A health and safety program is the system an employer uses to find hazards, control them, train people, respond to emergencies, learn from incidents and keep improving. Building one from scratch starts with a clear policy and a thorough hazard assessment, and everything else grows from those two pieces. The program should be sized to your organization and written for the people who will use it.
Know what your province requires
Every province requires employers to protect the health and safety of workers, and most set out what a formal program must include once an employer reaches a certain size or hazard level. Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario each frame these requirements differently, including when a written program, a joint health and safety committee or a health and safety representative is required. Federally regulated workplaces follow the Canada Labour Code instead. Start by reading the legislation that applies to you, or by getting help to interpret it. Our guide to Alberta OHS basics for employers covers the Alberta side.
The core elements
Most programs in Canada, and most audit standards such as those used for the Certificate of Recognition (COR), are built around a similar set of elements:
1. Policy and management commitment
A short, signed statement of the employer's commitment to health and safety, the responsibilities of managers, supervisors and workers, and the resources provided. Commitment shows in practice when managers attend safety meetings, act on reported hazards and fund corrective actions.
2. Hazard assessment and control
The heart of the program. Identify the hazards of each job and task, assess the risk and put controls in place following the hierarchy of controls. See Hazard assessment and control.
3. Safe work practices and procedures
Written practices for general work and step-by-step procedures for higher-risk tasks, such as lockout, confined space entry, hot work and working at heights.
4. Training and orientation
New worker orientation, job-specific training, certifications required by law or by clients, and supervisor training. Keep records of who was trained, on what and when.
5. Inspections and maintenance
Regular workplace inspections, pre-use equipment checks and a preventive maintenance system, with a way to track and close the deficiencies found.
6. Emergency response
A written plan for the emergencies that could reasonably occur at each site, with roles, equipment, first aid, communication and regular drills.
7. Incident reporting and investigation
A simple way to report injuries, near misses and hazards, and an investigation process that looks for root causes and leads to corrective action.
8. Worker participation
Joint health and safety committees or representatives where required, toolbox talks, and other ways for workers to raise concerns and help solve problems.
9. Contractor management
How contractors are selected, oriented, supervised and evaluated, and how responsibilities are shared at multi-employer sites.
10. Program administration and review
Document control, recordkeeping, and regular review of the program to check that it works and is current.
How the elements work together
The elements are not a list of separate binders. Hazard assessment sits in the middle: it decides which procedures, training and equipment are needed, inspections and incident reports show whether those controls are working, and the review feeds what was learned back into the next assessment.
A practical order of work
- Ask why. Be clear about what is driving the program: legal compliance, client requirements, growth, an incident or a new type of work. This shapes priorities.
- Gather what you already have. Many organizations have informal practices, forms or training that can be kept and improved.
- Write the policy and assign responsibilities. Get senior management to sign it and explain it.
- Complete hazard assessments. Start with the jobs and tasks that carry the most serious risk.
- Write procedures for the highest risks. Do not try to write everything at once.
- Set up training, inspections, reporting and emergency response. Keep forms short and practical.
- Roll it out. Brief supervisors first, then workers. Explain what is changing and why.
- Review and improve. After a few months, check records and field practice and adjust.
Write for the field. A program written in plain language, with short procedures and simple forms, gets used. A long, generic program copied from another company usually does not, and an auditor or investigator will notice the gap between what is written and what is done.
A typical first year
A growing electrical and mechanical contractor with a few dozen workers decides to build a formal program because clients have started asking for one. A realistic first year might look like this:
| Stage | Focus | What exists at the end |
|---|---|---|
| First weeks | Policy, responsibilities, gathering existing forms and training records | Signed policy, list of what already exists and what is missing |
| First months | Hazard assessments for the highest-risk work: energized equipment, lockout, work at height, confined spaces | Written assessments and procedures for those tasks; a field-level hazard assessment form crews actually use |
| Middle of the year | Orientation, inspections, incident reporting and emergency response | Orientation checklist, inspection schedule, simple reporting form, site emergency plans |
| End of the year | Contractor management, worker participation and the first internal review | A review report listing what works, what does not and the priorities for next year |
The exact timing depends on the organization, but the order holds: the most serious hazards first, the administrative structure around them next, and a review at the end to see what is really happening.
Common mistakes
- Writing every procedure before any are used, so the program arrives all at once and nothing sticks
- Leaving supervisors out of the drafting, then expecting them to enforce it
- Creating forms that collect information nobody reviews
- Treating the program as the safety coordinator's job instead of management's
Keeping it alive
A program is never finished. Review it when work changes, when new equipment arrives, after incidents, when legislation changes and at least on a regular schedule. Use inspection findings, near-miss reports and worker feedback to decide what to improve. A periodic safety program audit gives an objective view of how well the program is working.
How ehZee can help
We build programs from the ground up or complete existing ones, starting with your work and your province's rules, and write them in language your crews can use. See our safety program development and review service.
Common questions
Can we buy a template program?
Templates can give structure, but a program must reflect your own hazards, sites and people. A template that has not been adapted will have gaps and may include procedures that do not apply.
How long does it take to build a program?
It depends on the size of the organization, the hazards involved and how much already exists. Rolling it out in stages, starting with the highest risks, lets you protect workers sooner.