ISO 45001 Clause 10: Improvement
Clause 10 covers how your organisation investigates incidents, manages nonconformities and corrective actions, and drives continual improvement of the OH&S management system and safety performance.
Incident Investigation
Clause 10.2 requires the organisation to establish, implement, and maintain processes for reporting, investigating, and taking action on incidents including near-misses. Investigations must be conducted in a timely manner to determine the root causes of the incident, identify any associated nonconformities, identify opportunities to prevent recurrence, and communicate results to relevant workers and their representatives.
The purpose of investigation is not to assign blame but to understand what happened and prevent it from happening again. Worker participation in investigations is essential, as those closest to the work often have the best insight into contributing factors.
Nonconformity and Corrective Action
When a nonconformity occurs, Clause 10.2 requires the organisation to react to the nonconformity by taking action to control and correct it and dealing with the consequences, evaluate the need for action to eliminate the root causes so it does not recur or occur elsewhere, implement any action needed, review the effectiveness of corrective action taken, and make changes to the OH&S management system if necessary.
Corrective actions must be appropriate to the effects of the nonconformities encountered. The organisation must retain documented information as evidence of the nature of nonconformities, actions taken, and the results of corrective action.
Continual Improvement
Clause 10.3 requires the organisation to continually improve the suitability, adequacy, and effectiveness of the OH&S management system. This is achieved by enhancing OH&S performance, promoting a culture that supports the management system, promoting worker participation in continual improvement actions, communicating relevant results of continual improvement to workers, and maintaining and retaining documented information as evidence of improvement.
Continual improvement is not about occasional large-scale change. It is about embedding a mindset where every incident, audit finding, and worker suggestion is treated as an opportunity to make the workplace safer.
Key Audit Questions
- How does the organisation investigate incidents and near-misses, and can you show evidence of root cause analysis and corrective actions taken?
- What process ensures nonconformities are identified, corrected, and their root causes eliminated to prevent recurrence?
- How does the organisation verify that corrective actions have been effective in addressing the original nonconformity?
- What evidence demonstrates continual improvement of OH&S performance and the effectiveness of the management system?
- How are workers involved in incident investigation and the identification of improvement opportunities?
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