A safety management system (SMS) is a formal, top-down, organization-wide approach to managing safety risk and assuring the effectiveness of safety risk controls. It is designed to manage safety risk in the workplace, with the goal of reducing risk to a level that is as low as is reasonably practicable to prevent people from getting hurt. A safety management system is a systematic, explicit, and comprehensive process for managing safety risks, and it provides for goal setting, planning, and measuring performance. The key processes of a safety management system are hazard identification, occurrence reporting, risk management, performance measurement, and quality assurance.

A safety management system is woven into the fabric of an organization and becomes part of the culture, the way people do their jobs. It includes systematic procedures, practices, and policies for the management of safety risk. The foundation to an effective safety management system is that of effective risk management, which involves the identification, assessment, evaluation, and control (or risk treatment) of risk.

Safety management should be considered as a part of the overall business management system of an organization and not an add-on to it. Increasingly, management standards across a range of business functions such as environment, quality, and safety are now being designed so that these traditionally disparate elements can be integrated and managed within a single business management system and not as separate and stand-alone functions.

A safety management system is crucial in continuing to operate and grow the business, especially in high-risk industries such as aviation, energy, maritime, and construction. With a safety management system in place, organizations can regularly monitor and highlight any safety hazards or control risks and run tests of controls to ensure their effectiveness.

In summary, a safety management system is a collection of structured, company-wide processes that provide effective risk-based decision-making for daily business. It is a systematic, explicit, and comprehensive process for managing safety risks, and it provides for goal setting, planning, and measuring performance.