ISO 45001 audit training

The ISO 45001 standard is an all-inclusive standard for Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management, aimed at improving employee safety, reducing workplace incidents and creating safer working conditions. The standard demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to controlling its health and safety risks by implementing procedures and processes that minimise the cause of work-related incidents.

Workplace health and safety is vital as it ensures that the organisation meets relevant health and safety legislation. The standard helps to ensure that a systematic approach is provided to engage employees, contractors and others in preventing ill health, injuries or harm at work. By using ISO certification consulting services, you can easily go through the ISO 45001 audit process successfully.

The importance of ISO 45001 audit

An OHS management system ensures that the organisation complies with any contractual requirements that are a part of its supply chains. The ISO 45001 certification provides a framework to help organisations embed continuous safety and risk practices.

As a mandatory part of the ISO 45001 standard itself, auditing is essential for checking an organisation’s systems performance and compliance. It is also a beneficial tool to ensure continual improvement with the identification of gaps and areas where performance could be improved. Therefore, stands to reason that to maximise the benefits of an OHS management system, an appropriate internal auditor should be hired.

The internal auditor should have the necessary skills to assess and report on the conformance and implementation processes based on ISO 45001.

Additionally, the ISO auditor should know how to initiate an audit, prepare and conduct audit activities, compile and distribute audit reports and complete the follow-up activities. In this article, we will discuss ISO 45001 audit training.

Pre-requisites to ISO 45001 audit training

While auditing qualifications can be acquired from colleges, universities or specialised training institutions, these are not a strict necessity in many sectors. This is because the elements associated with the risk are unique in each sector. Consider the risks associated with a nuclear plant versus those of a clean office environment.

Hence, skills like critical thinking, a good knowledge base, good written skills and practical experience in the selected industry are often more important perquisites for ISO 45001 audit training. The ISO 45001 audit checklist will help you know what needs to be done. Therefore, an OHS management system auditor must possess several qualities, these include:

1. Knowledge of ISO 45001 standard:

A person should have good knowledge of what is ISO 45001 and the key principles of an OHS management system.

2. An understanding of the organisation’s structure and procedures:

While this is not a strict necessity, for example, the external auditor does not need to possess this knowledge. Having said that, good insight will help the auditor understand the processes, people, risks and opportunities that can arise from an organisation’s activities.

3. A well-grounded understanding of risk :

Risk is the key factor in any OHS management system, and an effective auditor should have a keen eye for understanding the main risk points within an organisation.

4. Methodological way of thinking:

An auditor should be able to think logically and methodologically. With the ability to critically think, auditors may be able to find gaps in the audits, causes of non-conformances and areas of improvement that will help the organisation in their certification and management of daily risks.

5. Good evaluation skills:

Collecting findings accurately and methodologically is vital, but evaluating the findings to formulate actions is equally important. An auditor must possess great evaluating skills.

6. Good written skills:

For an auditor, reporting is mandatory and critical. If the structure and the content of the internal audit report is organised, the outcome of the OHS management system becomes enhanced.

7. Excellent knowledge of root causes and corrective action processes:

One of the key requirements for this job position is the ability to identify cause and effect between two variables. Having an excellent knowledge of root cause helps auditors recommend corrective actions that actually helps to eliminate the root cause instead of being a bandaid solution. Familiarity with the requirements of ISO 45001 can help the auditor to perform his duties better.

ISO 45001 audit training process

In the training program, the candidate will learn about the guidelines of management system auditing according to the recommendations outlined in ISO 19011: 2011. Additionally, the individual will also learn how to apply these guidelines to audit an OHS management system based on ISO 45001 recommendations. The individual will learn how to initiate the audit, prepare audit activities, conduct the audit activities and prepare the audit report.

The candidate will be taught data collection methods to create an audit report that is accurate, concise, complete and clear. This includes understanding the audit objectives, criteria and scope. The candidate will also learn how to include the details of the audit team. Identifying the findings from the evidence collected in an audit report to create an appropriate audit summary is one of the core teachings of the audit training program.

Creating an audit summary ensures that the organisation understands if the audit objectives are being achieved as per the audit scope. Moreover, the audit summary also contains the audit conclusions which may create unresolved opinions between the audit team and auditee. Hence, the auditor will also be taught communication techniques to resolve differences in opinions, presently identified opportunities and recommend good practices for improvement.