3 Tips to Create An Effective Health & Safety Management System
What is a health & safety management system?
An HSE management system is a plan you can develop in your organisation to better manage your health and safety and ultimately decrease the risk of accidents and injury. In general, a health & safety management system includes:
- the administration of the health and safety work, training and policies (see here our Bristol IOSH Training Courses)
- the responsibilities of line managers
- the process to follow in case of accidents
- the resources and procedures to implement and develop health and safety policies.
Here are a few examples, according to HSE:
- international and national standards (e.g. the ISO 45001:2018 or the BS EN ISO 9001:2008)
- procedures and standards developed by organisations in house
- frameworks for specific sectors (e.g. Chemical Industries Association’s Responsible Care framework).
Why should you have an occupational health & safety management system?
The key benefits of having and implementing an occupational health & safety management system in your company are risk reduction, improved productivity and ultimately business growth. The effective management of health and safety at work doesn’t have to be costly, time-consuming or complicated. It all comes down to taking these key actions: PLAN, DO, CHECK, ACT.
The 3 tips to create an effective HSE management system are:
- Keep your focus on decreasing the risk when creating the needed documentation. It doesn’t matter how long or detailed the health and safety documents are if they aren’t functional. Remember, their effectiveness is your target.
- Include your staff in the development and implementation of your health and safety management program. The people in your organisation are the ones that know best where the risks are and the potential hazards associated with their jobs. Therefore, make sure your employees are meaningfully participating in implementing an effective health and safety management system.
- Always measure the success of your health & safety management system. It is not enough to just have such a system in place, you must review and improve it constantly. The best way to see if your health and safety management program is effective or not is to look at how your staff’s attitudes and behaviours have changed over time.