IOSH
Changshin
Stepping up on safety and health with IOSH business assurance certification
IOSH's business assurance certification helped footwear manufacturer Changshin to assess and develop the safety and health culture across their global operations.
Founded in 1981, the South Korean company has grown to more than 70,000 employees with factories in China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Changshin's focus on continued improvement and reducing waste in their production methods led them to look at the safety and health culture among their employees.
All their factories already had ISO 45001, the global standard for safety and health management systems. But Changshin's management wanted to go beyond compliance and develop a mature safety and health culture throughout all levels of the organisation. They chose to work with IOSH to achieve this.
"We were keen to gain independent verification of the work we've done to build a mature safety and health culture throughout our operations. IOSH's business assurance certification process was the perfect way for us to do this. Staff at all levels engaged with this work and it provides clients with extra confidence of our commitment to worker safety."
Grace Ko
- Job role
- Assistant Director (RSM)
- Company
- Changshin
Starting point
The first step to achieving IOSH's business assurance certification was to find out about all aspects of the current safety and health culture.
Changshin set about answering 150 questions across 32 areas to gain a clear picture of existing strengths and opportunities for improvement. This involved engaging with workers of all levels and job roles, right up to the chief executive.
The self-assessment is based on our unique model of safety. It allows businesses to understand the existing strengths of their safety and health culture and areas for growth.
There's also a dashboard giving a clear picture of your strengths and where there's an opportunity to improve.
Taking action
Armed with their self-assessment results, Changshin's safety and health management team began working on improvements.
The work covered three broad areas:
- governance and leadership – clearly defined and documented accountability for occupational safety and health
- systems and process – focusing these on supporting the governance and leadership
- people and culture – assessment and monitoring to understand the impact on organisational culture.
Businesses can bring in an IOSH approved provider to support them with this stage of the process.
Levels of IOSH business assurance certification
There are 12 levels of achievement, broken down into the four stages of cultural maturity used in our model of safety. Embryonic (levels 1-3), active (levels 4-6), proactive (levels 7-9) and integrated (levels 10-12).
Dr Michael Cash, an IOSH Chartered Fellow and experienced health and safety consultant, carried out Changshin's final assessment in April 2024.
Michael interviewed senior leaders and made workplace observations over five days. This independent validation is the final point in the business assurance certification process.
Changshin's efforts earned them a level 6 IOSH business assurance certificate. This means they have an 'active' health and safety culture and are in a great position to move up to 'proactive' and 'integrated' certificate levels in future years.
The certificate is valid for three years. It comes with a comprehensive report and strategic action plan with practical suggestions.
"Receiving our IOSH business assurance certificate was a proud moment for all at Changshin. It's proof of our commitment to the safety and health of our workforce. Gaining certification is not the end of the process for us. We've already started work on implementing some of the recommendations in the strategic action plan. We see the IOSH business assurance certification process as a key part of our ongoing cycle of improvement."
Grace Ko
- Job role
- Assistant Director (RSM)
- Company
- Changshin
Get in touch with the IOSH for Business experts to talk about how our business assurance certification can work for your organisation.