There are certain things an employee should be thinking about as they go about completing their duties throughout the work day, such as how to complete their tasks in the most efficient manner possible, how to maximise performance, and maybe even what they are going to have to eat during lunch break. On the flip side, there are certain things employees should not be thinking about throughout their work day, such as whether their employer has provided them with a safe working environment, whether they will be injured in the course of their duties, and whether industry certified Occupational Health and Safety standards have been implemented across the entire workplace, to ensure their safety at all times while working. These things should just be a given, and it is the responsibility of all employers to ensure that their staff always remain safe while carrying out their duties.

Further, in a post COVID-19 work environment, major health and safety changes will be implemented throughout workplaces across Australia as employees slowly start making their way back to working onsite, and business’ need to ensure that the occupational health and safety policies and procedures they are implementing meet industry recognised standards to protect themselves, their staff, and their reputation as a safe, reputable employer. To ensure that the health and safety measures that workplaces across Australia implement meet industry standards, work at upholding both the physical and mental well-being of employees, and comply with local, state and federal rules, laws and regulations, it is worthwhile for business’ to look at implementing demonstrably successful, certified industry standards on occupational health and safety.

The International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety standards are an internationally certified set of workplace health and safety standards, designed with the overarching goal of minimising workplace injuries, and ensuring that workplaces foster a supportive environment, which is conducive to both mental and physical health. One of the core advantages of this standard is that it doesn’t approach the issue of occupational health and safety from the ground up, but rather builds upon the existing, proven successful frameworks of other Health & Safety, and Management, standards, such as the British Standard Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS 18001), which worked with organisations to develop a systematic approach to workplace health and safety. Further, this standard follows the same High Level Structure (HLS) of other ISO Standards, such as the ISO 9001 Quality Management and the ISO 14001 Environmental Management standards, which makes the integration process of these standards easier for business’, as they are provided with clear, succinct, rational guidelines and strategies about how to implement these standards in the least disruptive, most productive manner possible.

Effective Occupational Health and Safety workplace standards benefit everyone

The ISO 45001 Standards work at providing company’s with successful, internationally recognised occupational health and safety strategies that they can implement across their organisation to improve staff morale, demonstrate their commitment to the safety of their employees, and uphold their reputation as a respectable business to conduct dealings with. These goals are specifically achieved by:

• Analysing the specific requirements of your business, and developing an OHS policy appropriate to your operations. Individual business’ will have specific occupational health and safety requirements unique to their operations, and these standards work with your business to ensure its needs are met, that no potential issues are overlooked, and that an effective OH&S policy that encompasses the whole operations can be implemented in an efficient and effective manner.
• Identifying potential health and safety hazards and risks at the business, cataloguing them so there is a record of the issue, and systematically working at preventing them from impacting the business, through carrying out the preventative measures outlined in the standards. This kind of approach works to prevent potential hazards from occurring in the first place, rather than simply trying to mitigate their effects after they impact operations. By taking the initiative when it comes to occupational health and safety, your workplace has the highest chance of potential hazards being adequately dealt with, and thus not impacting operations.
• Ensuring that your workplace’s health and safety measures are compliant with the necessary regulatory and legislative requirements. This is an important step, as it demonstrates that your business understands its occupational health and safety obligations, and has taken the necessary steps to ensure that they are met in a clear, transparent manner. This in turn works at improving employee morale, as they see first-hand the steps your business is taking to ensure their health and safety is a priority, and upholding customer and stakeholder confidence, as they can see you are being transparent and systematic in your approach to dealing with health and safety concerns.
• Implementing a fault checking system, which allows your operations to prepare for, oversee, analyse, and then review the effectiveness of its OH&S strategy. By approaching it in a systematic manner, your business can outline its expectations of what it expects from an effective OH&S system, and what issues need to be accounted for. This gives you clear guidelines to ascertain whether your business objectives are being met and allows you to work at revising strategies in the event of an issue.

What business’ will benefit from the OH&S standards?

Does your business work with clients, stakeholders, staff, or customers at any stage of its operations? If so, then it is important to have an effective occupational health and safety system in place, as it not only works at protecting your operations against unexpected events, it also demonstrates to these parties that your business is meeting industry compliance, and they can be assured that their dealings with you will be conducted in a safe, supportive environment. Further, an effective OH&S policy accounts for all potential risk factors at your business, so you can be assured that you have not overlooked anything, or not dealt with an issue in an appropriate, industry compliant manner.

Want to know how the ISO 45001:2018 standards could safeguard your business against the unexpected? Then please give Anitech Group’s consultants a call today on 1300 802 163. They will be able to discuss with you how these standards could be best tailored to the specific requirements of your operations, in what ways your business stands to benefit from them, and how they could be implemented in a systematic, simple manner. Occupational Health and Safety is concerned with curbing potential risks before they impact business operations, and wouldn’t you say that an effective OH&S plan sounds like a safe idea for your business?

Please click here to read more about how an effective, industry compliant OH&S plan helps business’ achieve their goals.