Obtaining a COR certificate can be thought of as complicated. The truth is that it is a standardized process that can be completed with the right commitment.
If you want to obtain a COR from scratch or its annual renewal, this article is for you, because we will discuss the challenges involved and the strategies to overcome them.
COR Implementation Challenges
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When deciding to go for COR certification, the company needs to be committed to making health and safety improvements. To obtain this certification, the following challenges must be overcome:
1. Training of the occupational safety department:
The first challenge is to delegate the company’s health and safety improvements to a permanent, trained employee who can undertake the work of promoting continuous improvements.
This employee must also complete three basic courses aimed at recognizing risks and establishing safety strategies within the company.
This is challenging because of the need to rely on the development of skills as an internal auditor to complete the documentation to be presented during the external audit, as well as to achieve teamwork so that the entire company adapts to the new safety improvements.
2. Change implementation:
Once the person in charge of the occupational health and safety department identifies the risks and establishes strategies to be applied to achieve the improvements within the company, it is the employer’s commitment to facilitate these changes, as well as the commitment of supervisors, managers and all personnel to comply with the improvements until they become part of the work routine.
At this point, it is ideal to offer a continuous training plan to the entire work team so that they are kept abreast of the improvements within the company.
3. External audit check:
Once the changes are in place, it is time to request an external audit to present your case to a verification partner.
In this audit, all the documentation collected is presented. In addition, the auditor is in charge of evaluating the company’s daily practice and interviewing employees in order to assess the company’s risk management capacity.
An 80% score is required to pass this internal audit in order for the company to obtain the COR.
Challenges to maintain COR certification
The certification has a duration of one to three years. Upon obtaining it for the first time, it lasts for one year and, once it is renewed, another certificate is granted for three years.
During this period of time, maintaining routine documentation of reports, monitoring of the work routine and implementation of new strategies to reduce risks is important.
Maintaining the COR certificate consists of repeating the above steps. The internal auditor must organize the documents and request an external audit that will be reviewed by a verification partner until the document is renewed.
In the case of renewal, a challenge that may arise are the deficiencies in the health and safety management system, such as:
Serious or fatal injuries at work.
Work stoppages.
Administrative penalties.
Incident history above the range of the item.
Misrepresented injury reports.
When these irregularities occur in the management of health and safety, the auditor must pay more attention to the process, because the COR renewal may be delayed or denied.
Recommendations for obtaining and renewing the COR
As an employer, you should be guided by an expert in the field, who will prepare the internal audit and be involved in the proper management of occupational health and safety in the company.
Think Safety Solutions can help clarify other doubts related to this process.
Would you like to know more about COR certification? Think Safety Solutions has the ideal information for you
