Management system guidance
6.2 OH&S Objectives and Planning to Achieve Them
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6.2.1 OH&S objectives
An effectively implemented OH&S management system aligns the OH&S policy with strategic and operational objectives and provides the framework for translating those objectives into practical actions. This goal-oriented framework allows the aims set at the top of the organization to flow down through the management system and influence functional, team and individual objectives.
Clause 6.2.1 requires your organization to set OH&S objectives at the functions and levels it considers relevant, with the aim of maintaining and continually improving both the OH&S management system and OH&S performance (see 10.3 Continual improvement). ISO 45001 does not use the OHSAS 18001 term ‘targets’; if you find targets useful, treat them as the measurable milestones of an objective. Your OH&S objectives must:
- Be consistent with your OH&S policy;
- Be measurable where practicable, or at least capable of having their performance evaluated;
- Take into account applicable requirements (legal requirements and other requirements, see 6.1.3), the outcome of your risk and opportunity assessments (see 6.1.2.2 and 6.1.2.3), and what workers, and their representatives where they exist, told you when they were consulted (see 5.4);
- Be monitored;
- Be communicated;
- Be updated when circumstances change.
Documented information on the objectives must be maintained, and records of progress retained (see 6.2.2 and 7.5).
Auditors will expect to review a set of interrelated objectives, ensuring that they are mutually consistent and that they are aligned with the strategic direction of your organization. Documented information on objectives typically takes the form of a description or matrix showing each objective, its indicator, the means of achieving it and the timeframe.
Setting OH&S objectives
Objectives can apply to the entire organization, be site-specific, or be specific to individual activities. ISO 45001 Annex A describes three levels that work well in practice:
- Strategic – improving the overall performance of the OH&S management system (e.g. eliminating exposure to noise across all sites);
- Tactical – set at facility, project or process level (e.g. reducing noise at source in the machine shop);
- Operational – set at activity level (e.g. enclosing individual machines).
The scope and number of objectives must be realistic and achievable; otherwise the commitment of top management and workers will soon fade. You are not required to set an objective for every risk and opportunity you identify. Consider the factors below as you begin to formulate your objectives:
- Legal requirements and other requirements;
- Hazards and OH&S risks that your risk assessment ranks as high priority, and the OH&S opportunities you have identified;
- Incident trends and the findings of investigations, audits and inspections;
- Financial, operational and business requirements;
- The needs and expectations of workers and other interested parties (see 4.2).
Involving workers
Clause 5.4 d) gives particular emphasis to consulting non-managerial workers when establishing OH&S objectives and planning to achieve them. Use your safety committee, team briefings, toolbox talks or suggestion schemes to gather views on what the objectives should be, and keep a note of the consultation and the decisions that followed. People who do the work are often best placed to identify where improvement is needed and whether an objective is realistic.
Performance indicators
Each objective should, where practicable, have one or more indicators so that progress can be monitored. Measurement can be quantitative or qualitative; surveys, interviews and observations are valid sources where numbers are not available. Organizational safety performance indicators (SPIs) might include:
- Number of serious incidents;
- Number of incidents reportable to the regulator;
- Number of near-miss and hazard reports raised by workers;
- Number of overdue corrective actions;
- Number of safety committee meetings held and attended;
- Number of safety briefings delivered;
- Number of safety inspections completed versus the number planned;
- Number of OH&S audits completed versus the number planned.
Focus on developing SPIs for what is important to your organization and that measure the effectiveness of your OH&S management system and your OH&S performance. Make sure that everybody knows what the SPIs are and what levels of performance are expected; this strengthens commitment and makes clear what the organization is trying to achieve.
You will need to set a desired level for each indicator, often based on the number of events in the previous 12 months or calendar year. Reportable incidents indicate things that went wrong, so the aim should be ‘fewer than x’ or ‘reduce by x%’. Voluntary near-miss reporting is a sign of a healthy reporting culture, so the aim might be ‘more than y’ or ‘increase by x% per year’.
Good indicators will help you improve OH&S performance, while poorly thought-out indicators may just waste everybody’s time. Only you can decide which indicators are applicable and valuable to your organization. Once the objectives are set, measure actual performance against them regularly, report the results (see 9.1.1) and update the objectives when your risks, legal requirements or business change.
You should seek and record evidence that OH&S objectives have been set at relevant functions and levels, that they are consistent with the OH&S policy, measurable or otherwise evaluable, and informed by applicable requirements, risk and opportunity assessment and worker consultation; that they are monitored, communicated to the workers concerned and updated as necessary; and that documented information on them is maintained.
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