SWOT in HSE management systems

Even though a SWOT analysis is not a formal requirement of the ISO management system standards, a SWOT analysis which considers the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to the business can be useful for any of the ISO management system standards (e.g. ISO 9001, ISO 14001 or ISO 45001). In all cases you need to identify the internal and external issues that affect the management system (clause 4.1 of each standard, and the strengths and weaknesses help with this. In clause 6 you need to look at the risks and opportunities that exist for the management system, and this is covered in the opportunities and threats of the SWOT analysis.

If you are only implementing ISO 45001, then the standard only asks you to assess the issues, risks and opportunities that affect your OH&S management system, so in this case to meet the requirements of the standard you would only need to consider the SWOT for health & safety. However, as SOWT analyses are generally done at the top level of the organization’s management, if you are using this tool you will likely want to assess everything that could impact the organization, even if you only use some of this information in your OHSMS.

Can learn more on how the SWOT analysis can help in the OHSMS in the article; Aids of SWOT analysis in ISO 45001, https://advisera.com/45001academy/blog/2019/05/27/iso-45001-swot-analysis-what-are-the-benefits/