What is the ISO 45001 readiness checklist?

The ISO 45001 readiness checklist provides information on what you need to prepare for ISO certification and reveals how close you are to achieving the highest occupation health and safety standards. The checklist is mainly designed for companies planning to acquire the ISO 45001:2018 for the first time.

ISO 45001 gap analysis checklist

If you are looking to adopt ISO 45001, the first step is to compare the requirements of the standard to your organisation’s current system. This is commonly referred to as gap analysis. An essential tool for an effective gap analysis is the gap analysis checklist. It contains the requirements of ISO 45001 in a question format.

The external or internal auditor will use the questions to confirm your current system’s compliance with the standard requirements. Organisations can use this as a roadmap, revealing what areas of your current system require revision.

The gap analysis checklist evaluates aspects like:

• Risks and opportunities identification
• Participation of workers
• Hazard identification and communication to workers or stakeholders
• Corrective action for incident or nonconformity
• Continuous improvement

Internal audit checklist

Once you have covered the gaps with the gap analysis checklist, you proceed to use the internal audit checklist. This checklist is similar to the certifier’s or external auditor’s checklist. The fewer crosses you have on the internal audit checklist, the fewer you will have on the formal checklist. Conducting an internal audit is cost-effective and improves your chances of obtaining the ISO 45001 certificate faster.

It is essential to note that the scope of an internal audit checklist is broader than the formal audit checklist. An extensive internal audit checklist helps you make a high upfront investment in occupational health and safety processes and systems. This enables you to surpass the expectations and outperform the typical OHS norms.

The checklist evaluates conformity in OHS planning, operation, leadership, internal and external support, continuous improvement, and performance evaluation. Some of the questions on this checklist include:

• Have you identified the relevant internal and external issues relevant to your organisation?
• Have you set out the processes and operations you need to achieve ISO 45001 standard requirements?
• Do you have a reliable procedure to communicate ISO 45001 to everyone in the organisation?
• Do you know what resources you need to implement ISO 45001?
• Are there key performance indicators for meeting your OH&S objectives?