Establishing a safety and health program in your workplace is one of the most effective ways of protecting your most valuable asset: your workers. Losing workers to injury or illness, even for a short time, can cause significant disruption and cost to you as well as the workers and their families. It can also damage workplace morale, productivity and reputation.
Here are some simple steps you can take to get started. Completing these steps will give you a solid base from which to take on some of the more structured actions presented in the recommended practices.
1. SET SAFETY AND HEALTH AS A TOP PRIORITY
Always set safety and health as the top priority. Tell your workers that making sure they finish the day and go home safely is the way you do business. Assure them that you will work with them to find and fix any hazards that could injure them or make them sick.
2. LEAD BY EXAMPLE
Practice safe behaviors yourself and make safety part of your daily conversations with workers.
3. IMPLEMENT A REPORTING SYSTEM
Develop and communicate a simple procedure for workers to report any injuries, illnesses, incidents (including near misses/close calls), hazards, or safety and health concerns without fear of retaliation. Include an option for reporting hazards or concerns anonymously.
4. PROVIDE TRAINING
Train workers on how to identify and control hazards using, for example, OSHA’s Hazard Identification Training Tool.
5. CONDUCT INSPECTIONS
Inspect the workplace with workers and ask them to identify any activity, piece of equipment, or material that concerns them. Use checklists, such as those included in OSHA’s Small Business Handbook, to help identify problems.
6. COLLECT HAZARD CONTROL IDEAS
Ask workers for ideas on improvements and follow up on their suggestions. Provide them time during work hours, if necessary, to research solutions.
7. IMPLEMENT HAZARD CONTROLS
Assign workers the task of choosing, implementing, and evaluating the solutions they come up with.
8. ADDRESS EMERGENCIES
Identify foreseeable emergency scenarios and develop instructions on what to do in each case. Meet to discuss these procedures and post them in a visible location in the workplace.
9. SEEK INPUT ON WORKPLACE CHANGES
Before making significant changes to the workplace, work organization, equipment, or materials, consult with workers to identify potential safety or health issues.
10. MAKE IMPROVEMENTS
Set aside a regular time to discuss safety and health issues, with the goal of identifying ways to improve the program.
From OSHA’s Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs