Join me, as we tackle ISO 14001's Clause 7.2 Competence, breaking it down into clear, actionable steps for your organization's success. Get ready to match job roles with the right skills and training—making sure your team is not just capable but excels in enhancing environmental performance.
Ok, let’s get started! Let’s take a look at what Clause 7.2 wants us to do. First off, the clause states that...
The organization shall:
a) determine the necessary competence of person(s) doing work under its control that affects its environmental performance and its ability to fulfil its compliance obligations;
b) ensure that these persons are competent based on appropriate education, training or experience;
That’s right - it’s up to the organization to figure out what competence requirements are needed for the different roles relevant to the environmental management system.
You normally see what these competence requirements are by being documented in Position Descriptions or Job Descriptions. They could also be included in a training matrix or register. These requirements should be based on appropriate education or training requirements which could be licenses, tickets, certifications, or certificate level training through to degree level. These could also include on-the-job training requirements. These will be determined by legal requirements (which you’ll identify as part of clause 6.1.3), industry requirements, and your own business requirements. As well as education and training there may also be experience requirements that could be what the person comes to you with OR it could mean that there is an element of on-the-job training to be completed before they are marked off as competent.
Then next states that the organization shall...
c) determine training needs associated with its environmental aspects and its environmental management system; d) where applicable, take actions to acquire the necessary competence, and evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken.
And then the NOTE at the end of this clause actually states that...
Applicable actions can include, for example, the provision of training to, the mentoring of, or the re-assignment of currently employed persons; or the hiring or contracting of competent persons.
So, now that you have established the competence requirements, whether it be by education, training, or experience individually or altogether, you can still consider taking on board people to the business with some shortfalls to the competence requirements, however you need to make sure that actions are taken to complete training, further study or on-the-job training or experience in tasks – which could also include mentoring from another person in the business.
Then the final sentence in this clause states that...
The Organization shall retain appropriate documented information as evidence of competence.
So, for any competence requirements that have been determined, you need to ensure that you have evidence that they have been achieved. So, if you say that a Diploma a license, or both are required for a particular job, ensure that you have collected and saved the documentation to prove that this has been met. If you also state that on-the-job training is required, ensure that there is a record of this as well.
To summarise these clause requirements an organization needs to:
It’s pretty simple once you break it down like that.
Now that you have a better understanding of these requirements, it's time to take action and implement them in your own organization and ISO 14001 Environmental management systems.
If you're keen to expand your knowledge on ISO 14001, make sure to check out our other articles on the topic, starting with a comprehensive breakdown of What is ISO 14001:2015 Environmental management systems.
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