To Make It Even More Difficult...

Talking to employers over the years, I have heard many say that when it comes to employee safety, one of the most difficult things for an employer to do is to develop their company safety program. You have to decide what policies you will put in place, what procedures will be needed for the type of work you perform, and how you will handle meeting regulatory requirements like OSHA's.

To make it even more difficult, you also need to establish a program that your company can also implement and easily manage. If you don't, your safety program will provide little or no value to your company.

And when I talk about value I'm talking about protecting your company from both the direct and indirect costs associated with employee accidents in the workplace. If you would like to learn more about the direct and indirect costs, check out these two links to past Safety E-QuickTips.

Direct Costs         Indirect Costs

So where do you start?

First, you need to decide if you're going to develop your program in-house or if you're going to work with a safety consulting company.

If you choose to handle everything in-house, you'll need to make sure you set aside enough time to develop, implement and manage your program.

Developing your program can be a very time consuming task because you will need to make sure that your program includes safety information that is related to the work you perform while meeting OSHA and any other local, state and federal requirements.

That being said, if you are considering developing your safety program in-house, you may want to take a few minutes to determine the value of your time. There are currently safety consulting companies that not only provide programs online that are ready to implement, but even update the programs as needed at a much lower price that doing it yourself.

Today I would like to talk about how to establish your company safety policies and procedures.

Whether you decide to develop your program in-house or work with a consulting company, let's take a look at what you'll need to include in your program.

OSHA says you must provide your employees a workplace that is free from recognizable hazards. To support this requirement, they have developed industry safety standards such as 29 CFR 1926 for construction and 29 CFR 1910 for general industry.

To meet these requirements you should consider including the following:

General Safety Policies and Procedures

Include items that apply to all job site situations such as fire extinguishers, first aid kits, housekeeping, etc.

Of course, your program should include some method of ensuring your employees are trained and aware of their obligation to work in a safe manner.

Workplace inspections and enforcement procedures would also apply to all workplace situations.

Workplace Specific Policies and Procedures

Here you should include items as appropriate, such as ladders, hand tools, power tools, and working with machinery, electrical cords, etc. Choose safety topics based on your employees' exposure.

If you are a contractor, make sure to include topics on hazards created by other trades because as I mentioned above, OSHA says you must provide your employees a workplace that is free from recognizable hazards. They don't say who created the hazard.

If you are in manufacturing, make sure to address hazards created by the equipment your employees are using on a daily basis.

Specific OSHA Required Programs

Within your safety program, you must include the topics, such as those listed below, if they apply to your operations:

• Bloodborne Pathogens
• Control of Hazardous Energy
• Fall Protection
• Hazard Communication
• Hearing Conservation
• Permit-Required Confined Space Entry
• Powered Industrial Trucks
• Respiratory Protection
• Scaffolds

Do not include programs you do not need. For example, if your employees are never involved in permit-required confined space entry, there is no reason to include that in your program.

If you are looking at developing your safety program in-house, here are a few ideas that might make your job a little easier.

Look within your company and draw on the expertise of your supervisors and other employees to assist in your safety program development.

Establish a dialogue between you and your employees to gain insight to their safety concerns. This puts you into a position to resolve them.

Review your accident and injury logs (OSHA Form 300). This will point out safety areas that must be addressed.

Check with your trade associations to see if they can help. Some associations provide safety programs and services focusing on their specific trade as part of their dues.

Remember, if you put your company safety program together and then don't take the time to implement and manage it, it will do little to protect your employees, your company reputation, or profits.

Next week we'll talk about how to effectively communicate your safety program and procedures to your employees.