What is OHS?
Written by Nicolai Bjerknes Slinning, Founder, Sydera.io Technologies AS. Last reviewed .
In Norway, HMS — health, environment and safety — is the umbrella term for everything an employer does so that work does not make people ill or injured, and so that work is sound even before anything has gone wrong. In English it is usually called OHS or HSE.
The three parts
Health means work should not make people ill, physically or mentally. Environment means the working environment: air, light, noise, ergonomics, organisation, working hours and the social setting. Safety means avoiding accidents and injury. In practice they connect: a badly organised working day is both an environment and a health question.
What the law requires
The Working Environment Act section 3-1 requires the employer to carry out systematic OHS work, and section 4-1 sets the requirements for the working environment. Section 5 of the Internal Control Regulations states what must be in writing. Responsibility rests with the employer, employees must take part, and the safety representative has a role of their own.
Where the work begins
Not with a form, but with a decision: what has the employer decided applies? The handbook says what has been decided. The routine says how it is done. Systematic work means the two hang together — and that what happens leaves traces that can be reviewed.
What OHS is not
It is not individual cases after something has happened, and it is not collecting health data about employees. Much of what looks like OHS work is really casework that starts too late. The line between what is covered by default and what has to be asked for is often the most important thing in the whole governance document.
Who it applies to
The duty follows from having employees, not from industry or size. The employer is responsible. Employees have a duty to take part. A safety representative must be elected where the law requires it, and has a role of their own in looking after employees' interests. Hired-in staff and contracted services are not outside: where several undertakings have employees at the same workplace, OHS work must be coordinated.
The four parts in practice
In practice OHS work is four things. Mapping: what can go wrong here. Risk assessment: how likely, how serious. Measures: what we do about it, by whom, by when. Follow-up: what happens when something occurs anyway, and what we learned. Everything else — forms, systems, courses — supports those four. If one is missing, it helps little that the other three are well documented.
The psychosocial working environment counts too
The Norwegian Working Environment Act sets requirements for the organisational and psychosocial working environment, not only the physical one. Workload, unclear roles, working hours, conflict handling and the ability to influence your own working day all belong to OHS. This is the part most often missing from mapping, because it is harder to measure than noise and ladder heights. It can still be mapped: through fixed questions in appraisals, in safety inspections, and in reviews of workload.
Common misunderstandings
«OHS is the safety representative's responsibility» — no, they have a role; the employer carries the responsibility. «We are too small» — the duty applies regardless of size. «We will buy a system and be done» — a system keeps order in decisions you still have to make. «We offer accommodation on request» — that covers the unforeseen, not the predictable, and should not be the whole answer.
What to do first
Find out what has actually been decided here, and where it is written down. With nothing in writing, start from an ordinary working week and map one page. With a document in hand, check whether it says what happens when something is found. That is where most documents are thinnest.
One governance document reviewed free of charge. We read the governance logic, not employees. The document must not contain personal data.
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Frequently asked questions
- What does HMS stand for?
- Helse, miljø og sikkerhet — health, working environment and safety.
- Who is responsible?
- The employer. Employees must take part, and the safety representative looks after employees' interests in OHS work.
- Does it apply to every employer?
- Yes. The scope is adapted to the nature, risk and size of the undertaking, but the duty of systematic OHS work applies to anyone with employees.
- What is the difference between HSE and internal control?
- HSE is the subject area: health, working environment and safety. Internal control is how the work is governed — mapping, routines, deviation handling and review. Internal control is the governance logic behind HSE work.
- What are the most common mistakes?
- Routines that describe something other than what is actually done, responsibility that is not placed on a named role, deviations reported but never closed, and an annual review that leaves no trace.