What is an HSE Management System Template?
A Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) Management System template is a ready-made document that can assist in preventing, eliminating, and mitigating workplace accidents, risks, hazards, and the effects they bring. An HSE management system template can also help with complying with legal requirements on workplace safety.
Importance
An HSE management system is essential in ensuring that a workplace is safe and its employees are in good health. In some places, it is also required to have an HSE management system, program, or audit in place. In the UK, in particular, employers are legally required to have an HSE management system or assessment system in place as part of The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. In many countries and for many businesses, having an HSE management system is a prerequisite for other certifications as well, such as ISO 45001 and ISO 14000.
However, managing an HSE system can be difficult, as there are many tasks and factors to consider that may be hard to track. This is why having an HSE management system template would be a big help. An HSE management system template in the form of a checklist, specifically, can be a great supplementary device in ensuring HSE compliance and a healthy and safe workplace.
Checklists are an ideal way for monitoring your HSE management system as it is easy to use and direct. They are also more efficient to use when traveling or far from others, especially when they are backed up in the cloud for easy access.
With a templated checklist, you can:
- Track the risk and hazard management tasks you and your organization need to do
- Identify potential risks and hazards on the job
- Document instances of harm, injury, and illness that happened while on the job
- Manage compliance with legal regulations
What Should an HSE Management System Template Have?
There is no single way to create an HSE management system template. While it is important to comply with legal requirements and standards, certain things may still differ per company and job. Your HSE management system template will ultimately depend on your needs, nature of work, and environment.
What is important is that your HSE management system template ensures you and your team check and track your:
- Policies in place
- Responsibilities delegated to employees and leaders
- Hazard management practices
- Workplace inspection practices
- Incident management practices
- HSE offenses and corresponding corrective actions
- Performance monitoring practices
- Statistics
At the end of your HSE management system template, you should have a summary of your findings, along with a grade or compliance level. Having the signature of authorized personnel or inspector will also help in assuring the authenticity of your completed forms.
FAQs about HSE Management System Templates
A Safety Management System (SMS) aims to reduce and manage risk in the workplace. In a way, it can be considered part of an HSE management system; however, an HSE management system also considers health.
There is also a difference in where they are used. While both terms are used worldwide depending on preference and legal provisions, the term “safety management system” is more used in the US, while “HSE management system” is more commonly used in the UK, but sometimes used in the US with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations.
The 12 elements of an HSE management system are:
- Control and communication of safety documents
- Risk management of HSE guidelines
- Emergency response planning and management
- Documentation system
- Monitoring and measurement of HSE guidelines
- Appointment of HSE team
- Compliance management
- Role accountability and leadership commitment
- Regular review
- Training and education
- Continuous improvement
- Environmental and climate management
All organizations, regardless of size, should be using an HSE management system for the safety of their workers. Usually, the HSE management system template itself is mainly used by business owners, team managers, and other kinds of employers as they are directly responsible for their employee’s welfare.
