Getting Started in Occupational Health and Safety Management
Every year around the world, 2.3 million people lose their lives as a result of a workplace accident or an occupational disease. The human cost of poor occupational safety and health practices accounts for 4% of GDP. That is why this issue must be at the heart of corporate policies, going beyond regulatory requirements and public policies such as France’s 2026–2030 Workplace Health Plan.
The topic of occupational health and safety (OHS) is heavily regulated. It also involves various employee representative bodies (IRPs). Beyond the laws and decrees codified in the Labor Code, several voluntary standards—such as those published by AFNOR, ISO, or CEN—directly address OHS and define it in practical terms. This is the case with the ISO 45001 , for example, which specifies in its terminology section that an “OSH policy” is a “policy aimed at preventing work-related injuries and illnesses among workers and providing safe and healthy workplaces.” Another definition, which gets to the heart of the matter: “occupational health and safety risk,” which is the “combination of the probability of occurrence of work-related hazardous events or exposures and the severity of injuries and illnesses that may be caused by such events or exposures.” Please note that the acronym SST also refers to “workplace first responders,” a related topic.
What is an occupational safety and health management system?
A management system is a type of organizational structure implemented within a company or an organization in the broadest sense. As applied to occupational health and safety (OHS), a management system is a set of interrelated or interacting elements within an organization that are used to establish occupational health and safety policies, objectives, and processes designed to achieve those objectives. We refer to an OSHMS, just as we refer to a QMS for quality management and an EMS for environmental management. An OSH management system aims to achieve three objectives:
- continuous improvement in OSH performance (i.e., measured results)
- compliance with legal requirements and any other requirements established by the relevant organization
- Achieving occupational safety and health (OSH) goals.
A company is not required to implement an occupational safety and health (OSH) management system. It is a voluntary initiative that allows a company to embed a program at the core of its operations, following the PDCA cycle—“Plan, Do, Check, Act”—that is, plan, implement, verify, and improve. Among other things, it involves a management review—that is, a periodic (usually annual) assessment conducted by senior management to evaluate the relevance, adequacy, and effectiveness of the occupational health and safety management system. All ISO management system standards adopt this approach.
What is ISO 45001?
Since March 2018, occupational health and safety (OHS) management has had its own voluntary international standard: ISO 45001, the result of four years of in-depth discussions among more than sixty countries. It replaced the OHSAS 18001 , inspired by British standards, was permanently withdrawn in 2021. Like all voluntary standards, ISO 45001 was co-authored by users from around the world. It was approved by 93% of the countries represented during a final vote on January 25, 2018. The AFNOR commission, representing France, was able to express its position and modify certain passages to advocate for its ideas. Ultimately, it notes that the text incorporates the basic principles of prevention to which it is particularly committed.
ISO 45001 charts a new course for significantly improving the prevention of workplace accidents, injuries, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), stress- and fatigue-related disorders, and more—thereby helping organizations become more competitive. Like other management system standards (ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 50001, etc.), it is a standard setting requirements that can lead to certification by an accredited body. Like those standards, it also includes text that is regularly updated, with the next version scheduled for 2027 following a public hearing to be held in 2026.
How do you get started with an occupational safety and health initiative?
Don’t start from scratch! Voluntary standards are there to save you time: they provide you with proven approaches developed collaboratively and collectively by experts in the field. These are the most legitimate and widely accepted approaches.
If you'd like to implement an occupational safety and health program, purchase the ISO 45001 standard and attend a free informational workshop—it’s the easiest way to get started. Our training programs will help you build your skills and effectively lead the occupational safety and health initiative within your organization. ISO 45001 or MASE certification is a way to highlight your commitment and show those around you that you follow best practices.
Which organizations are committed to occupational safety and health?
Occupational health and safety management is accessible to all types of organizations. It is equally suited to micro-enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), mid-sized companies, and large corporations, as well as public agencies and professional associations. ISO 45001 was designed to be applicable to all organizations regardless of their size, the products or services they provide, or their industry. The proof: the companies that have gone so far as to seek certification represent a very diverse range of pharmaceutical companies to manufacturers in electronics , including the food industry and the services .
In 2024, AFNOR conducted a study among healthcare and occupational risk professionals to assess their perceptions of the standard and their level of adoption. You can download it for free. Here are the four key takeaways:
- OHS and quality of work life are the two hemispheres of the same brain . In occupational health and safety, the regulatory aspect and the concept of risk prevention; in quality of life at work, the voluntary aspect related to well-being.
- ISO 45001 is a established standard , especially if the user is coming from OHSAS 18001. It serves as a methodological guide for achieving regulatory compliance and fits well within a QSE management system.
- ISO 45001 supports a useful, reassuring, and even beneficial to the company , provided that we accept the cost, the complexity, and certain internal reservations that will require management's commitment.
- Those who use it to the point of becoming certified in it reap the rewards: they gain recognition from coworkers and customers, but above all, the positive results in terms of accident statistics.
What occupational hazards are addressed in an occupational health and safety management system?
ISO 45001 requires organizations to conduct an analysis of occupational health and safety (OHS) risks and the resulting opportunities. What do these two concepts entail? Risk is defined as the effect of uncertainty, which implies a cause-and-effect relationship between a number of determinants (legal, social, societal, etc.) and their impact on the expected outcome. Opportunities, on the other hand, refer to the efforts required in relation to the expected benefits. If a company must expend significant effort and the expected gains are small, the opportunity is not worth pursuing. Conversely, if the benefit
If the potential is significant, then there is an opportunity to be seized, and how we assess that opportunity will determine how we plan our actions.
The main advantage of this approach is that it focuses on issues identified by the organization as priorities and strategic priorities. It is better to carry out fewer initiatives but target them more effectively in relation to the desired performance than to try to address everything and spread oneself too thin across too many topics.
ISO 45001 does not prescribe any specific method to guide you in assessing risks and opportunities. Very often, the concepts of frequency and severity are used because they are well-established in the field of occupational health and safety for establishing cause-and-effect relationships. For each risk in your management system, you can define an exposure frequency and the severity of the impact on the management system. Similarly, the questions used to develop the Single Document (SD) regarding the risks identified in the company and their rating will be useful for prioritizing which risks to address.
The risks-and-opportunities approach serves as a valuable decision-making tool that supports the setting of priorities. Previously, certain preventive measures might have been implemented by chance, based on a passive approach. In contrast, QSE standards, through this concept of opportunity, help organizations recognize the benefits of capitalizing on a situation.
