An Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) is a management system combining people, policies, resources and aimed at improving a company’s performance in terms of occupational health and safety (OHS).
It is a tool that enables better control of the company’s organization and continuous improvement by integrating S&H into all functions.
The adoption of such a system is the expression of a global and managerial approach to occupational risk prevention. It is a voluntary approach that aims to :
- anticipate changes,
- to increase the company’s responsiveness and performance in S&ST risk prevention,
- Limit S&ST malfunctions,
- ensure overall consistency with other management approaches.
It contributes to the improvement of the company’s image.
SMS provides a framework for comprehensive and structured risk management, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They often allow a strategic positioning of S&ST, conferring authority and legitimacy to the security function, and are a potential source of learning for the company in all areas. From this point of view, their implementation should be encouraged as long as certain conditions are met. On the other hand, they can have undesirable effects if they are not implemented in compliance with certain essential values or under the right conditions: excessive standardisation of management methods, breakdown of social dialogue, compliance with a system without real progress, excessive control of behaviour.
An SMS can be part of a sustainable development approach, which must take into account the health and safety of workers.
