How to delegate roles and responsibilities in compliance with ISO 14001

The organization which has an Environmental Management system to Certified ISO 14001:2015 should be aware with employee’s roles and responsibilities to achieved planned environmental management system. Requirements of the ISO 14001:2015 standard regarding roles and responsibilities for the EMS:

Top management is responsible for ensuring that roles and responsibilities are assigned and communicated internally.

Top management shall delegate responsibility for ensuring that the EMS meets the terms of the standard.

Top management shall assign responsibility for ensuring EMS performance is communicated back to the management team.

Roles & responsibilities to environmental management system needs

While ISO 14001 standard requirements placed on organizational leaders are more specific than before, it is highly impractical that daily EMS related activities are carried out by organizational leaders. Because of this, careful planning will be required to ensure that roles and responsibilities are clear and achievable, outputs are measurable, and that the employees selected and delegated have the correct skill-sets.

Following are some elements that may contain:

Many organizations still choose to nominate one as a point of contact for EMS projects and activities. They also provide a critical, clear chain of information back and forward with the top management who, though ultimately responsible for the EMS results, will also have day-to-day business issues to consider.

Nominating a management representative, or key point of responsibility for the EMS, can allow top management to delegate specific vital roles and activities, as well as reporting to this particular employee. This makes sense for many small to medium sized organizations where this employee will be known as the point of contact for EMS related information.

Ensure that legislation checking, the objectives, targets, and plans must be well documented and responsibilities must be clearly assigned. ISO 14001 awareness training, in addition to training in the relevant legislation, setting up of the ISO 14001 environmental management system, ISO 14001 auditor training, and risk management relevant to the environment should be priorities.

Employee awareness and training as well as updates of critical environmental aspects are incorporated into roles and responsibilities.

Plan your EMS requirements and subsequent roles and responsibilities versus your employee skill-sets, using a gap analysis if necessary. Planning is critical to the success of allocating responsibilities.

Sharing activities can ensure that you harness different opinions from across your workforce, making the identification of innovative and creative solutions more likely. This can provide a key benefit to your EMS, where all employees recognize that their opinion is valid and they play an important part in the organization’s continuing environmental performance.

Spreading the roles and responsibilities amongst suitably qualified employees can have real benefits. such as employees with project management, risk management or legislative expertise, consider utilizing them when you allocate the roles and responsibilities that need to be defined for the EMS.

The actual ISO 14001 documentation of responsibility within your EMS is as important as the planning and decisions that go into the process. Though there is no specific mention of "documented information" in terms of roles and responsibilities, the ISO 14001 standard says that the organization should maintain documented information.

Source: ems14001consultant.wordpress.com

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