Certification doesn’t guarantee you won’t have an incident, but it should ensure you have processes, training, feedback, and chain of command in place to significantly reduce the likelihood of one.
What is involved in HSEQ certification?
The Standards that govern HSEQ dictate what is involved in HSEQ certification.
AS/NZS ISO 45001 addresses how a business provides a safe and healthy workplace by preventing work-related injury and ill health, as well as proactively improving safety performance. This includes but is not limited to hazard and risk management, training, licencing, inspections, maintenance, incident investigations, employee involvement and participation. A business that is 45001 accredited should have robust and effective safety solutions in place.
AS/NZS ISO 14001 addresses a business’ environmental processes and commitments. It looks at issues such as:
- How does the business protect the environment from its operations?
- What is the energy footprint of the business?
- How does the business manage waste products?
- How does the business track the source of supplies and the lifecycle of products, measure performance or set goals for the future? Environmental compliance is more than recycling and managing excessive noise.
AS/NZS 9001 addresses how a business manages to produce consistent quality product and output whilst remaining resilient and sustainable. It looks at a business’ processes for governance, operational risk, continual improvement and managing costs.
How does the HSEQ certification system work?
The HSEQ certification system operates on a three-year cycle. When a business first embarks on achieving certification, there is a significant amount of work required to identify what systems the business has in place, and what is required, mapping the standards against both, developing in-house skills and training staff on their responsibilities for when the business is certified. Very few businesses start the journey with everything in place and it can take a business three to six months to prepare for their initial compliance audit.
What are the different types of audits?
There are three types of audits, and each involves at least one auditor coming to the site to look at your systems and talk to stakeholders about them. The initial compliance audit is a deep dive into how the business manages the requirements of the Standards. Starting with management commitment, the audit will assess if processes exist and are likely to be sustainable for each aspect and level of the business. It will verify with your stakeholders if they’re involved and if your systems are working at their level. Even for a small business, the compliance audit will take several days to complete and for large or complex firms, the audit could take weeks.
Surveillance audits take place in years two and three of the HSEQ cycle. These audits are not as deep in nature, as they mainly look at the ongoing use of the business systems to determine whether these are operating as intended. These audits are shorter in duration, as the auditor is not delving deeply unless they find something of major concern. Even the shortest surveillance audit will take more than a day for a small business.
Recertification audits take place in year four, and every three years after that. These are not as involved as the original compliance audit but delve deeper than the surveillance audit. They will check if you are maintaining your systems and if they are still working as intended. Once again, they will involve stakeholders as part of that verification and continuous improvement loop. An auditor will be on site for several days, taking time to engage with stakeholders.
The actual length of an audit is determined by several factors:
- The type of audit
- The size of the business (how many employees you have)
- The business scope.
The scope of the audit relates to what the business does, and the risks posed to the business. For example, a small business accounting firm faces fewer business risks than a large construction company. Whilst both have exposure to fraud, financial mismanagement, and professional advice, a construction company will also have risks with incorrect engineering, complexities of contract and building compliance, and quality of work risks. The breadth and magnitude of a construction business’ risks are more expansive than an accounting firm and, therefore, there is more to explore and assess, and a longer audit is required. An auditor can cost between $2000 and $4000 a day.
How do businesses get HSEQ certified?
Most businesses aiming for HSEQ certification will need to either employ their own HSEQ system resource or engage a consultant to help them implement and manage the system. Consultants are experts and cost accordingly. You can expect to pay $2000 to $2500 a day for a consultant. Achieving and maintaining HSEQ certification is not cheap, so you need a solid business case for it. Ask yourself, will the extra costs of HSEQ be offset by the extra business or other benefits certification will bring?
