ISO45001 and the Leadership Clause

Almost every organisation you encounter will talk about leadership, how important it is to them and how they lead from the top. Sometimes, when you push a little and peel back the layers a bit, leadership and the commitment to having great leadership is perhaps not as ingrained in the company as they would have you believe.

That's what clause 5.1 in ISO45001:2018, Leadership and Commitment is there to avoid. The aim of clause 5.1 is to make it clear the expectation of all the elements that Top Management need to take on board to deliver and operate a successful ISO45001 system.

So, who are top management? From an ISO point of view, top management is the Person or group of persons who leads and controls an organization at the highest level. In other words, your Senior Leadership team, your MD or CEO, and your Board should also be taking an interest here as well.

Previously a company would hire a Health and Safety Manager and that was it, the Occupational Health & Safety Management System, investigating accidents and incidents, new risks and hazards, gaining & maintaining ISO45001 (or a prequal certification) was their main responsibility and everyone else was free to focus on their own patch. Then, companies and executives would wonder why their Occupational Health & Safety Management System wasn't effective or worse why people weren't engaged, still getting hurt and why they failed audits.

If there is one sure way of killing your ISO45001 Occupational Health & Safety Management System, it's the absence or abdication of senior leadership in the organisation. Another way is failing to integrate the OH&S requirements into your everyday way of working, remember your ISO system IS your business system.

Make no mistake then, with ISO45001:2018, the days of "delegating" the Occupational Health & Safety Management System to the Health & Safety Manager & then forgetting about it are over, here are the things you need to know about this clause.

There are 13 things that they are classifying as leadership commitment, so here are a few hints:  

1.Take overall responsibility and accountability for the prevention of work-related injury and ill health, as well as the provision of safe and healthy workplaces and activities

As a Senior Leadership team and ultimately the Managing Director or CEO you are responsible for the Occupational Health & Safety Management System being an integral part of your business, so you need to step up, support it and lead by example, if the OHSMS fails it's down to you. This requirement means you need to understand what is going on in your organisation in terms of work that people do, how they could get hurt in the short and long term, and what adverse health effects could affect your employees and those around them. That's no small task!

2.Ensure the OH&S policy and OH&S objectives are established and are compatible with the context and strategic direction of the organization

Lead the process of developing the OH&S policy and the objectives of the Occupational Health & Safety Management System to ensure that they line up with the needs of the business and the strategic direction you are taking. Then take part in talking about them with your team since there is a requirement for consultation before locking these things in. It's your job as top leadership to have those conversations openly and with a view to listening and taking on board the feedback, then updating the policy and objectives based on that feedback. The objectives should add value to your organisation so be prepared to demonstrate this.

3.Ensure the integration of the system requirements into the organization's business processes

The Occupational Health & Safety Management System shouldn't be something that stands off to the side of your organisation that you need to tick the box to keep alive. You need to have it ingrained in every facet of your organisation and be a key part of everyone's objectives and way of life, including yours as a Senior or Executive leader.

4.Ensure that the resources needed for the system are available

As I mentioned it's no longer a case of it's all on the Health & Safety Manager for your ISO45001:2018 Occupational Health & Safety Management System, the leadership team need to ensure that they have included in their thinking the amount of time required to adequately run the system across the business. That means you need to think about how much time your staff will be involved in the system, what tools, equipment, software, training, documents and support is required. Once you think about this you need to ensure you fully resource it so that it's going to be a success and not over stress the people and the system.

5.Communicate the importance of effective Occupational Health & Safety Management and of conforming to system requirements

As leaders you must walk the walk and talk the talk every chance you get. You can't walk past something you know isn't safe or doesn't meet your expectations. You need to be the shining example of what an individual engaged and supporting your ISO45001:2018 Occupational Health & Safety Management System would look like. This includes coaching conversations with anyone within the organisation that you can speak to, team briefs, quarterly state of the nation discussions, performance reviews and of course personal objectives. Occupational Health & Safety Management must be omnipresent in your organisation because everyone is talking about it.

6.Ensure that the Occupational Health & Safety Management System achieves its intended results

Like any process you need to measure the outcomes to ensure you are heading in the right direction. That means you need to set targets and KPI's for your Occupational Health & Safety Management System, and these should be at both business and individual levels. They should be meaningful measures that people can understand and see how they align to the overarching business objectives for OHSMS. Where things are drifting off target, you need to step in with support and direction.

7.Engage, direct, and support persons to contribute to the effectiveness of the system

This isn't too dissimilar to 6) but it's about building real engagement of the system and ensuring that your people feel supported to follow and improve the system hence making it effective. This means that there is no process within the system above reproach, if it's a bad process it's a bad process and you need to improve it, that's part of the deal with ISO45001:2018

8.Promote improvement

Promoting improvement is about celebrating all steps forward, but as importantly celebrating those steps that didn't work but nevertheless were attempts at improving the system. Why? You need to encourage the belief that it is ok to not hit the mark if you are attempting to improve - how many times did Edison try to make a lightbulb??

9.Support other relevant management roles to demonstrate their leadership as it applies to their areas of responsibility

The great thing about your ISO45001:2018 Occupational Health & Safety Management System is that it's a team event, remember we stated at the start, it's no longer ok to drop it on your H&S Manager & walk away, everyone is involved. That means as a Leadership team and the CEO you all must pull together to ensure that the processes and principles of the system are embedded in every department of the organisation. That means providing each other with the resources and support needed to do that and having each other's backs when times get hard.

10.Developing, leading and promoting a culture in the organization that supports the intended outcomes of the OH&S management system

Anyone who has ever been involved in developing a business culture will tell you it's hard and it's a long-term game. The standard is setting you up to understand this when it comes to health & safety. There isn't an overnight magic bullet, it's a continuing journey. Top leadership need to build the OH&S culture carefully and deliberately over time, that means you need to have a plan so things don't occur by accident. You do that by having goals, values, measuring things, engaging people, in fact doing everything we have talked about in 1-9 previously!

11.Protecting workers from reprisals when reporting incidents, hazards, risks and opportunities

It is critical that everyone feels like they can speak up, nothing is taboo. If someone feels like they are going to be picked on, bullied or lose they job for highlighting a safety issue then you don't have a safety culture (see 10 above). You need to be able to demonstrate how you do this. That may be the ability to report anonymously, outside the chain of command or perhaps whistleblower options. The most effective thing is top management saying it over and over again, come to us with issues and then making sure their door is open anytime it's needed, and taking action.

12.Ensuring the organisation establishes and implements a process(es) for consultation and participation of workers (which we'll cover more later)

ISO45001 is big on consultation, it's all through the system which is great, it's designed to help organisations develop better solutions to OH&S problems by bringing in the real experts, the team doing the work. Having a process that clearly values consultation is a must, you will see in later discussions you need to document how and when you will do it and importantly make it genuine. Nothing kills the process faster than only pretending to listen and then going off with your original, unchanged plan.

13.Supporting the establishment and functioning of health and safety committees.

This one can be a bit tricky, for one if you only have 10 people in the organisation, do you really need a committee? Equally from a legal point of view there may be no legal requirement to do it but again, think about the communication and consultation benefits. A great H&S committee can be a fantastic bridge between all parties. Consider using the team to run projects and avoid it just being a talking shop, hand them a budget and say go fix that! You will be surprised at the level of engagement you get.

Management to Leadership

ISO45001:2018 has moved on from the realms of "management" and has embraced real leadership. This leadership is at all levels within your organisation, and they don't need to have a title, but the CEO or MD need to take a key role in the whole process.

Imagine your Occupational Health & Safety System is a living thing, it's not just one central H&S person or an H&S team - the thinking and decisions need all parts of the organisation to come together to succeed and stay alive.

In the ISO45001:2018 system that load has been spread - Leadership is the heart of the process, it's what pumps the blood around the system and keeps everything alive, the H&S Manager is the brain of the system and knows how to make it work and ensures everyone knows how to do their part.

Without a heart, without leadership, then your Occupational Health & Safety System will quickly die and be fondly remembered at goodbye parties and over coffee on the quiet days.