategies for your organization.
ISO 45001 - Incident Report Form
This incident report template can be used to help conduct a root cause analysis following an incident or near miss at a workplace. Record facts surrounding the event and capture relevant environmental, equipment, system, and people factors that may have led to the incident. Reports are easy to generate anytime anywhere using the SafetyCulture mobile app.
ISO 45001 - Job Hazard Analysis Template
This OSHA Job Hazard Analysis Template converted using SafetyCulture can be used as a safety planning guide or log. List the tasks and identify the hazards associated with the tasks then describe the possible consequences if those hazards are not properly addressed. Next, record the preventive measures and controls to reduce, control, or eliminate the hazards. Provide comments on next steps or actions plans. All logs are secured in SafetyCulture’s cloud-storage and can be accessed for future reference.
