Did you know that the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires every workplace with more than five employees to have a written health & safety policy and a program to implement that policy?

Step 1: Write a health & safety policy

If your company already has a health & safety policy, proceed to Step 2. If you don't have a policy, here's how to get started:

From the topics section, select health & safety policy. Choose a sample policy and customize it to suit your company, or create your own policy using the guidelines in that section.

Step 2: Develop a health & safety program to implement the policy

The Occupational Health and Safety Act and related regulations set out minimum requirements reflecting accepted industry practices. However, every workplace is different and the best way to prevent injuries and occupational illnesses may differ from one workplace to another.

The topics listed below form the key elements of a successful health & safety program. IHSA recommends that your program address each of these topics. Whether you're developing a new health & safety program or improving on your existing one, select the document that applies to your workplace or type of work and modify it to suit your company's requirements.

Health & safety program resources

The resources included for each topic consist of various documents, such as sample templates, checklists, and forms. These resources will help you establish a good foundation for writing and implementing a health & safety policy and program or identifying any areas where changes are needed to your current program.

Downloadable version

If you would like to download all of the resource documents to your computer and be able to access them without an internet connection, click the download button, save the file to your computer and extract the files.

Some of this material may be in PDF format. Click the icon to download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader.