A health and safety program is made up of policy statements, procedures, assessment and reporting tools, recordkeeping, checks and reviews that a company puts into place and carries out in their operations to ensure the safety of the workplace.
With a documented OHS Program, you create and maintain an action plan for how you will:
- Define safety responsibilities
- Identify and control hazards
- Train workers in safe work procedures
- Investigate workplace incidents and injuries
- Document and track health and safety issues and activities in your business.
Documented means that you:
- Write it down or type it out;
- Share it with your workers by either
- printing it out and posting it on bulletin boards or at each worker’s workstation
- share it electronically with your workers through a website or emails, and
- Can easily find it and refer back to it when you need it.
Documented Health and Safety Program
Do you have a documented policy or procedure for each of the following?
- OHS Policy Statement
- Signed and posted Safety Policy
- Hazards identification and control program
- Job Hazard Assessments
- Risk Assessments
- Field Level Risk Assessments
- Safe Work Procedures
- Emergency Response Plan
- Posters and Signage with Evacuation Routes and Muster Points
- Emergency Services Phone Numbers posted
- Emergency Response Plan Handbook or Manual
- Alarms and Communication Systems to Alert Workers
- Defined Roles and Responsibilities
- Safety Policy
- Job Descriptions
- Safe Work Procedures
- Hazard Reporting Procedures
- Injury Reporting Procedures
- Inspection guidelines including work site, work processes and procedures
- Inspection Reports from the OHS Committee or OHS Representative.
Informal inspections include:
- Field Level Risk Assessment
- Pre-work equipment check
- Maintenance logs
- Vehicle pre-trip logs
- OHS training plan
- Training Record Matrix: Lists employees and all training applicable to the workplace, indicating who has what training and when they need to renew or update certification.
- Employee Training Record: Individual employee’s training and certifications, indicating when the employee needs to renew or update the training.
- Incident investigation and reporting procedures
- Incident Investigation Procedure including roles of the Joint OHS Committee or the OHS Representative, the supervisor and the worker.
- Incident Investigation Report Form
- Joint OHS Committee (when you have 20 or more workers)
- JOHS Committee meeting agendas and minutes
- Inspection Reports including corrective actions and follow-up
An OHS Representative (when you have less than 20 workers)
- Workplace inspection reports which include corrective action recommendations and follow-up tracking
- Program revision plan for the OHS Program
- Revision Policy
- Dated and signed safe work policies and procedures that indicate when the document will be reviewed and who will review them.
- Worker orientation
- Worker orientation checklist, signed by supervisor and new worker
- Safe and timely return to work
- Return to Work Policy
- Return to work plans for injured or ill workers
- Control of Hazardous Substances: Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS)?
- WHMIS training certificates for each worker.