Work Health and Safety Blog

What makes an effective work health & safety management system is a constantly evolving system that includes policies, procedures, process and supporting documents that are simple to use, user friendly, easy to access and it doesn't sit on the shelf gathering dust. This just about rules out all paper-based systems!

Let's be clear on the meaning of “workplace health and safety management system”. A work health & safety management system is NOT a WHS management plan (this is a specific plan required for construction projects over $250,000).  It is much more than a WHS management plan which is required to manage a specific project.

Workplace health and safety differs from many other areas of management that you measure in your business. Why?  Because when you put in place a marketing strategy, you can measure the outcome of that strategy.  When you put in place a workplace health and safety system the measurement is an absence of an outcome (eg injuries or ill health) rather than a presence of an accident or incident.

A low accident or ill-health rate, even over a period of years, is no guarantee that your risks are being controlled and will not lead to accidents in the future.

This is particularly true where there is a low probability of injuries. Unfortunately, historical records can be a misleading measurement of work health and safety performance.  This is because records kept are often haphazard, are incomplete and are not regularly recorded.

What you do need is “a complete jigsaw”, one that you can use to measure activities over a wide range of workplace health and safety activities, consistently, effectively and most importantly, one that is easy to use.

Your information needs - internal
You need information and measurements in your workplace for people who have specific responsibilities for workplace health and safety.

This includes directors, officers, senior managers, line managers, supervisors, health and safety professionals and workers /safety representatives. They each need information which is appropriate for their position and the responsibilities they have for workplace health and safety.

What this means is the policies, procedures, processes and props (forms) that are accessible and used by workers, supervisors and managements.

What I regularly see in many organisations is a written policy, an attempt at written procedures, a few props but very little else in the way of systematic and integrated processes.

Your information needs - external
Although the main focus for the measurement of workplace health and safety is often to show your legislative compliance, there is an increasing need to demonstrate that you have risk controls in place, for tenders and accreditations and that they operate consistently and effectively. The people are asking for this type of information includes external stakeholders ie regulators, suppliers, principal contractors, members of the public, shareholders, etc

Therefore the meaning of workplace health and safety management systems is: a set of plans, procedures and processes to systematically manage health and safety in the workplace and a committed PCBU (employer) which provides:

• A healthy and safe workplace that applies equally to everyone in the workplace is a system that works to prevent and/or reduce any incidents or injuries.
• A system to identify hazards and risks including assessments of those hazards and risk controls to reduce the risks.
• Involvement in health and safety matters by senior management, supervisors and workers as well as health & safety representatives/committee members.
• Provision of information and training for workers at all levels so they can work safely.
• A process to monitor, review and evaluate your activities in WHS management to track your process.

Now if that’s what you’ve got – that’s great, but if you think that maybe there is a better way of doing things, eg something that is simpler, easier, quicker and with less resources, then it’s time to review what you have and do something about it.

To avoid buying a "lemon" that masquerades as a work health and safety management system - read this first.