ISO 45001 is getting a makeover

This is the daily lot of all voluntary standards: every five, six, or seven years, they must be updated to remain relevant to market realities. The successor to the British OHSAS 18001 standard in 2018, ISO 45001 will also be revised to make it even more effective as a toolkit for prevention specialists to implement a comprehensive, robust, and well-managed occupational health and safety (OHS) policy.

In France, AFNOR reopens the standardization committee which welcomes organizations wishing to have a say and thus exert global influence on an issue that is preempted by other countries. By early 2024, the standard had already enriched with an amendment , like around thirty other major management system standards, to include climate change as a key issue to be addressed when implementing an OHS approach, particularly with a view to certification. Heatwaves, water shortages or excesses, the health effects of air conditioning, etc. The growing impact of climate change on working conditions had already prompted the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) to publish an interesting opinion on the subject in April 2023.

Occupational health and safety and quality of life at work: two sides of the same coin

In the meantime, the current version of the standard continues to make steady progress. A study conducted by the AFNOR group and carried out by Audirep among 104 people working in the field of occupational health and safety in 2024 shows that ISO 45001 is a well-known standard, especially among users of OHSAS 18001. It serves as a methodological guide for regulatory compliance and fits well into QSE (quality, safety, environment) management. ISO 45001 supports a useful, reassuring, and even rewarding approach for the company, provided that it accepts the cost, complexity, and certain internal reluctance requiring management commitment.

The AFNOR study also shows that OHS and QWL are two sides of the same coin. Occupational health and safety involves regulations and the concept of risk prevention, while quality of life at work involves voluntary measures related to well-being! You may also be interested in the certification aspect: those who use the standard to the point of becoming certified reap the rewards: they gain recognition from employees and customers, but above all, they see good results in terms of accident rates: one in three certified companies (35% to be exact) report a decrease in accidents and occupational illnesses. An Italian study (INAIL-UNI) on the same subject corroborates this point, quantifying the decrease in accident frequency within certified organizations compared to non-certified organizations at 22.6%, and the decrease in accident severity at 29.2%. It should be noted that, according to the International Organization for Standardization, Italy is the European country whose companies have most widely adopted the ISO 45001 standard, in terms of the number of active certifications.

"Our study dispels any doubts that ISO 45001 could be considered a tool that is still rarely used. It also shows that this standard is not a panacea: its users say they need monitoring, support, and training," says Rim Chaouy, who coordinates standardization initiatives on occupational health and safety for AFNOR. AFNOR Compétences offers a comprehensive training catalog and AFNOR Certification an accredited audit process to obtain AFAQ ISO 45001 certification , certification that you can add to your ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 procedures to be fully QSE compliant.