We are the people of the organization. We listen! We speak! We understand!

When we help organizations implement or maintain an ISO management system, the “people” side of compliance can often be a real sticking point. Writing documentation, writing systems, devising strategies is all reasonably straightforward (most of the time!), but you need your workforce to understand the requirements of the system you implement, and to play their part in facilitating the transfer of information within the organization.

This is where Clauses 7.3 (Awareness) and 7.4 (Communication) come in. In the high-level structure shared by ISO 9001, 14001, and 45001, these clauses work hand-in-hand (they are so ‘hand-in-hand’ that many auditors combine them in an audit report).

The role of these clauses are to ensure that your team understands what is expected and that vital information flows seamlessly across the organization – between departments and hierarchies.

Let’s break down exactly what the clauses require, and what compliance with them looks like.

Clause 7.3: The Requirements for Awareness

The exact wording of the standard dictates that your organization must ensure persons doing work under your control are aware of specific foundational elements. Clearly, it is not enough for employees to simply know that an ISO system exists, they must understand their part within it.

First, your workforce must be aware of the relevant policy and the specific objectives relevant to their department or daily tasks. They don’t need to memorize these documents word-for-word, but they should be able to explain the core intent in their own words.

Second, employees must understand their specific contribution to the effectiveness of the management system. This means your team needs to know how their daily adherence to procedures helps the company achieve its goals. Furthermore, they must understand the tangible benefits of improved performance, such as fewer errors, a safer workplace or reduced waste.

Finally, the clause explicitly requires that workers understand the implications of not conforming to the management system requirements. If an employee bypasses a step in a procedure, what are the real-world consequences? Nike’s slogan, “Just Do It,” won’t have much effect in the long-run; employees need to believe in what they are doing, and helping them understand implications of conforming, and not conforming, with requirements aids this belief.

Hanging up posters about the management system on notice boards is useful, but it helps to go further. Further instilling of the aforementioned ‘belief’ or ‘awareness’ into the workforce can be done during onboarding processes, as well as brief and regular refresher sessions. Incorporating informal staff interviews at various levels during an internal audit can also help, as you can investigate whether they understand how they impact on, say, quality goals? Do they understand why they are carrying out a certain process?

Clause 7.4: The Requirements for Communication

Clause 7.4 requires that your organization determine the internal and external communications relevant to your management system. The standard breaks this down into five specific questions you must answer: On what will you communicate, when to communicate, with whom to communicate, how to communicate, and who will communicate.

We like to break this down into five simple pillars:

• On what: You must define the core topics that require communication, such as policy updates, system changes, or performance metrics.
• When: Establish clear triggers or schedules, such as weekly team huddles or monthly management reviews.
• With whom: Identify your internal audiences (different departments or management levels) and your external audiences (clients, contractors, and regulatory bodies).
• How: Determine the channels used to transmit information, such as email updates, digital dashboards, or formal training sessions.
• Who: Assign specific roles responsibility for sending the messages, ensuring that sensitive data or regulatory reporting is handled only by authorized personnel.

The clause is also broken down into internal (7.4.2) and external (7.4.3) requirements. Internally, you must ensure that communication enables workers to contribute to continuous improvement. Externally, your communication must meet all legal and regulatory obligations, ensuring that information relevant to your compliance is accurately and reliably shared with stakeholders.

How do you demonstrate compliance here? There is no silver bullet approach, you have to consider what is most effective for your organization. For smaller organizations, producing emails, internal memos, posters and evidence of training can be useful. Where communication involves collaboration between team members, with higher risk implications, a formal meeting may be useful, and an auditor may expect (depending on the level of risk) some documented minutes to accompany the session.

Some larger organizations go further, producing a Communications Matrix, but be careful not to overcomplicate things as this can cause more problems than otherwise.

The Value of an Integrated Approach

Because Clauses 7.3 and 7.4 share the exact same architecture across ISO 9001, 14001, and 45001, you do not need separate communication and awareness programs for each standard.

By building a single, integrated approach, you eliminate administrative overlap, reduce the burden on your team, and turn compliance into a natural part of your daily business operations.

We are always looking for ways to make compliance easier for you. If you would like a hand streamlining your internal communication frameworks, or if you have any questions about how these clauses apply to your specific industry, do not hesitate to contact us!