Policy Communication Record

This record governs the act of communicating an already-current policy, and the evidence that the communication actually landed. It does not judge whether the policy's content is right — that decision belongs upstream.

The clause map below ties the record's method, reach and understanding checks to specific ISO 45001 communication and awareness requirements, rather than one blanket "communicated: yes" judgement.

ISO 45001's communication clause applies uniformly wherever the certification is held, but the workforce composition that most stresses it varies by jurisdiction.

The fields are straightforward to fill in. What actually determines whether the record holds up is a handful of judgement calls about what counts as genuine coverage.

These are the failure patterns that recur across sites running this record, mapped to the clause they break and the fix that actually clears them.

A logistics site reported 100% coverage on its policy communication record for three consecutive cycles. A new HSE lead ran an informal check on the warehouse floor and found that agency staff — roughly a third of the shift on any given day — had never seen the policy or attended an induction session covering it; only the agency's account manager had been emailed a copy.

The coverage figure was corrected downward, Agency Workers Included flipped from Yes to No, and a standing induction slot was added specifically for agency starters before their first shift. The record's next cycle showed a genuine, evidenced number instead of an assumed one — smaller, but defensible.

Running a briefing is easy to schedule. Proving contractors, agency staff and remote workers were actually in it — and understood it — is the part that depends on someone checking the population, not just the method.

KnowComply

Tracks which policy version each communication record is against, flags cycles missing an attendee trail, and rolls coverage gaps forward until they are closed.

KnowSafe

Supplies the current site headcount and contractor/agency population this record's coverage figure needs to be checked against, so Coverage Percent isn't self-reported.

KnowTrain

Handles the induction and toolbox-talk delivery this record depends on, keeping attendee records ready to evidence Briefing Delivered and Included In Induction.

Ella

Flags cycles where the reach figures don't reconcile with roster data, drafts the follow-up plan for review, and holds every write for your approval before it touches a record.

Internal communication

Communication of relevant OH&S information among the organisation's own levels and functions, including any change to the policy — distinct from communication reaching contractors or the public.

External communication

Communication with parties outside the organisation, such as contractors, visitors or regulators, carried out according to a process the organisation itself has established.

Coverage

The proportion of the relevant population that has demonstrably received the communication, as opposed to the proportion the method was merely aimed at.

Spot check

A targeted, repeatable check of a sample of the workforce to confirm understanding, used because asking everyone is impractical but asking nobody proves nothing.

Communication trigger

The event that requires a new communication cycle to run — a new policy version, new starters joining, a scheduled periodic refresh, or a finding raised after an audit.