This note presents guidelines and tools to help companies to develop an occupational safety and health management system (OSHMS). Whether at international or national level, they all have the same overall aim: to improve the company’s performance in the prevention of occupational injuries and as far upstream as possible.<\/p>\n
Relying on international reference systems is not always self-evident and may need adaptations, especially for small companies. It sometimes requires substantial resources and management system can become binding. This is the case, for example, if their certification is imposed by a customer. Management systems can also lead to too much formalism and be out of step with the reality and needs of the company.<\/p>\n
This is why, in some countries, occupational health and safety, prevention and regional bodies have developed reference systems, tools and support systems to help SMEs design, structure and implement an OHS approach in a management system. Some of them are developed by branch to better adapt to the reality of companies and may enable them to gradually achieve equivalence with other reference systems.<\/p>\n