What Is ISO 45003?

 The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, published the first edition of ISO 45003 in June 2021. The ISO Technical Committee ISO/TC 283 realized a need to add guidelines to assist companies in managing their psychosocial risk within the existing occupational health and safety (OHS) management systems. 

Essentially, ISO 45003 is a complementary framework that seeks to mitigate mental health problems and manage risk in the workplace and applies to all sectors and business sizes. The first step is understanding the document contents and implementing ISO 45003 training for staff so that your whole company experiences seamless adoption of the prescribed guidelines.

What Is ISO 45003? — Defining the Standard

ISO 45003 offers a global standard highlighting the importance of mental health as a vital component of OHS. It aims to supply practical guidance for employees to improve support and align work environments to enhance psychosocial health for all. Implementing and adhering to these guidelines should allow businesses to see reduced mental health issues, human error, absenteeism, and underperformance in the workplace. 

The guidelines outline practical steps and methodologies to manage psychological health and incorporate this new framework into the existing programs and procedures for health, safety, and well-being. The document refers to psychological health and safety, meaning that companies should implement measures to maintain and improve employee mental and implement strategies and frameworks that allow for a safe psychosocial environment.

Overview of ISO 45003

The ISO announced the approval of the official standard — ISO 45003:2021 Occupational Health and Safety Management — in June of 2021. You will see that the standard offers guidelines for psychosocial risk management, focusing on employees’ psychological health and safety at work, whether from home or in the office. ISO 45003 is essentially an independent standard as well as an auxiliary one, as it:

• Is the first cohesive global standard offering practical guidance for psychological health management frameworks.
• Is focused on the workplace and improving work environments to promote psychological well-being.
• Is able to offer outlines and definitions for what makes a workplace psychologically healthy and safe. 
• Is a tool to help employers identify the workplace demands, circumstances, and conditions that could impair and promote psychological health.
• Is built on the existing elements of ISO 45001:2018, which already looks at preventing work-related injury and illness. 

In addition to focusing on work-related psychological health, it is essential to realize that although people can psychologically compartmentalize, this is often challenging and detrimental. This is especially true regarding their mental health illnesses and conditions or adverse psychological effects caused by other factors such as grief, trauma, long-term stress, extensive physical illness, isolation, lack of sleep, and more. That is why companies must mitigate risk and contributing factors at work to promote mental health and safety.

Understanding ISO 45003 Standard Requirements

ISO 45003 outlines the need for psychological health and safety, comments on identifying psychological hazards that affect workers, and provides examples of effective action plans to set in place. It also notes that these hazards are present in almost all organizations and can co-occur with other health and safety hazards, such as tasks, equipment, and work environments. Some risks offer easily identifiable parameters, while others require further training and expert consulting. 

Although many companies may still require trained workers specializing in psychological health, companies can get a head start by training current employees and integrating psychosocial risk management into existing OHS management systems based on ISO 45001. As ISO 45001 already includes requirements for psychosocial risk management, using ISO 45003 should integrate well as a tool to bolster those efforts and enable you to create cohesive measures for mental health protection and safety.

The guidance standard for ISO 45003 is still voluntary at this stage, though companies can get ahead by taking an ISO 45003 training course and ensuring future compliance. Health and safety professionals can build a management system, implement control measures, and work on managing psychological risk and improving employee wellness. Before ISO 45003 is mandated, you can already start experiencing the benefits, such as: 

• Reduced absence from work related to mental health, stress, and burnout.
• Increased productivity and resultant turnover.
• Improved product and service delivery.
• Increased organizational stability.
• Enhanced innovation and worker engagement.
• Strengthened employee retention.
• Improved company reputation.

Implementing ISO 45003

An employee’s psychological state has just as big an impact on their ability to work effectively as their physical health, and ISO 45003 hopes to highlight this essential fact. Many companies are well-versed and familiar with health and safety and the importance of physical fitness on the job. However, up until now, the onus to manage employee psychological well-being has primarily rested on employees. However, by taking a hands-on approach and becoming actively involved, employers can help staff while benefiting from their improved state of mind and ticking regulatory boxes. 

Adopting ISO 45003 effectively will allow safety professionals to integrate psychological risk identification, analysis, and mitigation — or elimination — into their existing OHS management systems designed around the ISO 45001 standard. The way to implement ISO 45003 may alter slightly depending on the industry sector and individual company needs. However, there are still steps a safety professional can take, including:

• Assess your current systems and framework: Examine the measures already in place at your organization and consider which areas need improvement and altering before trying to integrate and implement new guidelines.
• Involve all relevant stakeholders: The successful implementation of ISO 45003 relies on all immediate and auxiliary departments to contribute, adopt, and implement the new guidelines. This means it goes beyond health and safety as well as human resources. 
• Provide training and resources: In addition to making employees aware of the changes, you must guide and equip them to fulfill their responsibilities and train them on new health and safety measures. 
• Establish communication frameworks and clear standard protocols: Everyone needs to understand what the new strategies entail, how to incorporate them, and who to speak to regarding procedures, confusion, and feedback. 
• Consider the long-term implications and goals: View it as a corporate investment leading to employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity. Additionally, set timelines for uptake since changes will not happen overnight.
• Include performance evaluation: You need to establish protocols for monitoring, analyzing, and evaluating the success and areas requiring improvement to better align with the ISO 45003 standard.

ISO 45003 Training

Training is vital for safety professionals, first and foremost. From there, you can educate fellow employees on the aspects of ISO 45003. The new standards aim to administer measures for improved mental health from a health and safety lens. This means these guidelines address psychological well-being from a different perspective than standard mental health initiatives. Psychological risk management is a relatively new concept, especially when integrating it with physical risk management.

Safety professionals and companies are well-versed and equipped to comply with typical health and safety regulatory requirements. However, psychological risks in the workplace need to be more understood. Additionally, these risks need to be addressed with the same acute focus as physical risks — this adjustment still needs to be implemented in many cases. 

There are varying contributing factors for this dissonance between physical and psychological risk management, primarily though it is owed to the fact that there are no preexisting global definitive guidelines and standards. Therefore, practical ISO 45003 training is vital as companies require guidance to implement these strategies before they are mandated.

Training Courses From The National Association of Safety Professionals

After reading our overview of ISO 45003, you should better understand what ISO 45003 is, its purpose, and its implementation to create and sustain measures that improve employee psychological safety and well-being. For the practical approach to workplace safety and risk management, The National Association of Safety Professionals (NASP) is IACET-accredited and offers a range of specialized training for OSHA compliance. 

Our in-depth training is ideal for equipping and upskilling EHS professionals in any industry. We offer various online training courses, providing CEUs and in-classroom live courses to help equip safety professionals. 

To learn more about these and our site-specific training and consulting services, contact us today to discuss how we can help your ongoing learning, development, and compliance. 

Register for our live Psychological Health & Safety Specialist Classroom course today!