ISO 18001 certification not found to improve performance after 3 year follow-up

Does adoption of an 18001 certified SMS improve safety performance following 3 years after implementation? Possibly not.


805 certification adopters were compared to 12k matched non-adopters.

Summary posted next week.

Key findings were:·        

“This longitudinal register-based study could not confirm that workplaces adopting COHSMS reduce reportable severe accidents at work within a three-year follow-up”

·        “Already before the date of certification, the adopting workplaces had a lower rate of severe accidents at work compared to non-adopters. This indicates that adopters have a higher OHS performance than the average workplace”

·        Nevertheless, “adopters did not reduce the risk of severe accidents at work further during the three-year follow-up’

·        “These results call into question COHSMSs as an instrument for improving safety in the workplace”

·        “Our results support earlier findings that show that workplaces that adopted COHSMSs have a better OHS performance, but the present study cannot provide evidence that COHSMS contributed further to this superior OHS performance”

Authors: Dyreborg, J., Thorsen, S. V., Madsen, C. U., & Hasle, P. (2024). Effectiveness of OHSAS 18001 in reducing accidents at work. A follow-up study of 13,102 workplaces. Safety Science, 177, 106573.

Study link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2024.106573

My site with more reviews: https://safety177496371.wordpress.com

LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/benhutchinson2_does-adoption-of-an-18001-certified-sms-improve-activity-7215113951531913217-gocp?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

3 thoughts on “ISO 18001 certification not found to improve performance after 3 year follow-up

  1. Makes you wonder how many ISO standards this finding also applies to. Standards and accompanying audits – in my experience, quickly take on a life of their own; disconnected from reality.

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