A Health and Safety Management System exists to promote a positive health and safety culture within an organisation, and to encourage active involvement of internal and external stakeholders. A well structured and organised occupational health and safety management system will be essential for maintaining high safety standards within an organisation. Some management systems also allow integration of international standards such as ISO 45001. Integration into other management systems such as quality and environmental is also a possibility.
For a health and safety management system to be successful, it should be addressing all reasonably foreseeable risks in an organisations workplace, and the whole workforce should be encouraged to participate. This means that the organisations audit process should examine ‘shop floor’ health and safety behaviour to ensure that it mirrors the standards required by the health and safety management system. As you may be aware this is not always the case. When an organisation adopts a management system there must be a drive for continuous improvement in safety performance if the management system is to succeed in the long term.
Key Characteristics of a health and safety management system
There are four basic elements that will be common to the most widely recognised management systems, these are:
- Plan – Establish standards for health and safety management based on risk assessment and legal requirements.
- Do – Implement plans to achieve objectives and standards. This step should involve as many people as possible, consultation with the workforce and notifying them about coming change will ensure less resistance to change and should if communicated adequately gain support.
- Check – Measure progress with plans and compliance with standards. look at near miss, accident and incident reports.
- Act – Review against objectives and standards, then take appropriate action. Ensure adequate resources are allocated to demonstrate management commitment.
The Plan-Do-Check-Act for occupational health and safety management forms the basis of the following management systems:
- HSG65 – The UK HSE published this and its main focus is on continuous improvement rather than meeting minimum legal standards. most health and safety management systems use this as a benchmark. At Aegis we use this for our audits and fire safety work.
- ISO 45001 – The standard was developed by a committee of occupational health and safety experts, and follows other generic management system approaches such as ISO 14001 and ISO 9001. It was based on earlier international standards in this area such as OHSAS 18001, the International Labour Organization’s ILO-OSH Guidelines, various national standards and the ILO’s international labour standards and conventions. This presents a more hands on approach over the old 14001 standard. Relatively new, it has been in existence for around two years. We prefer this revised standard as it places individuals within the workplace into focus. We can assists your organisation with working towards achievement of any of these standards, it can be a long road if you are just starting out, so we recommend getting the basics in place and working correctly before going for gold!
At Aegis we believe that the four most important or key characteristics for a successful occupational health and safety management system are:
- A positive health and safety culture- Training can provide around 80% of safety within a workplace, it is the safety behaviours of its workforce that will tip the scale and provide the final 20%. An example would be asking an employee in a transport role how to enter and exit a vehicle, we can bet that they will correctly answer – by using three points of contact. Everyone will know this, however when you observe the workers doing their day to day role, within a short period of time you will see that the three point of contact system is disregarded in most cases! Human behaviour, taking paths of least resistance. Another example could be using a mobile phone when driving – we all know this is unsafe behaviour but still we choose to do it!
- The involvement of all stakeholders- Consultation with the workforce, contractors and visitors. Nobody likes change forced upon them, it will be easier to implement change if everyone is aware of it and has an opportunity to feed into the process.
- An effective audit procedure – Most larger companies have an internal audit team and invite an external audit team as another layer of ensuring that the any objectives / targets are met.
- Continuous improvement – We never stand still, and if we did our companies would rapidly become obsolete! the same applies to safety, changes in regulations, processes, technology and staff turnover all make us review what we are presently doing. Continuous improvement is at the heart of all management systems.
Positive health and safety culture
Here is a brief introduction to a positive safety culture which will contain the following:
- Leadership and commitment to health and safety throughout the organisation. This should be demonstrated through effective accident and incident investigations, feedback on near miss reporting and setting the standard for safety. Aegis can provide leadership training to assist with reaching this goal.
- An acceptance that high standards of safety are achievable and should be achieved through the setting of realistic and achievable targets.
- Identification of all significant hazards in a workplace which employees and others may encounter when on the premises. Reference can be made to our section on Risk assessments here.
- An assessment of risks and an appropriate control and monitoring system.
- A health and safety policy statement which outlines objectives, codes of practice and standards. If you need any assistance please contact us.
- Ensure that good communication and consultation procedures are available with suitable training programmes for all employees.
- Systems for the monitoring and audit of equipment, processes and prompt rectification of any deficiencies found.
- Prompt and thorough investigation of all accidents and incidents with recommendations to prevent occurrences. Aegis can provide accident and investigation training for you based upon your procedures or we can offer you some templates to develop your own.
As you may be aware some of the above elements form part of the health and safety management system but unless all are present within an organisation, then it will be unlikely that the the health and safety of an organisation will be managed successfully.
The involvement of Stakeholders
There will be a number of both internal and external stakeholders of an organisation who may have an influence upon the introduction and development of the health and safety management system. Some internal stakeholders may include directors and trustees, employees including health and safety professionals. External stakeholders may include insurance companies, investors, regulators of health and saefty law, customers and neighbours.
An effective Audit procedure
The final step of the health and safety management system control cycle will be an effective audit. The audit will provide feedback which will enable the reduction of risks and the management system to be improved. Audit is a business function which is commonly applied to the world of finance but also the environment, quality, and health and safety. the audit will highlight the effectiveness of the management system and the risk control system. Audit is an essential part of the management system but it should never replace the day-to-day management of safety.
Continuous Improvement
This is recognised as a vital part of the health and safety management system in order for the plan to remain effective at controlling internal and external changes that may effect the health and safety of the organisation. Continuous improvement does not need to be expensive or complex, and it adds the following benefits to an organisation.
- Decrease in injury, ill-health and property damage rates.
- It may lead to a reduction of resources required to manage the system.
- Higher standards of health and safety and improved safety culture.
One of the most simplest ways to achieve continuous improvement is through implementing the recommendations of audits and management investigations and reviews. Through experience it has shown that consultation with the workforce, managers and supervisors provides good suggestions on ways to improve processes and procedures. If you are considering implementing a management system into your workplace please contact us here for further information and we will be happy to discuss your requirements.
Further Reading
If you are considering implementing a health and safety management system into your workplace then the latest international standard ISO 45001 is recommended, here is a book which provides useful information on implementing ISO 45001:2018 management system.
