Part 3:
Drivers for certification
3.1 Knowing you are safer
The most obvious benefit claimed for ISO 45001 and OHSAS 18001 is the reduction of accidents. Many presentations and papers on standards start with the assumption that implementing a standard will necessarily reduce accidents and ill-health.
Safety was certainly a key driver for Graham Wall, Quality Systems Manager for a manufacturer of specialist coatings. He explains:
"Our MD knew another MD who had a fatality on site. It opened his eyes to what could occur here.
As a result, he raised the idea for OHSAS 18001."
But is there any evidence for this? Organizations can’t run random controlled trials to test this, so evidence is difficult to collect.
As ISO 45001 is still relatively new, it is difficult to source empirical data specifically pertaining to the standard. However, a joint working paper from Harvard Business School and Duke University in 2021 (5) found that safety certification (in this case OHSAS 18001) did lead to safer workplaces. This paper also found that:
“…OHSAS 18001 certification is a credible indicator of superior average safety performance, an important insight for buyers interested in procuring from safer workplaces and regulators determining where to allocate scarce inspection resources.” (Viswanathan, Kala, Matthew S. Johnson, and Michael W. Toffel, 2021.)
It’s important to note that the working paper acknowledges that these results ‘provide promising evidence’ that
ISO 45001, as the direct successor to OHSAS 18001, will ‘also prove effective in distinguishing safer workplaces’.
A 2021 (6) Polish study of 2 large manufacturing businesses found that adopting formalized safety management systems lead to a reduction in accident rates and near misses, as well as in the prevalence of occupational diseases.
A 2014 study (1) of 211 manufacturing companies in the USA did identify some safety benefits from adopting OHSAS 18001.
The certified companies had only 8.9 violations per 100 employees, compared to the industry norm of 64 violations per 100 employees.
Certified industries
Violations
per 100 employees
Industry norm
Violations
per 100 employees
Although firms adopting OHSAS 18001 started the process with a better than average safety performance, this improved further with adoption of the standard.
However, part of the benefit of certification is even harder to measure.
Certainty was also a driver for ELG Utica Alloys. Sarah Roper, Health, Safety and Environment Manager for sites across the North of England explains:
“The big plus for us is knowing we are legally compliant. OHSAS 18001 helped us to demonstrate this – for ourselves, as well as for our auditors.”
“We had pretty low accident rates already, and the workforce had been with us for some time. However, when the sites were taken over by ELG Utica they needed certainty that we were compliant with health and safety, and environmental legislation. Working towards OHSAS 18001 and 14001 was a way of achieving that certainty.”
3.2 Sales and Productivity
As well as the safety benefits, the US study also found improvements in labour productivity and sales, with the accreditation providing “opportunities to attract new customers.”
When Declan McLogan, Director of SHEQ at, decided to make sure his organisation was one of the first to get ISO 45001, reputation and ability to attract clients was one of the things on his mind:
“We already had the safety benefits of certification to OHSAS 18001. When 45001 was published, it was easy to see we were pretty much there already.
There was no reason not to go for 45001, when if we were quick off the mark we could be amongst the first.”
For other businesses, certification is a requirement that comes first from clients. For example, BMW’s standard terms and conditions for suppliers of automotive components includes the requirement that sellers must be able to prove that they have “a certified occupational health and safety management system in accordance with OHSAS 18001 or ISO 45001.”
Graham Wall is conscious of the driver from customers:
“I complete questionnaires on a regular basis which ask if we have 18001 (or 45001- which we are aiming for in May 2019). It increases customer confidence when we can show up-to-date evidence.”
Where an existing customer introduces such a requirement, it is likely it will allow time, and perhaps offer support to long-term suppliers. However, where companies are bidding for new work, it is best to be prepared – creating a compliant management system in a hurry could be a recipe for a box-ticking approach that might win the business, but is less likely to gain the full benefits of accreditation.
3.3 Productivity ups and downs
Customers of course want value for money, and ISO 9001 was predicated on reducing waste and improving quality, to make businesses more successful.
The evidence suggests that OHS standards, while focussed on improving safety, will also have benefits for the bottom line. Having control over risk assessments, audits, competence and other essential elements of your OHS tool kit will not only reduce accidents that harm people, as Graham highlights:
“For us, having an OHS management standard has also reduced the risk of downtime.”
However, management systems, whether for quality, environment or health and safety have a reputation for increasing bureaucracy and paperwork. For example, a Danish study showed that implementing OHSAS 18001 could lead to an organisation focusing on standardised solutions to problems which compromised flexibility and the professional judgment of workers. The result was an “auditable” workplace with “unintended shortcomings, especially the omission of more complex and multifaceted work environment issues such as well-being, work intensity and a number of psychosocial work environment issues.”
How can organisations overcome these pitfalls, and make sure that they get the benefits for safety, health, productivity and customer attraction and retention, without the “unintended shortcomings”?
3.4 Starting from the right place
For Declan McLogan, whilst being in the first wave of ISO 45001 accreditations could give McAleer & Rushe a competitive edge, it might not have been worth it if they had been a long way off the standard. However, as Declan explains
“When we looked at the differences between 18001 and 45001, one that was highlighted was worker involvement. We have a really collaborative culture here, and we’d been using software for accident and incident reporting for a couple of years.
Along with our risk assessments, which document which staff have been consulted during their preparation, this meant we already had the evidence to show worker involvement.”
Their auditor agreed, as Declan explains:
“Our auditor came in to do a gap analysis when ISO 45001 was published. There were no non-conformances, and only some minor observations. It wasn’t a big jump.” As a result, McAleer & Rushe achieved ISO 45001 just three months after publication.
Sarah Roper did her own gap analysis when she joined ELG Utica:
“I had worked with OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001 before, so I was familiar with the standards.
I started by reviewing everything we had in place at ELG Utica Alloys, and comparing it with the standards. By identifying the gaps I could prioritise what needed to be done.”
Graham Wall’s organisation already had ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, as well as an automotive standard (TS 16949). From this experience, Graham knew they needed to start by looking at competence:
“We started health and safety training for managers in 2016, then rolled it out companywide to include all staff. We had internal auditors already but invited more to train as the standard was new to us.”
Graham also made sure they had systems in place before they invited external auditors in. “Our health and safety trainer recommended an EHS software provider and I grabbed hold of it and started using it in spring 2016. We then had to get everything in place - audit templates, risk assessments etc.” By the time Graham put the company forward for an audit they were ready “We had an audit in January 2018 and we were recommended for certification.”
So with motivation to get accreditation, how do you get the project going?