2025 Auditing Guidelines and Deadlines

Please keep the following in mind while planning and conducting your 2025 audits:

• Audits must be registered using the Audit Registration form. Once we receive it, you will be supplied with the latest version of the audit tool. Use of all audit validation techniques (documentation review, interviews, and observational tours) is again required. 12 months of documentation is required.
• Sampling plans must be pre-approved – email audits@amhsa.net with your Interview and Site Sampling plans prior to starting data gathering.
• Documentation, interview, and observation data gathering can be conducted either remotely or in-person. Please contact us for information on conducting remote observations.

Scoring requirements:

• COR Certification audits require a score of 80% overall and 50% in each element, and;
• COR Maintenance audits require a score of 60% overall.

Deadlines:

• Applications for use of Action Plans in lieu of COR Maintenance audits must be submitted to AMHSA on the official template, by June 30, 2025. To determine if you are eligible, and to obtain the template, email audits@amhsa.net. We strongly recommend creation of the plan and application earlier in the year, to allow more time to complete the action items.
• Requests to participate in the external peer audit process are due June 1, 2025.
• Provide audits@amhsa.net with your request including scope information (number of permanent manned worksites and employees), month you’d like your audit conducted, auditors available to perform a peer audit at another municipality, preference for in-person or remote (and Excel or AuditSoft report), and your contact information.
• Submission deadline for COR audits is December 1, 2025. Regular deadlines for data gathering (maximum 45 days) and submission (maximum 21 days from last data gathering date) also apply.

Evaluating Psychological Health and Safety (PHS) Management Systems 

Employers who scored 90% or more on their last COR Certification audit and have held a COR for at least four consecutive years are eligible to substitute AMHSA’s approved PHS element for one element of their COR Maintenance audit.

The PHS element substitution allows for the option of selecting one of three levels available to accommodate the progression of your PHS program. The PHS element can be substituted in place of any element except 1 (Management Leadership and Organizational Commitment), 2 (Hazard Assessment), or 3 (Hazard Control). The score achieved on the PHS element will take on the same weighting as the element substituted. To apply or to obtain further details, email audits@amhsa.net. 

AMHSA is currently working on integrating the PHS element substitution option into the regular COR Excel audit workbook. Thank you to those employers who took the PHS element substitution option for a spin in 2024!

There is also the option to conduct a stand-alone PHS audit – it can be used separately from a COR audit at any time. If you choose this option, the PHS audit is also scalable to 3 levels to accommodate the progression of your PHS program.

Training related to psychological health and safety to supplement our Health and Safety Management Systems and Health and Safety Auditing is being developed and will be available soon! 

Violence and Harassment Audit Tool Change

Due to recent changes related to OHS Code Part 27 (Violence and Harassment – no longer required to have separate plans), we will be updating our audit tool to combine questions 3.11 and 3.12 into:

“Does the Violence and Harassment Prevention Plan meet legislated requirements?” 

The new question will still be validated by documentation and it will be worth 10 points (the combined point total of the two previously separate questions). 

Submit Your Input for Our New Webinar Series Program

AMHSA is excited to offer a 2025 webinar series on topics specific to auditing and health and safety management systems.

We want to hear which topics would be valuable for auditors like you. Webinars will be approximately 1-1.5 hours in length to accommodate busy schedules.

Topic examples are:

• Audit Report Writing and Justification
• Sampling Strategies
• Topics specific to the Audit protocol (i.e. Emergency Response)
• And others

We look forward to receiving your answers!

Join the Line of Fire Working Group

Are you passionate about increasing worker’s awareness when working on or near equipment, objects, or energy sources? This Working Group may be a perfect fit for you. 

AMHSA will be working with technical and subject matter experts to produce a Line of Fire (LOF) eLearning course, best practice, and other resources out of a creative sentencing for a conviction under OHS legislation.  

What's expected of you? As a Working Group member, you will share work experiences and resources and participate in the review of newly developed resources. 

The Working Group runs from April to December, with a commitment of 3 hours once per month. 

For more information on LOF, visit our website.

Let’s work together to prevent LOF workplace injuries.