Meeting your ISO 45001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and commitment requirements
ISO 45001, Clause 5.1 Leadership and commitment, focuses on the role of top management and its requirement to demonstrate leadership and commitment with respect to the safety management system.
Leadership and commitment from top management is crucial to the effectiveness of a safety management system, its ability to achieve its intended results, and its conformance with ISO management system standards.
Employees look to senior management as a guide to their own attitudes and behaviours towards workplace safety, so management’s active involvement and support in managing occupational health and safety has a significant impact on worker participation, safety performance and a proactive safety culture.
In this article we detail Clause 5.1’s requirements for demonstrating leadership and commitment and provide expert guidance from our founder and principal consultant, Tim Hamilton, on how to meet them effectively.
But first, let’s clarify who “top management” refers to in the Standard.
Who is “top management”?
Top management refers to a person or group who directs or controls an organisation at the highest level; this could be board of directors, owners or general managers.
If the scope of the safety management system covers a part of an organisation or is limited to a project, then the term refers to a person or group who directs or controls that part or project at the highest level, such as a project manager.
Top management’s leadership and commitment requirements
In ISO 45001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and commitment, top management must demonstrate leadership and commitment with respect to the safety management system by complying with a number of responsibilities.
These responsibilities cover a range of aspects related to the establishment, implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of safety management systems, and as such overlaps with management legal requirements.
Below is Clause 5.1’s requirements as stated in the Standard, together with connections to other ISO 45001 clauses and conformance guidance.
The extract from ISO 45001:2018, Clause 5.1 Leadership and commitment
“Top management shall demonstrate leadership and commitment with respect to the OH&S management system by:
a) taking overall responsibility and accountability for the prevention of work-related injury and ill health, as well as the provision of safe and healthy workplaces and activities;
b) ensuring that the OH&S policy and related OH&S objectives are established and are compatible with your organisation’s strategic direction;
c) ensuring the integration of the OH&S management system requirements into your organisation’s business processes;
d) ensuring that the resources needed to establish, implement, maintain and improve the OH&S management system are available;
e) communicating the importance of effective OH&S management and of conforming to the OH&S management system requirements;
f) ensuring that the OH&S management system achieves its intended outcomes;
g) directing and supporting persons to contribute to the effectiveness of the OH&S management system;
h) ensuring and promoting continual improvement;
i) supporting other relevant management roles to demonstrate their leadership as it applies to their areas of responsibility;
j) developing, leading and promoting a culture that supports the intended outcomes of the OH&S management system;
k) protecting workers from reprisals when reporting incidents, hazards, risks and opportunities;
l) ensuring establishment and implementation of processes for consultation and participation of workers;
m) supporting the establishment and functioning of health and safety committees.”
Safety management system events also requiring top management involvement
In addition to these responsibilities, Tim Hamilton highlights other events in the safety management system that will require leadership and commitment from top management. These include, but not limited to, changes in management appointments, changes in the organisation’s strategic direction and context and new major safety management system requirements.
Clause 5.1 conformance aided by conformance of others
Most of top management’s leadership and commitment requirements can be achieved through conformance with other ISO 45001 clause requirements, and vice versa, simplifying the ability to achieve overall conformance.
Below are some of the clauses that closely relate to the leadership and commitment requirements and advice on how to fulfil them.
Establishing an OH&S policy and OH&S objectives
Top management is required to ensure a health and safety policy, and health and safety objectives are established and are compatible with the organisation’s strategic direction; addressed in Clause 5.2 OH&S policy and Clause 6.2.1 OH&S objectives.
As the OH&S policy is a statement of the organisation’s commitment to occupational health and safety; giving direction to the whole safety management system, Tim advises that it should (among other things):
- be developed with employees, contractors or other interested parties whose performance directly affects the organisation’s health and safety performance,
- be engaging, easy to read and not exceed one page,
- reflect the major health and safety issues facing the organisation, and
- address the organisation’s most important health and safety hazards and improvement goals for the next 2-5 years.
The OH&S objectives define major management system and performance improvement goals, and Tim advises that, in their formulation, consider (among other things):
- health and safety hazards and opportunities
- legal and other requirements
- needs and expectations of interested parties
- incident reports and recent audit findings.
Assigning roles and responsibilities
Top management needs to support workers and other relevant management roles in contributing to the success of the management system; addressed in Clause 5.3 Organisation, roles and responsibilities and Clause 5.4 Consultation and participation of workers.
Conformance with these clauses involves top management assigning, communicating and maintaining as documented information, responsibilities and authorities for the relevant safety management system roles, and developing mechanisms for worker inclusion in the implementation and ongoing maintenance of the system.
When it comes to assigning roles and responsibilities, Tim advises on a process approach that includes identifying main duties and required competencies and providing adequate training to close skill or knowledge gaps.
Providing resources needed
Top management needs to supply sufficient resources in the establishment, implementation, maintenance and continuous improvement of the management system; addressed in Clause 7.1 Resources.
Tim highlights that these resources can be sourced internally and externally, and should include human resources, organisational infrastructure, technology and financial resources.
Promoting continual improvement
Top management needs to ensure and promote the continuous improvement of the management system so that it can achieve its intended goals; addressed in Clause 10.1 & 10.3 Continual improvement.
Continuous improvement involves identifying opportunities and implementing corrective actions to enhance overall health and safety performance and the effectiveness of safety management systems. This is not solely incumbent on top management, but it is something they need to advocate.
Tim advises a key source for system and performance improvement opportunities is in the review of health and safety objectives, targets and performance indicators. He suggests setting up a procedure for determining new opportunities, developing improvement targets and action plans, and including all relevant employees in this process.
Management review meetings, a valuable conformance measure
Another conformance measure, aiding in the achievement of top management’s leadership and commitment responsibilities and most other ISO 45001 requirements, is management review.
Management review is addressed in Clause 9.3 and requires top management to conduct a high-level review of the safety management system and its continuing effectiveness, suitability and adequacy. The most effective and efficient way to do this is through management review meetings.
With appropriate agenda items and the involvement of relevant system stakeholders, management review meetings offer the perfect platform to action and review the leadership and commitment responsibilities and most other ISO 45001 requirements, as well as those safety management events that require top management involvement.
Some agenda items Tim suggests you consider include:
- Address at every meeting:
- Review progress in achieving health and safety objectives and targets
- Review any new concerns, ideas, needs or expectations raised by interested parties or staff
- Address once a year:
- Allocation of sufficient resources for the maintenance of the system and for improvement projects
- Review of conformance with top management’s leadership and commitment responsibilities
- Address every two years:
- Review the organisation’s health and safety policy
- Review the effectiveness of monitoring and audits in assessing compliance with legal and other requirements
Achieving conformance with our safety management system documentation package
A checklist of management review agenda items, ISO 45001 operational procedures, register and schedule templates and other documents are available in our Safety Management System Document Package.
Developed by Tim Hamilton and used by our safety consultants, this documentation package includes a free training and consultation session with Tim. This is valuable for setting up a successful Safety Management System from scratch or refreshing existing system documents.
To see how you can effectively conform with ISO 45001, get in touch with our sales team or request a sample pack today.