Do you have any questions about ISO 45001:2018 requirement 5.3?
Regardless of the activity to be performed, is necessary that have someone responsible for this particular process. Only then can we organize things and have some control over what will be done.
Futhermore, at the time of work, employees need to know exactly their role and responsibilities within the company.
For this to happen, there must be people responsible for managing the company and ensuring that the processes can remain in constant operation.
Now we are talking about Top Management, who has the task of delegating organizational responsibilities and authorities to the rest of his team and documenting what is necessary.
And this is exactly what we will understand through ISO 45001:2018 requirement 5.3.
In this article, we will learn about the objective of defining and organizing the roles and responsibilities of each employee of the team, and how this is important for the functioning of the company. Let’s go!
How to define responsibilities and authorities?
As we already said in the begging of this article, assigning the organization’s responsibilities, functions and activities is fundamental for its proper functioning.
In a company, the Top Management has the task of delegation and sharing responsibilities with the team, in order to define who answers about what and to whom within the organization.
In that way, it’s possible to have a laggerst control of the activities and process that happens in your OH&S Management System and, then, monitor it as necessary..
Another point that is important to highlight in order to better understand this requirement, is knowing how to identify the difference between the concepts of authority and responsibility.
The term authority refers to who has the power to command and order functions. And the concept of responsibility concerns someone being responsible for something or someone and assuming their own actions within the processes.
By understanding the concept of each term, it is easier for a professional to perform his or her function in a qualified manner. So, he will know when to use his authority to dispose of the responsibility of each employee.
And what does ISO 45001:2018 requirement 5.3 say about this?
After defining some important concepts, let’s fully analyze what presents in ISO 45001:2018 requirement 5.3. Let’s see:
5.3 Organizational Roles, Responsibilities and Authorities:
“Top management should ensure that responsibilities and authorities for relevant roles in the OH&S management system are assigned and communicated at all levels within the organization and maintained as documented information.
Workers at each level of the organization must assume responsibility for those aspects of the OH&S management system over which they have control.
While responsibility and authority can be assigned, ultimately Top Management is still accountable for the functioning of the OH&S management system.
Top management must assign the responsibility and authority for:
- ensuring that the OH&S management system conforms to the requirements of this document;
- there must be reporting on the performance of the OH&S management system to Top management.”
Delegating responsibilities
With the ISO standard, we can observe that in addition to ensuring responsibility in organizing the functions of employees, it is necessary that their functions are very well communicated. In addition, this needs to be documented.
The ISO 45001:2018 proposes that Top management monitor and help establish these responsibilities with employees. In order for the organization to achieve its goals and objectives to ensure the integrity of the occupational health and safety management system.
So, each process and activity needs to be properly explained, understood and “delivered” to the team, they need to be registered and maintained by the management system.
Understanding the requirements
Other things deepen this understanding in subitems A and B of the ISSO 45001:2018, which talk about the role that Top management has when assigning responsibilities, authorities and responsibilities. Check it out:
“a) Ensuring that the OH&S management system conforms to the requirements of this document”
Here, the requirement says that the organization needs to ensure that OH&S management system is in accordance with what the standard proposes and also needs to make sure that everything is working correctly.
ISO 45001:2018 is very broad and there are no specific rules on how to meet its requirements, so there can be different ways of implementing it, choosing different tools.
Therefore, it is essential to organize the responsibilities of each team member to ensure that activities are being carried out properly and that OH&S management system is part of the organization’s culture.
“b) There must be reporting on the performance of the OH&S management system to Top management.”
Here, the requirement shows the importance of collecting data and reporting procedures, in order for the organization to observe whether everything flows as planned and to promote improvements.
It is interesting that the company creates charts, indicators, measuring and monitoring devices (etc) with all the information that may be relevant to the business and that may promote adjustments or changes in people’s health and safety.
After all the information is collected, the rule suggests that this information reach Top Management. This is so that the highest institutional authority can understand what needs to be incorporated to improve the business and what actions will be necessary to carry out the alignments and achieve the OH&S management system objectives.
ISO 45001:2018 requirement 5.3 improving your business through teamwork
Through this requirement, we can understand that there is no point in using the best tools and having the process more automated if there is no individual responsibility for each employee.
Everyone needs to understand how important and necessary their role is for the company’s growth. This is the first step towards understanding your responsibilities and promoting team and Top management to work together. Everything to seek to correctly communicate and comply with the requirements of the standard.
In this way, all processes can flow and make the organization as a whole improve day after day.
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