OHSAS 18001 certification for health and safety

The acronym OHSAS stands for "Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series" and indicates an English standard for the management of health and safety of workers and aims at corporate self-regulation in these areas. The standard was developed in 1999 and was then expanded and corrected in 2007. Furthermore, in 2008 the OHSAS 18002 standard was released which contains the guidelines for the implementation of the OHSAS 18001 standard. In 2018 it was replaced by the ISO 45001 standard which will come into force only from 2021. Entities that already possess OHSAS 18001 certification have until 2021 to comply with the new integrated legislation.
At the basis there is the desire to allow each company to set its own objectives in terms of health and safety over a period by monitoring the results that are obtained. It can be applied to all organizational contexts, regardless of the size and socio-cultural context in which it operates, as it is suitable for different types of requesting organizations. Controlling risks, establishing goals and enacting policies to control the health and safety of workers works well in a well-developed and integrated management system within the organization itself.
The legislation does not only concern the direct employees of the company, but also protects the suppliers and customers of the organization itself from all risks, with a view to general improvement.

What are the benefits of this certification?

A correct application and receipt of the directives to comply with the OHSAS 18001 standard can bring a series of advantages including the following:
- Improvement of the corporate image both towards its workers, with an increased sense of belonging and satisfaction, and towards the outside world;
- It is an extraordinary tool for risk management and for drastically reducing the number of accidents at work;
- Reduction of costs in terms of management but also at an economic level due to the reduction of accidents (such as, for example, the reduction of personnel costs);
- Customer satisfaction and, therefore, greater possibility of expanding their market, as well as maintaining the one already available;
- Protection of the working environment and more conscious use of the resources used;
- Opportunity of participating in public tenders and competitions as well as obtaining non-repayable loans;
- Monitoring and control of legal obligations.
All these aspects not only bring an advantage in one field but also allow the company to grow from all points of view, from the purely economic one to the managerial and organizational one.
This legislation also works in close correlation with the UNI EN ISO 14001 standard for the environment and the UNI EB ISO 9001 standard for quality management within the company.

What are the requirements for obtaining an OHSAS 18001 certification?

As seen above, the OHSAS 18001 standard is a formidable tool that allows you to obtain a series of advantages both in terms of image and in relation to risk reduction, allowing for a 360 ° improvement of the company. However, there are minimum requirements to be met in order to obtain this certification:
1.    Create a safety management system: that is, a document based on a series of rules and responsibilities;
2.    Respect the rules concerning health and safety at all levels: therefore, the regulations must be respected not only at the regional level, but also at national and European level;
3.    Undertakes to continuous improvement in terms of health and safety: this point can be respected through the definition, by the management, of a series of objectives to be achieved in relation to this issue.
These requirements constitute the obligatory starting point to be able to undertake the certification process: the lack or non-fulfillment of one of these points makes it impossible to obtain the OHSAS 18001 certification. It is therefore important to carry out an initial analysis before carrying out apply: this survey serves on the one hand to understand the state of the company, but also allows for improvement both in order to obtain certification and to ensure a general improvement of the company from the point of view of the health and safety of workers.

The next step: the advantages of the ISO-45001 standard

With the publication of the ISO-45001 standard, the OHSAS 18001 standard has been superseded as an ISO standard assumes superior validity in all states of the community of the same name. In order to avoid problems from both a technical and legal point of view, a transition period from the OHSAS standard to the ISO standard was allowed for approximately 3 years and which ended in September 2021.
What are the steps to achieve an ISO-45001 certification?

Like all regulations in the field of quality and safety at work, the ISO-45001 standard requires that the entire company system is oriented towards this regulation and understands its advantages and application strengths. Furthermore, compared to the OHSAS standard, this regulation already contains the applicability requirements, making it more usable by companies. The steps of greatest interest for the application are:

-       Analysis of the business context by identifying the internal and external risks that can influence and intervene;

-       Define the areas of application of the standard and the objectives set in this regard;

-       Develop a health and safety policy;

-       Make a plan for the application of the legislation;

-       Understand which points need to be explored further and which points are clear and immediately applicable.
​All these steps, although of a general nature, represent not only a "must" for the ISO-45001 standard, but are also aspects to be taken into consideration when dealing with any other standard, including OHSAS 18001.

The next step: the advantages of the ISO-45001 standard

With the publication of the ISO-45001 standard, the OHSAS 18001 standard has been superseded as an ISO standard assumes superior validity in all states of the community of the same name. In order to avoid problems from both a technical and legal point of view, a transition period from the OHSAS standard to the ISO standard was allowed for approximately 3 years and which ended in September 2021.

What are the steps to achieve an ISO-45001 certification?

Like all regulations in the field of quality and safety at work, the ISO-45001 standard requires that the entire company system is oriented towards this regulation and understands its advantages and application strengths. Furthermore, compared to the OHSAS standard, this regulation already contains the applicability requirements, making it more usable by companies. The steps of greatest interest for the application are:

-    Analysis of the business context by identifying the internal and external risks that can influence and intervene;

-    Define the areas of application of the standard and the objectives set in this regard;

-    Develop a health and safety policy;

-    Make a plan for the application of the legislation;

-    Understand which points need to be explored further and which points are clear and immediately applicable.
​All these steps, although of a general nature, represent not only a "must" for the ISO-45001 standard, but are also aspects to be taken into consideration when dealing with any other standard, including OHSAS 18001.