With the publication of ISO 45001, the world’s first international standard for occupational health and safety (OH&S) management, businesses can now easily integrate OH&S with their quality and environmental management systems. This provides major benefits to organizations that might not be easy to see.
Let’s say it right from the start: Historically, it hasn’t been easy to produce a truly integrated system. When I first began auditing management systems some 15 years ago, not many companies integrated their systems, mostly because the standards were written differently. The clauses and requirements of quality, environmental, and health and safety standards didn’t line up. This resulted in a fragmented approach—for example, the quality department handled the quality management system, and the environmental team handled the environmental system. Process-wise, this made sense because there were different sets of documentation and different processes.