ISO 45001, the international ISO standard focusing on occupational health and safety, was released in March 2018. Folks who had been previously certified to OHSAS 18001 must upgrade their system to the new standard no later than 3/12/2021, as the old OHSAS certificates all expire then.

Early Adopters of ISO 45001

Many folks waited on implementing OHSAS, and so were positioned to go with ISO 45001 right away – our ‘early adopters’. These companies are getting their ISO 45001 certs issued already, and are providing valuable feedback on how registrars are doing (I’d give them a B minus based on feedback across multiple registrars – they are not doing process auditing, for the most part, while requiring the companies to do so!).

Middle of the Road – Still Yet to Determine

Other companies are implementing at a slower pace – new sites are registering to ISO 45001, while those sites with existing OHSAS 18001 registrations are working on their conversion. They’re our ‘middle of the road-ers’.

To Convert or Not to Convert?

Still, others are still trying to determine if they will convert to ISO 45001 or not, and are keeping their OHSAS 18001 registrations as long as possible in the meantime – our ‘waiting till the last minute’ folks.

Which group does your organization fall in?

We’re working with folks in all 3 camps right now (although, to be honest, we’re encouraging the wait-to-the-last-possible minute folks to pick up the pace!). It will be interesting to see where all of this shakes out in the next few months, as we see more data points and more companies making the transition.

Looking for help to upgrade to ISO 45001? Contact McDonald Consulting Group to help. We will help you evaluate your needs, and come up with the most cost-effective solution with easy implementation for your organization. McDonald Consulting Group offers both in-house classes (which may be customized) and public offerings.