Integrating Occupational Safety Management into Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Frameworks

Organizations increasingly recognize that occupational health and safety (OHS) risks are not isolated operational concerns but systemic exposures with direct implications for enterprise volatility, financial performance, and long-term resilience. Yet, in practice, OHS management frequently remains siloed from Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) governance structures. This study advances the discourse by proposing the Integrated OHS–ERM Convergence Model (IOECM), a layered integration framework that structurally embeds OHS within enterprise risk governance, harmonized risk processes, integrated data intelligence, and safety culture dynamics. Grounded in systems theory and high-reliability organization principles, the study employs a qualitative critical review methodology synthesizing contemporary literature across healthcare, industrial, and financial sectors. The analysis introduces an OHS–ERM integration maturity model and demonstrates, through synthetic longitudinal validation metrics, how progressive integration can simultaneously reduce lagging indicators (Total Recordable Incident Rate, severity rates, and loss costs) while strengthening leading indicators (near-miss reporting, risk visibility, and employee safety engagement). Findings suggest that meaningful integration requires more than reporting alignment; it demands governance-level accountability, unified risk taxonomies, centralized risk registers, predictive analytics capability, and leadership-driven cultural transformation. Organizations adopting structurally embedded integration architectures are better positioned to mitigate volatility, protect human capital, optimize risk capital allocation, and enhance strategic decision-making. The IOECM contributes a replicable conceptual artifact for bridging OHS and ERM scholarship and offers a practical roadmap for enterprises seeking holistic risk governance in increasingly complex operating environments.