A management system will allow you to control your occupational health and safety risks and improve the performance of your business, making it a safe place for your current employees and an attractive place for new ones. It also ensures that appropriate legislation is addressed and acted upon. Moving away from ad hoc processes gives you an overview that makes your occupational health and safety programmes easier to manage, measure, and improve. It is the first step on a journey toward continual business improvement.

A management system will provide a framework that helps you:

• Identify hazards and assess risks in your work environment.
  
  
• Develop methods to eliminate hazards and risks.
  
  
• Implement measures to evaluate further improvement and strengthen your organisation’s ability to meet strategic objectives.

The management system does not target the product or service safety, but the safety of employees, temporary employees, contractors, visitors, and other personnel.

Putting your employees first
With a systematic and effective Occupational Health and Safety Management System, you will reduce:

• The number of personnel injuries through prevention and control of workplace hazards.
  
  
• The risk of major accidents occurring.
  
  
• The material loss caused by accidents and production interruptions.
  
  
• The insurance costs as well as costs due to absence of employees.

Your work to safeguard employees will give you a more enthusiastic workforce. But it also proves to your customers that you are working actively to ensure that your operations are safe not only for your employees but also the surrounding environment.

What standards can you be certified to?
To get on the road to certification, you should begin by reading about:

• The occupational health and safety management standard OHSAS 18001, that is applicable to companies of any size.
  
  
• The SCC (Safety Checklist for Contractors) if you are a contractor. It may be a requirement.