Health and Safety Management System: Key Elements You Should Consider

Workplace safety is considered very important for any business that realises how much employees contribute to production and revenue. They are the most valuable assets with high returns, and when they are taken care of, they become more productive, which is seen in the increased profits of your business. Thereby, having an occupational health and safety management system is an important requirement for every business to ensure that their employees are in a safe environment that has zero risks to their health.

The OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) management system needs to be developed by an organisation to establish appropriate workplace policies and practices and an approach to govern the workplace. With the implementation of the OHS management system, a business’s management gets some formalised and systematic methods to manage the workplace, review the employee’s conditions, report the issues, and plan and employ resources to make the workplace safer.

Thus, the major elements that an OHS management system of a business must incorporate are described below.

Proper OHS Plan

An appropriate health and safety plan is the first necessary element required to lay a concrete OHS management system. A strategic action plan forms an integral part of any management. It maps out the measures to eliminate risks or manage them after analysing the prevailing and prospective risks in the organisation. Hence, in the case of health and safety management systems, there is a need for an action plan that will map out a governance structure, adequate measures, and objectives to eliminate the risks in the workplace.

Policies and Procedures

Following the creation of a plan, you need to decide on the safety policies, such as health insurances or sick leaves, to back your OHS management system and ensure employees that their wellbeing is looked after by the company. Likewise, you also need strict procedures, such as the use of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), incident reporting, safety training, and preventive instructions to check any health or safety risks at the workplace.

Training and Induction

No uniform management system can be implemented properly if it is not supported by the members of the organisation. This goes for the OHS management system too! Until employees are trained and instructed about key practices for safety and how a comprehensive management system can benefit them, it is not possible to implement the system. The training and induction of the employees go hand in hand. Every employee who is a part of the organisation or is going to join should be taught the safety rules, policies, and practices. They should be also trained on using the safety equipment and should be made aware of medical insurances, sick leaves, and other such perks provided by the OHS management system.

Consistent Monitoring

For complete safety and health security of the employees, it is essential to consistently ensure the management of the issues. Simply implementing the OHS management system and then applying the practices is not enough, the system must also be monitored regularly, and working conditions have to be regularly reviewed. Improvements on the welfare of the employees have to be looked at often. Moreover, monitoring the management system will ensure that risks are assessed at the different levels of the organisation and mitigation measures are taken. Designated teams are needed in different workstations, processes, or departments to handle the task of continuous monitoring.

Supervision

While monitoring is essential to ensure that the OHS management system is effectively implemented and leading to actual improvements in working conditions, supervision is also necessary. It is needed to ensure that the employees are following safety guidelines, using the equipment given to them, and abiding by the safety provisions. Supervision from the management encourages the collective role of the organisation’s employees to effectively improve their health and safety management.

Reporting

Last but not the least, a prominent reporting system is required as one of the pillars of the health and safety management system. There should be a quick and responsive system with which employees can bring any risk or issues in their work to the notice of the management. The latter will take appropriate actions immediately to respond to these issues.

When the employees know that their health and safety is a matter of concern to the management and that the organisation is relying on a formalised OHS management system to consistently safeguard the welfare of the employees, they will be more productive. Employees are subjected to different kinds of situations, risks, health issues, or even mental pressures while at work, and such assurance from the company with a concrete management system will be a win-win for them.