ISO 45001 is the internationally recognised standard for occupational health and safety, but understanding whether it is worth the investment for YOUR business is the vital next step.  The ideal scenario is that your investment in ISO 45001 certification refines the way you work, makes your workplace a healthier and safer place and the certification makes you a more attractive prospect to clients and employees.

To help you assess what will really impact your business and help you to make a decision on whether ISO 45001 is a worthwhile investment, here are 10 core benefits of ISO 45001 certification.

What are the benefits of ISO 45001?

1. Positions your business as industry leaders

By implementing the most up-to-date occupational health and safety standard, your organisation will be seen as an elite category of business, and be internationally recognised. It is a level of excellence that is acknowledged worldwide and will help to set you apart from your competitors.

2. Increases trust

By demonstrating that you are actively facilitating continuous improvement of your employees’ morale, safety and performance, it will enable people to trust you and hold you socially accountable for your staff’s well-being. Being transparent and promoting your corporate social responsibility efforts can have a huge impact on how the public, your future employees and prospective clients perceive your business.

3. Consistency means efficiency

ISO 45001 creates an organisation built around best practice. This is then mirrored across the company and sets a standard for managing risks. Having a strong, consistent standard means that the organisation is more efficient across the board.

4. Lowers insurance premiums

By simply implementing ISO 45001, it provides a platform to attract lower insurance premiums as it proves the organisation is performing strong due diligence in managing and protecting their employees.

5. Improves individual safety as well as organisational

ISO 45001 has been widely anticipated by the global business community because it addresses the personal health and safety risks to the individual of any process or use of machinery within an organisation. This relates both to their mental health and physical safety within your workplace.

6. Improves managerial oversight

This particular ISO ensures responsibility and ownership lies with safety management personnel or top level management. By having the involvement of top leadership and a clearly communicated process for identifying hazards, the occupational health and safety of employees is continually improved over time.

7. Preventative risk and hazard assessment

Implementing ISO 45001 helps your organisation prevent risks as opposed to reacting to them once they are detected by others. The internal auditing system provides an ‘early warning system’ to help you spot potential threats to health and safety.

8. Increases return on investment (ROI)

There are various ways that ISO 45001 will provide ROI for your organisation. By implementing ISO 45001, the efficiency of your staff improves, whilst workplace injury reduces. This means your productivity levels can be improved significantly across the board. This improvement in productivity and general employee safety can have a positive impact on the insurance premiums for your organisation. A by-product of this is that work-related insurance claims decrease and further improve the cost of insurance for the business.

9. Occupational focus

The focus is primarily on the employees physical and mental well-being at work as opposed to the quality management of the workplace systems and tools that are used. This is an important factor to recognise when looking to implement ISO 45001 into your organisation, as it improves staff morale, which has a significant impact on staff turnover and retention rates.

10. Deals with risk and opportunities

Fundamentally, it deals with both the risk and opportunities whereas OHSAS 18001 and previous standards primarily deal with the risks presented by an organisation.

There are a myriad of benefits for implementing ISO 45001 into your business processes. Ultimately, it is a fantastic management system that aims to reduce health and safety risks within the workplace that puts the protection of employees’ health at the forefront of all processes and planning.