The Influence of “Organizations” in ISO 45001

The Influence of “Organizations” in ISO 45001

ISO 45001 Requirement: The needs of both internal and external “organizations” must be considered in executing a health and safety policy, including the workers and potentially including those such representing such groups as governments, associations, unions, and regulators.

The Key Requirements are outlined on this page.

Section 4 Context of the Organization

Section 4.1: Understanding the Organization and Its Context

This is a section that requires an organization to assess both internal and external influences in formulating and implementing a health and safety management system. In addition to traditional customer, economic and competitive factors, it notes that these influences can include how laws, technical developments and even political/ cultural/social changes might impact the mission of the organization, whether their origin is local, regional, national or international. It specifically wants the ISO 45001 directed health and safety effort to address the requirements of Sections 4.2. 4.3, and 4.4.

Section 4.2: Understanding the Needs and Expectations of Workers and other Interested Parties

This requirement addresses the desires and demands of all those who may have interest in the organization and could impact its mission and who, in turn, should then influence its OHSMS It asks those seeking ISO 45001 certification to have an ongoing system for determining these influences.

Note: In February of 2024, ISO published an amendment to Clause 4.1 and 4.2 to include climate change considerations.  

• Learn more about ISO 45001:2018 Amendment 1: Climate action changes

Section 4.3: Determining the Scope of the OH&S Management System

Because of the above more wide-ranging franchise, the standard requires the scope of the OH&S to potentially be widened to include how the needs of those relevant groups noted above can be addressed within the OH&S as it delivers its products and services.

Define the Scope of your OH&S

• The scope of the OH&S Management System must be defined; what parts of the workplaces associated with the plant/factory and the office/administration are included in the system.

For more information, read Define the Scope

Once the scope is defined, an organization must include in the OH&S management system the activities, products, and services that it controls or influences and that can impact its OH&S performance.

Section 4.4: OH&S Management System

An organization must establish, implement, maintain and continually improve an OH&S management system, including the processes needed and their interactions, in accordance with the requirements of ISO 45001. Learn more about what a process approach is.

For the OH&S Management System, the organization can decide how it will fulfill the requirements of ISO 45001, including the level of detail and extent to which it will:

• Integrate requirements of the OH&S management system into its various business operations, such as design & development, procurement, human resources, sales, and marketing, etc.
• Incorporate the issues associated with its context (4.1), its interested party requirements (4.2) and the scope (4.3) of its OH&S management system.
• Make use of policies and processes developed by other parts of the organization such as corporate OH&S policies, document management system, competency programs, procurement controls, etc.
• Document the process properly, including updates, and making it available to all involved.

Please note that certain text from the ISO 45001 standard is only used for instructional purposes. Standard Stores recognizes and respects the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) copyright and intellectual property guidelines.