What's included
Notice that the consultation bar runs almost the whole length of the chart, and that the incident and near-miss records phase cannot be compressed. Both are deliberate:
- Scope, context & gap analysis — OH&S management system boundaries, the workers and other interested parties, a gap analysis against the standard, the OH&S policy, and certification body selection — which is when both audit dates get booked. Milestone: scope and OH&S policy approved.
- Hazard identification & risk assessment — The engine of the system: mapping activities and tasks, identifying hazards across routine and non-routine work, applying the hierarchy of controls, and building the legal and other requirements register alongside. Milestone: hazard and risk registers approved.
- Worker consultation & participation — Scheduled, not implied. Worker representatives elected, a health and safety committee with terms of reference and a meeting cycle, consultation on the hazard work and on the draft objectives, and a deliberate look at what stops people taking part. Milestone: consultation arrangements operating.
- Objectives, operational control & emergency preparedness — Objectives derived from the assessed risks with targets and named owners, operational controls for high-risk tasks, permit to work and contractor control, competence and induction training, and the emergency drill. Milestone: operational controls and drill complete.
- Operate, record incidents & near-misses — The phase that cannot be shortened: running the system long enough that incident reports, near-miss records, investigations, closed corrective actions and a compliance evaluation actually exist to be sampled. Milestone: incident and near-miss records available.
- Internal audit, review & two-stage audit — Internal audit fieldwork and its corrective actions, the management review, then Stage 1, the corrective action gap, and Stage 2. Milestone: ISO 45001 certificate issued.
How to customize it
- Book the certification body early and fix the Stage 2 date; everything before it is a countdown rather than an estimate.
- Expand the hazard identification rows to one line per site, department or high-risk activity — a single row hides the real effort.
- Set the committee meeting cycle to your own cadence and keep the bar running past Stage 2; the auditor will look for continuity, not a burst.
- Keep at least six weeks between Stage 1 and Stage 2 so the corrective actions Stage 1 raises can actually be closed.
- Lengthen the operating phase if your incident volumes are low — you need enough records for a trend to be visible.
- Add rows for statutory inspections, health surveillance rounds or regulator visits that fall inside the window, since they compete for the same people.
Scheduling tips
- Schedule consultation, do not assume it. Named representatives, a meeting cycle and minutes are evidence; an intranet page is not.
- Cover non-routine work. Maintenance, shutdowns, contractor tasks and emergencies are where hazard registers are most visibly thin.
- Use the hierarchy of controls explicitly. An auditor will ask why you chose personal protective equipment over elimination or substitution, and expects a recorded answer.
- Encourage near-miss reporting early. Near-misses are the records Stage 2 samples for evidence that the system is used, and they take months to accumulate honestly.
- Keep the four ISO standards distinct. ISO 45001, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 27001 share a high-level structure and can be audited together, but they are four separate accredited certifications with different content.
Related templates
- ISO 9001 Certification Plan Template
- ISO 14001 Certification Plan Template
- ISO 27001 Certification Plan Template
- Internal Audit Plan Template
- Manufacturing Production Schedule Template
- Browse all Gantt chart templates
Frequently asked questions
How long does ISO 45001 certification take?
Commonly ten to sixteen months from a standing start, and the template uses roughly seventeen months. The parts that resist compression are the hazard and risk register work at the front and the operating period at the back that generates incident and near-miss records for the auditor to sample.
Why is worker consultation scheduled as real work?
Because the standard requires it. ISO 45001 asks organisations to consult workers, including non-managerial workers, and to enable their participation in things like hazard identification, risk assessment, determining controls and incident investigation — and to remove obstacles to participation. That means representatives, a committee, a meeting cycle and records, all of which have dates, so the template gives them bars rather than a communications line.
How is ISO 45001 different from ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 27001?
They share the same high-level management system structure and the same two-stage audit mechanics, but the content differs entirely. ISO 45001 is occupational health and safety, ISO 9001 is quality, ISO 14001 is environmental, ISO 27001 is information security. All four are distinct accredited certifications with their own scope and certificate; evidence for one does not satisfy another. Note also that SOC 2 is an AICPA attestation report, not an ISO standard at all — see the SOC 2 compliance timeline if that is what you need.
Can we run an integrated management system across several standards?
Yes. An integrated management system is a way of running the shared clauses — policy, context, internal audit, management review, documented information — once instead of four times, and certification bodies will often audit them in a combined visit. It does not merge the certifications: you still hold separate certificates against separate standards with separate scopes, and the standard-specific content stays separate too.
How many incident records do we need before Stage 2?
There is no fixed number, but the auditor is sampling for evidence that the process is used and that findings lead to closed actions. A system with no near-miss reports at all reads as a reporting problem rather than a safe site. Run reporting for several months before Stage 2 so there is a trend, some investigations and some verified corrective actions to show.
Is the ISO 45001 template free?
Yes. Free Excel, PowerPoint and CSV downloads, and free online editing with no account and no watermark.