Heat Stress Policy Template: A Ready-to-Adapt Document for EHS and HR Teams

Most organisations do not need another explainer on why heat is dangerous. They need the actual document: a written heat stress policy their leadership can approve, their supervisors can follow, and an inspector can review. This guide gives you that document. It walks through the nine sections every heat stress policy must contain, provides copy-and-adapt language for each one, and shows you where the template usually falls short: the emergency response clause.

What a heat stress policy is, and what it is not

A heat stress policy is a governance document. It states your organisation's commitment, defines who is responsible for what, sets the conditions that trigger action, and establishes how the policy is reviewed. It is short, stable, and signed at senior level.

It is not the same thing as a heat illness prevention plan. The prevention plan is the operational layer: site-specific hazard assessments, acclimatisation schedules, shift rotations, water logistics, and the step-by-step emergency procedure posted at each location. The policy authorises the plan and holds people accountable for running it. If you only have one document doing both jobs, it is almost certainly too vague to enforce and too long for anyone to read.

Use this template for the policy. Build the detailed plan separately, using the heat illness prevention plan template.

The nine sections every heat stress policy needs

Purpose and commitment. Why the policy exists and what the organisation commits to.
Scope. Who and what the policy covers: employees, contractors, temporary workers, indoor and outdoor settings.
Definitions. Heat stress, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, heat index, WBGT, acclimatisation, and the trigger levels.
Roles and responsibilities. Named accountabilities for management, supervisors, the EHS function, and workers.
Risk assessment requirements. The obligation to assess heat risk by job, location, and season, and to keep it current.
Prevention controls. The hierarchy of engineering, administrative, and personal controls the organisation will apply.
Trigger thresholds and required actions. What happens at each heat level, stated as rules rather than suggestions.
Emergency response. How a suspected heat stroke is handled, including on-site cooling before transport.
Training, recordkeeping, and review. Training frequency, records retained, and the review cycle.

Copy-and-adapt heat stress policy template

Replace every bracketed field. Keep the section order. Remove nothing without a documented reason.

1. Purpose and commitment

[Company Name] is committed to protecting workers from heat-related illness and injury. Heat stress is a recognised and preventable occupational hazard. This policy establishes the minimum requirements for identifying heat risk, preventing heat illness, and responding to heat emergencies across all [Company Name] operations. Compliance with this policy is mandatory for all personnel.

2. Scope

This policy applies to all [Company Name] employees, contractors, agency and temporary workers, and visitors performing work at [Company Name] sites. It covers both outdoor work and indoor work in environments where air temperature, humidity, radiant heat, physical exertion, or protective clothing can raise a worker's core body temperature. It applies year-round in [regions or facilities], and seasonally elsewhere from [start month] to [end month].

3. Definitions

Heat stress: the total physiological load on the body from environmental heat, physical work, and clothing.
Heat exhaustion: heavy sweating, weakness, dizziness, nausea, and clammy skin, with the worker still mentally coherent.
Heat stroke: core body temperature above 40 C (104 F) with confusion, loss of coordination, or unconsciousness. A life-threatening emergency.
Heat index: apparent temperature combining air temperature and relative humidity.
WBGT (wet bulb globe temperature): a heat exposure metric that also accounts for radiant heat and wind, used to set exposure limits.
Acclimatisation: the physiological adaptation to heat that develops over 7 to 14 days of gradual exposure.
Trigger levels: the defined heat conditions (see Section 7) at which specific controls become mandatory.

4. Roles and responsibilities

Senior management ([title]): approves this policy, allocates resources for controls and equipment, and reviews heat illness incident data annually.

Site or operations managers: ensure a current heat risk assessment exists for every location, that cooling equipment and water are available and maintained, and that trigger-level actions are enforced.

Supervisors: check heat conditions before and during each shift, implement the required actions for the current trigger level, conduct worker check-ins, remove any worker showing symptoms from the heat source, and initiate the emergency procedure.

EHS function: maintains this policy and the prevention plan, delivers training, tracks WBGT or heat index data, investigates all heat illness events and near-misses, and audits compliance.

Workers: follow the policy and training, drink water on the required schedule, use provided controls and rest breaks, monitor themselves and their assigned buddy, and report symptoms in themselves or others immediately without fear of penalty.

5. Risk assessment requirements

A written heat risk assessment must be completed for every job and location with foreseeable heat exposure, reviewed at least annually and after any change to process, workforce, or site layout, and after any heat illness incident. The assessment must identify affected tasks, exposure windows, applicable metric (heat index or WBGT), and workers with elevated individual risk (first 14 days in a hot job, return from illness or leave, age under 25 or over 55, pregnancy, and relevant medication use).

6. Prevention controls

[Company Name] applies controls in order of effectiveness:

Engineering: shade over outdoor work areas, ventilation, air conditioning or evaporative cooling indoors, insulation and radiant shielding near heat sources.
Administrative: schedule physically demanding work outside peak heat, rotate workers through high-exposure tasks, mandatory rest breaks, a formal acclimatisation schedule for new and returning workers, and a buddy system at elevated trigger levels.
Hydration: cool drinking water within a short walk of every work area, with workers prompted to drink approximately 250 ml every 15 to 20 minutes during heat exposure.
Personal: light and breathable clothing where PPE allows, and cooling garments for work in impermeable suits.

7. Trigger thresholds and required actions

Actions are mandatory, not advisory, at each level. [Adjust the exact values to your metric, region, and workforce; the structure stays the same.]

Level 1, Caution (heat index 27 to 32 C / 80 to 90 F): brief workers on heat illness signs, confirm water and shade are available, encourage the drinking schedule.
Level 2, High (heat index 32 to 39 C / 90 to 103 F): enforce the drinking schedule, minimum 15 minutes rest in shade or a cooled area every 2 hours, activate the buddy system, supervisor check-ins every 2 hours in person, verify cooling equipment is on site and ready.
Level 3, Very High or Extreme (heat index above 39 C / 103 F): reschedule or suspend non-essential physical work, one-to-one supervision of essential tasks, rest breaks every hour, continuous access to a cooled recovery area, and a designated heat emergency responder on shift.

New or unacclimatised workers move up one level of restriction relative to the table above.

8. Emergency response

If a worker shows signs of heat stroke (confusion, collapse, seizure, or core temperature above 40 C):

Call emergency services immediately and state a suspected heat stroke.
Begin whole-body cooling on site, before transport. The evidence-based standard is Cool First, Transport Second: cold water immersion is the fastest method and should be started within minutes. Where full immersion is not available, use continuous cold water dousing with fanning, ice packs to the neck, armpits, and groin, and ice sheets.
Continue cooling until core temperature reaches 38.9 C (102 F) or emergency services take over. Do not stop cooling for transport if cooling is still underway and EMS agrees.
Hand over the time symptoms began, the cooling started, and the method used.

Every [Company Name] site with Level 2 or higher exposure must hold cooling equipment capable of whole-body cold water immersion, deployable in under 2 minutes by a single operator, with its location and the designated responder named in the site emergency procedure.

9. Training, recordkeeping, and review

Training: all workers and supervisors before first heat exposure, refreshed annually before the heat season. Supervisor training additionally covers trigger-level enforcement and the emergency procedure.
Records retained: risk assessments, training rosters, heat condition logs, incident and near-miss investigations, and equipment inspection records, kept for [retention period].
Review: this policy is reviewed annually by the EHS function and after any serious heat illness event, with changes approved by senior management.

Approved by: [Name, title] Date: [date] Next review: [date]

Setting your trigger thresholds

The template uses heat index bands because they are simple to communicate and available from any weather service. If your work involves high radiant load (foundries, roofing, glass, asphalt) or heavy PPE, WBGT is the more accurate metric and NIOSH exposure limits should anchor your levels instead. Whichever you choose, state one metric in the policy and train supervisors to read it the same way every time. A threshold that is interpreted differently by two supervisors is not a threshold.

Regional guidance also matters. Some jurisdictions now set specific heat index or temperature triggers in regulation. Align your Level 2 and Level 3 values with the stricter of your local requirement and the guidance in this template. For a region-by-region view of exposure risk, see monitoring heat stroke risk by WBGT and region.

The emergency response clause most policies get wrong

The single most common failure in a heat stress policy is an emergency section that says "call 911 and move the worker to a cool area." That instruction loses the case. Exertional heat stroke damage is a function of how long core temperature stays above roughly 40 C. Waiting for an ambulance to arrive and then to reach a hospital can mean 30 to 60 minutes above that threshold. Cold water immersion started on site brings core temperature down at around 0.15 to 0.35 C per minute, fast enough that a worker cooled promptly and correctly has a near-zero fatality rate in the published series.

This is why Section 8 of the template names cooling before transport as a rule, and why it requires immersion-capable equipment on site rather than a first aid kit and hope. A policy that authorises the right response but leaves the site without the means to deliver it is only half a policy. For the underlying evidence and the cost of getting this wrong, see the cost of an unequipped heat stroke response.

Implementation and sign-off

A heat stress policy takes effect when three things are true: senior management has signed it, every affected site has a matching prevention plan and the equipment the policy requires, and supervisors have been trained on the trigger levels and the emergency procedure. Circulate the draft to operations and worker representatives before sign-off, set the first review date twelve months out, and post the emergency procedure, not the whole policy, at each work location.