Defining ISO 45001 Clause 6.1.2.3

In this news article, I’m going to cover ISO 45001:2018, clause 6.1.2.3 Assessment of OH&S opportunities and other opportunities for the OH&S management system which falls under the overarching clause 6 Planning. I’m going to break this clause down and turn it into something you can all understand.

You will then be able to apply this to your own organization's system and understand what the requirements will look like for you. No more guessing! 

Before I move on too much further now, I do want to point out that the title of this clause refers to opportunities. This isn’t something that has always been mentioned as part of an OH&S management system, however, opportunities have always been there. Opportunities come in the form of risk treatments and controls, new processes, new systems, and training. Anything that improves the OH&S management systems performance, eliminates hazards and reduces OH&S risks.

This clause states that The organization shall establish, implement and maintain a process(es) to assess:

• a) OH&S opportunities to enhance OH&S performance, while taking into account planned changes to the organization, its policies, its process or its activities and:
  • 1) opportunities to adapt work, work organization and work environment to workers; AND
  • 2) opportunities to eliminate hazards and reduce OH&S risks AND
• b) other opportunities for improving the OH&S management system

This highlights that the process for assessment should consider the OH&S opportunities that are determined, their benefits, and their potential to improve the OH&S management systems performance. The reference to adapting work, the organization of work, and the work environment as well as any other opportunities to eliminate hazards and reduce OH&S risks is simply recognizing that the controls that you put in place whether they come from the higher-level controls such as elimination or also include lower-level controls such as Administration can be considered opportunities.

And these should be assessed to determine how well they will work to achieve the elimination of hazards as well as improvement of the OH&S management system.

This clause really is as simple as recognizing these opportunities in your system and including them in your assessment processes.

Now that I’ve explained all of these requirements, can you see more clearly how you could action and demonstrate these requirements in your ISO 45001 management system?