What Type of Standards are Common in the Business Sector: Let’s Find Out

With so many different ISO standards out there, it can be difficult for businesses to understand which standard suits them best. While a lot of them are industry-specific, there are many generic standards that are achievable by all. If you are a business owner looking to get ISO certifications but do not know which one to start with, this blog can help. Here we have highlighted what type of standards are common in the business sector and so should be a bigger priority for your business to work towards.

Below, we have outlined the five most prominent and widely applicable ISO management standards, achieving which can add value to your company and eventually benefit your bottom line.

5 Standards Common in the Business Sector

Here are some immensely benefiting and widely-used types of ISO standards meant for different aspects of business management. Take a look.

Quality Management Standards

ISO 9000 comes as the family of quality management standards which help organizations to bring efficiency in their overall processes and deliver quality products or services. Out of the ISO 9000 family, ISO 9001 is the best-known standard across the globe which is increasingly achieved by organizations of all types and sizes. According to the reports published on the ISO official site, over a million companies in nearly 170 countries have achieved certification to ISO 9001 standard.

Achieving a quality management standard must be the first priority because it directly benefits your business! The standards focus on key quality management principles such as strong customer focus, top management commitment, process approach, and continual improvement. When you adhere to these principles, you are able to make your processes more efficient and deliver superior quality products or services to the customers more consistently. When customers are more satisfied, it augments your sales and eventually, profits.

Environmental Management Standards

Companies or organizations, regardless of their sector or size, need to have an environmental management standard to ensure that their processes, activities, products, or services do not leave any serious impacts on the environment or natural resources. The ISO 14000 family of environmental management standards provide organizations with best practices to manage their responsibilities towards the environment and energy resources. ISO 14001 is the most widely accepted standard today amongst the family of standards. It provides the requirements and guidance for developing a comprehensive Environmental Management System (EMS) which helps you to enhance the environmental performance, minimize risks, and achieve compliance with general and legal environmental obligations.

ISO 14001, or any of the environmental management standards, is intended to benefit you in many other ways. It builds up your corporate reputation by demonstrating your efforts for environmental impacts reduction and sustainability. Secondly, it also increases your chances to gain tender contracts by making your company more eligible as an environmentally responsible supplier.

Information Security Management Standards

Information is integral for the regular functioning of assets. Information assets held by businesses include financial information, customer information, intellectual property of assets, employee details and other information that stakeholders or third parties entrusted them. Moreover, in this fast technology-paced world a huge majority of businesses work with IT systems and all types of digital information. The ISO 27000 family of information security management standards is designed to help them secure their essential information assets. ISO 27001 is the most effective and popular standard in the family which provides businesses with the requirements to form and implement their ISMS (Information Security Management System).
Achieving this standard helps you to manage and protect any kind of information, even the non-digital or paper-based one. Following the requirements of the standard, you can develop an ISMS that supports best practices for information security. Some of the key requirements are information security policy, leadership, persistent employee engagement, risk assessment, performance evaluation, and continual improvement.

Apart from securing your information assets, the ISO 27000 standards help your business to meet legal and regulatory data security obligations, instill trust in stakeholders, and attain competitive advantage.

Health and Safety Management Standards

ISO 45000 is the family of occupational health and safety standards that are meant to reduce accidents and risks in the workplace. This is indeed an important necessity for all types of organizations in today’s time when occupational accidents happen often due to risky processes, on-site difficulties, handling of hazardous materials, or an unhygienic environment. The emergence of a health pandemic like COVID-19 has made every organization realize the need for an occupational health and safety (OHS) standard through which they can safeguard the health and overall wellbeing of workers. It provides your organization with best practices to improve the safety of workers against all possibilities of risks or hazards. ISO 45001 is the most widely used standard of all which promotes practices for creating a safer, more hygienic, and better work environment.

The ISO 45000 standards are built based on the guidelines of top occupational safety regulations supported by ILO (International Labor Organization) and other workers’ associations. With COVID safety precautions essential for every organization, certification to this standard is the need of the hour. Also, implementing an OHS standard empowers organizations to save their workers from work-related injuries, sicknesses, workplace harassment or violence, mental stress, or unfavorable work conditions.

Risk Management Standard

The long term success of your business relies on how well you can prevent risks and ensures continuity of operations. However, it is challenging for businesses to prevent risks by continuously assessing their processes, external and internal factors, market scenarios, and behavior of third parties: they need a comprehensive risk management system to ensure that. ISO 31000 is the international risk management standard that provides organizations with a clear set of guidelines for managing all kinds of risks, regardless of their size or business sector.

Achieving this standard not only helps you to address risks but also provides a whole new level of assurance to your business amidst all uncertainties. It ensures your financial stability and resilience, maintenance of corporate reputation, and security of stakeholders with effective management of risks. Some of the principles based on which the risk management standard works are risk assessment, risk treatment, leadership and commitment, stakeholders’ involvement, uniform availability of information, fact-based decision making, corrective /preventive actions, and continual improvement.

Key Takeaway!

ISO standards are carefully designed by experts across countries! Each of them specifies the best practices or guidelines for achieving something in business. It can be about producing a product, delivering a service, managing a process, controlling some issues/problems, or managing a resource. Standards are developed to regulate or improve any aspect or activity in the business. If you are eager to get your business certified, getting one or more of these generic types of standards is useful.

Now that you understand what type of standards are common in business, you can easily determine which ones are relevant for your business’s improvement. If you have any doubts regarding how to get started, simply contact our team of experts ISO consultants at Compliancehelp Consulting LLC. We help you comprehend the standard’s requirements and eventually guide you at implementing it in a given timeframe. Get in touch today!