If you are a small or medium business and are looking for guidance on how to create a step by step safety program, OSHA has the resource for you!  OSHA has just published a new and improved update to their Recommended Practices for Health and Safety Programs guidelines. OSHA believes that by using their recommendations as a guideline benefits such as “improvements in products, process and service quality, better workplace moral, improved employee recruiting and retention and a more favorable image and reputation” can occur.

OSHA wrote it’s guidelines around seven main elements that must be present in every safety program. Not only does this new resource list the elements for you it gives suggestions on how to effectively implement them into your facility.

The seven core elements that OSHA lists are as follows:

• Management Leadership: Management makes safety and health a main priority within a facility. They lead by example by striving for continued improvement, setting goals and expectations and providing training and resources for all employees.
• Worker Participation: Workers must feel comfortable discussing health and safety problems, injuries and improvement with management. Barriers, such as language, should not exist and all employees should be involved in the health and safety process.
• Hazard Identification and Assessment: Assess the workplace in order to identify hazards and then put procedures into place that will keep identifying these hazards throughout the facility.  Once identified, hazards must be investigated to find the root cause.
• Hazard Prevention and Control: Employers and workers must work together to identify, manage and solve safety problems. The plan selected must be implemented, controlled and tracked.
• Education and Training: All workers, supervisors and managers are trained on how the program works and what their rights are. Everyone must work proactively in order to notice new hazards before they happen.
• Program Evaluation and Improvement: The program should not become stagnant. Checks must be performed in order to make sure the program is working effectively and is being tracked correctly.  Improvements can then be made.
• Communication and Coordination for Host Employers, Contractors and Staffing Agencies: All parties should be on the same page when it comes to expectations of employees.  Health and safety expectations must be communicated and matching.

For more details on these seven core elements take a look at the Health and Safety Program pdf above or the guideline’s website.   OSHA also provides 10 simple steps on how to get started:

• Set safety and health as a top priority
• Lead by example
• Implement a reporting system
• Provide training
• Conduct inspections
• Collect hazard control ideas
• Implement hazard controls
• Address emergencies
• Seek input on workplace changes
• Make improvements

Not only does the guideline’s website provide information on the newly published recommendations, it also provides a way to cross reference other OSHA recommendations and rules.  Cross referencing gives additional insight on how you can implement an effective plan.

SLIPNOT knows that having a health and safety plan in place is only the beginning of keeping workers on their feet.  By providing long lasting safety flooring options, SLIPNOT can play a huge role in an overall safe facility.