Sample Health and Safety WHS Policies and Procedures

What is the difference between a policy and a procedure!?

A set of policies can be considered to be a set of company principles, rules, and guidelines that have
been carefully created by an individual organization to create safer and more fulfilling workplaces.
Policies and procedures are commonly published in a printed or electronic booklet or another form
that is widely accessible by workers.

Policies and procedures are designed to help influence workers in all their major decision-making
practices and actions, as well as all activities that they conduct on a day-to-day basis. Procedures are
the specific methods employed to express policies in action in the day-to-day operations of the
organization.

Together, policies and procedures ensure that a point of view held by the governing body of an
organization is translated into steps that result in an outcome compatible with that view.

A safe work procedure (SWP) is an integral part of the risk management process as it outlines the
hazards, risks and associated control measures to be applied to ensure the task/activity is conducted
in a way to reduce the risk of injury.

In the safety industry, policies and procedures are called many different ways, as follows:

– WHS policies and procedures
– OHS policies and procedures
– EHS policies and procedures
– Safety policies and procedures
– ISO 45001 policies and procedures
– AS4801 policies and procedures
– And many more!

What are safe work practices?

Safe work practices are generally written methods outlining how to perform a task with minimum risk to people, equipment, materials, environment, and processes.

Safe job procedures are a series of specific steps that guide a worker through a task from start to finish in chronological order.