ISO 45001 for retail and trade

The request rarely comes from the shop floor. It arrives in a supplier questionnaire, a tender document or from the purchasing department of a larger customer. Somewhere in the form a line asks whether your occupational health and safety management is certified.

The reasons are practical. A wholesaler that supplies building sites, a retailer with a central warehouse or a trading company with its own delivery fleet works with forklifts, ramps, racking and vans every day. A buyer who hands such a business a contract wants to see that hazards are identified and that accidents are investigated. A certificate gives the buyer a document to file.

Franchisors and operators of retail sites can ask for the same evidence from tenants and partners. If a competitor in the same tender already attaches the certificate, you need one as well.

• ISO for small and medium businesses

The standard does not prescribe a list of hazards. It asks you to find your own. In retail and trade they are usually found in a few places.

Manual handling

Lifting cartons, drink crates or bags of building material from pallet to shelf, repeated many times per shift.

Industrial trucks and pallet trucks

Forklifts and hand pallet trucks moving through goods receiving, the warehouse or the sales area while staff and customers are present.

Falls and slips

Stocking high shelves from a chair or a crate, wet floors at the entrance in winter, cardboard left in aisles.

Cash and aggression

Closing the till alone, handling cash deposits, dealing with an aggressive customer or a robbery.

Blocked escape routes

Stock stored in front of emergency exits or fire extinguishers, especially before peak season.

Temporary staff

Seasonal helpers who start work in the warehouse or on the sales floor without a proper induction.

Six requirements carry most of the weight. Here is what each looks like in a business that sells goods.

1. 01

   Identify and assess hazards

   Walk through the sales area, the back-of-house rooms, the warehouse and the delivery routes. Write down each hazard, who is exposed and how serious the harm could be.

2. 02

   Set an OH&S policy

   A short statement signed by the owner or managing director, with a clear commitment to prevention. It hangs in the staff room and is part of the induction.

3. 03

   Consult and involve workers

   Make safety a fixed item in the weekly team meeting. Let the warehouse team choose the trolley or ladder they will actually use.

4. 04

   Apply the hierarchy of controls

   Remove or reduce the hazard first, and treat protective equipment as the last measure. The table below shows examples.

5. 05

   Plan emergency preparedness

   Keep escape routes clear, name a first aider for every shift, run an evacuation drill and write down what staff do during a robbery or a violent incident.

6. 06

   Investigate incidents

   Record every accident and near miss, such as a carton falling from a shelf. Note the cause, the action, the person responsible and the date.

The standard asks you to prefer measures at the top of the hierarchy: eliminate the hazard, substitute it, engineer it out, and only then rely on instructions and protective equipment.

Zertify issues the certificate on the basis of an online self-assessment. There is no on-site audit. You answer 34 yes/no questions. Fourteen of them are mandatory requirements of the standard and must all be answered yes. Of the other 20, at least 14 must be yes. SICE reviews every assessment, and G6 Agency AG issues the certificate under licence from SICE.

After you have passed and paid, the certificate arrives within 4 hours. It carries a number and a QR code. A purchasing department or an auditor can check both on the public verification page. A short online re-audit each year confirms the certificate.

The price is CHF 699 (€699) in the first year, then CHF 469 (€469) per year including the yearly online re-audit. The certificate is valid for 3 years. The subscription renews automatically and you can cancel it at any time in your customer account, to the end of the current year. After cancelling, the certificate ends with the paid year. If you certify two standards, you get 20% off. For three or more it is 30%, also on the yearly fee. Customers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein pay prices that include 8.1% VAT. You do not need an account to buy.

• ISO 45001 standard page
• Pricing
• Start the free self-assessment

Read the customer's document first. If the questionnaire asks for a valid ISO 45001 certificate, the online route may be all you need. If the contract names an on-site audit by a certification body, you need the classic route. Indicatively, that route takes weeks to months from preparation to certificate.

A short call to the purchasing contact settles the question before you spend time on either route.

• Compare the certification routes
• Certification without an on-site audit
• What certification costs