CHAPTER 2: CONTEXT OF THE ORGANISATION

2.1 Understanding the organisation and its context (ISO 45001:2018, Clause 4.1)

ISO 45001:2018 clearly recognises that no organisation is an island unto itself. Every organisation has its unique circumstances, conditions, characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. It is therefore important for an organisation to take a holistic view and identify those specific internal and external factors that have the ability to affect the outcomes of its OHSMS in any manner, positive or negative.

Examples of external factors that can affect the outcome of an organisation’s OHSMS:

•Social and community factors, such as a negative or positive perception of health and safety issues relating to an organisation’s products or processes.

•Legal factors, such as an organisation not meeting the legal OH&S requirements applicable to its personnel or processes.

•Contractors’, competitors’ or suppliers’ products or activities that could impact an organisation’s OH&S.

•Environmental factors, such as noise, dust or the smell from a neighbourhood manufacturing unit.

•Changes in laws that may have an OH&S impact.

•Changes in technology that may offer improved OH&S options.

•Events that may affect the corporate image or reputation of an organisation.

Examples of internal issues that can affect the outcome of an organisation’s OHSMS:

•Changes in an organisation’s role, structure, management or personnel that may impact upon an organisation’s OHSMS and call for fresh awareness, training, sensitisation or risk assessment.

•Changes in an organisation’s OH&S policies and objectives.

•Inadequate resources (capital, human and technological) needed for building a robust OHSMS.

•Capability of an organisation’s information system to support a safe and healthy workplace.

•Horizontal and vertical relationships between staff and management. Conducive human relations are often vital to creating a healthy and stress-free work environment.

•Adequacy and effectiveness of OH&S controls.

•Management of contractors and other outsourced activities.

•Working hours, shifts, working conditions and organisational culture that may have an impact on OH&S.

•Perception of employees towards their work, working conditions and relationships.

•Changes in products, processes and equipment that could impact upon OH&S.

•Needs and expectations of workers in relation to their health and safety at work.

This is an important proactive requirement of the new Standard. An organisation is required to identify all relevant internal and external factors, including conditions, characteristics or changing circumstances that can affect its OHSMS. This could provide an opportunity for an organisation to take proactive steps to address in advance those factors that may impact upon its OHSMS at a later stage.

Although ISO 45001 does not call for documented information to demonstrate compliance with this requirement, it is recommended that an organisation documents this process and its outcome. This will enable an organisation to periodically review and update its OH&S impacts and proactively develop mitigation strategies.

2.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of workers and other interested parties (ISO 45001:2018, Clause 4.2)

ISO 45001:2018 lays down three requirements in the context of understanding the needs and expectations of workers and other interested parties. These are as follows:

Firstly, ISO 45001:2018 requires an organisation to identify all ‘interested’ parties that are relevant to its OHSMS. Although workers are logically the first and the most easily identified ‘interested’ party, there could be many others who could also fall in the same category. Consider the following as possible examples of ‘interested’ parties:

•Legal and regulatory bodies have a responsibility to ensure enforcement of OH&S regulations.

•Contractors often provide maintenance, construction, manufacturing, assembly, human resource or administrative services that could impact upon the OH&S performance of an organisation.

•Suppliers that provide products that may have serious OH&S implications for workers or users.

•Workers, worker unions and worker representatives are the foremost interested parties, as often they are the first ones to raise their concerns on matters relating to OH&S. They are normally also the first ones to be impacted by any direct impacts or negative outcomes of the OHSMS.

•Parent organisations provide an OH&S framework to subordinate or partner organisations, and have a stake in the implementation of their prescribed framework standards.

•The health and safety of customers, users and communities could be impacted by the products and services offered by an organisation. Thus, they could also be considered as interested parties on issues of OH&S.

The second requirement of Clause 4.2 is for an organisation to identify the OH&S-related needs and expectations of its workers and all other interested parties. These may relate to working conditions, work processes, hazards, risks and controls. They may also relate to work timings, shift duration, facilities and organisational matters that concern the health and safety of workers.

Thirdly, an organisation is required to identify which of these needs and expectations are, or could become, legal or regulatory requirements. Emergency exits, availability of personal protective equipment (PPE), permits to work (PTW), emergency drills, the workplace environment, equipment certification, licenses and working hours are some examples of concerns that may also have regulatory implications. Some of these needs and expectations may already be incorporated in the existing laws and regulations, and are therefore mandatory. There may yet be other voluntary requirements that an organisation subscribes to. The Standard requires the OHSMS of an organisation to address the identified needs and expectations of its interested parties.

2.3 Determining the scope of the OHSMS (ISO 45001:2018, Clause 4.3)

Defining the ‘scope’ is an important step in the process of establishing an OHSMS because many of the activities that follow depend on what has been determined as the ‘scope’ by an organisation. The ‘scope’ of an OHSMS should include a number of aspects such as:

•Defining the physical location and the boundaries of an organisation. It must be specified if the OHSMS is applicable to a part or the whole of an organisation.

•Defining the work-related activities (current and planned) undertaken by an organisation. These are those that are within an organisation’s control or influence and could impact upon its OH&S performance.

•Defining products and services that are within an organisation’s control or influence and could impact upon its OH&S performance.

•Defining any special framework standards (often specified by parent organisations) or regulatory requirements that should be complied with by an organisation.

Under no circumstances should the scope be used to exclude activities, products or services that have, or could have, the potential to impact an organisation’s OH&S performance, or to evade its legal and other obligations. An organisation making a statement of its compliance to ISO 45001 should make an unambiguous statement about the scope of its OHSMS. Interested parties should be clearly able to understand what parts, products, boundaries and activities of an organisation are covered by its OHSMS.

ISO 45001:2018 requires the ‘scope’ of an organisation to be maintained as ‘documented information’.

2.4 An example of the ‘Scope’ of an organisation’s OHSMS

2.5 OHSMS (ISO 45001:2018, Clause 4.4)

Clause 4.4 is perhaps the briefest and yet the most comprehensive clause of the Standard. It makes it mandatory for an organisation claiming to have developed (or intending to develop) an OHSMS based on ISO 45001 to comply with all requirements of ISO 45001. These requirements include establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving an organisation’s OHSMS.

A management system is composed of a number of ‘processes’ that are linked with each other in a defined sequence. They work together to create the desired outputs or results. Thus, the implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of an OHSMS cannot be possible without taking the same approach for its constituent ‘processes’.