Your senior management may wonder if spending for an OHSAS 18001 has any benefits, or feel that they need not spend anything on an OH&SMS is not necessary, as the company already follows health and safety laws. Top management might also argue that t other things are more important and that implementing a health and safety management system won’t really benefit the company.
If this is the case in your company, you could convince senior management that implementing an OH&SMS would have numerous benefits.
If you have tried, or are trying to do this, you may come across senior managers that have difficulty looking further than the implementation cost of a system. Although it is sometimes difficult to persuade managers to buy into an Occupational Health & Safety Management System, if you do not have their support, it’s very difficult to maintain a system when it has been implemented. If senior management does not support you, it is nearly impossible to demonstrate the continuous improvement needed to uphold certification.
That is predominantly important when management needs to review KPIs for the Occupational Health & Safety Management System.
Benefits of an OH&SMS
When trying to persuade management, it’s often wise to discuss things in financial terms, but this is often difficult when trying to justify implementing the management system. It will therefore be better if you can emphasize the management system’s benefits, and how they are applicable to the company.
Improve image. Although it may be that your contracts do not include a requirement for an OH&SMS, customers are often happy when they know that a supplier has excellent control over the health and safety issues in their workplace. For a customer, this could indicate a much lower risk of delays in receiving products or services due to injuries or accidents that can stop production as much as they injure workers. In some jurisdictions, legal fines can in fact be reduced if the company can prove that it has a functioning OH&SMS, as this indicates concern for both prevention of injuries, as well as legal non-compliance.
Maintain compliance. It is obvious that you could meet all legal requirements that you are aware of for occupational health and safety, but how can you be sure that you’ve identified them all? A main benefit that your company will get from implementing an Occupational Health & Safety Management System based on OHSAS 18001 is that it will provide you with frameworks that can be used to identify, monitor and comply with all the diverse legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements that are applicable to your company’s processes. The system is there to help you maintain your compliance. This will not only help the company prevent injury to employees, but also eliminate costly non-compliance fines.
Improve processes. One of the integral parts of OHSAS 18001 is continual improvement and this could be used to assist your organization in improving and enhancing your organizational processes. If you involve your employees in process improvements, you will realize savings not only in health and safety, but also in the resources and time required to do the actual work.
Employee turnover reduction. If you are recognized as an employer that cares about the safety of workers and their environments, your employees won’t want to leave. In this context, not only will they benefit from the safe environment, but they will also improve the safety of their working environment. Well trained employees are one of your greatest assets, so this could be a huge cost saving. It is after all far less costly to keep employees happy and working for you than it is to employ and train new workers.
Better health and safety for workers
Ultimately, you want to implement an OH&SMS as per the OHSAS 18001 standard to improve your employees’ health and safety. You do this through the identification and reduction of risks that can lead to injury in your processes. Beyond this simple concept, it is good to point out that there are other benefits described that will not only benefit your employees, but also improve the profitability of your company by concentrating on long term advantages.
ISO 9001 quality management systems (QMS) are implemented using MyEasyISO software in Mexico City (Mexico), while ISO 14001 & OHSAS 18001 Health Safety Management Systems (HSE) are implemented with MyEasyISO in Krakow (Poland).
