1. Implementing an Effective Safety and Health Program
This presentation is designed to assist trainers conducting OSHA 10-hour General Industry outreach training for workers. Since workers are the target audience, this presentation emphasizes hazard identification, avoidance, and control – not standards. No attempt has been made to treat the topic exhaustively. It is essential that trainers tailor their presentations to the needs and understanding of their audience.
This presentation is not a substitute for any of the provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 or for any standards issued by the U.S. Department of Labor. Mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Labor.

2. Benefits of Effective Safety and Health Programs
Reduces work-related injuries and illnesses
Increases productivity
Reduces workers’ compensation and insurance costs
Improves morale
Safety and health programs are recommended for all general industry businesses, but, at this point, are voluntary.
Accidents are more expensive than most people realize because of the hidden costs. Some costs are obvious — for example, Workers’ Compensation claims which cover medical costs and indemnity payments for an injured or ill worker. These are the direct costs of accidents.
But what about the costs to train and compensate a replacement worker, repair damaged property, investigate the accident and implement corrective action, and to maintain insurance coverage? Then there are the costs related to schedule delays, added administrative time, lower morale, increased absenteeism, and poorer customer relations. These are the indirect costs of accidents.

3. Major Elements
An effective occupational safety and health program includes the following 9 elements:
A Written Safety and Health Policy
Visible Senior Management Leadership
Employee involvement and Recognition
Safety Communication
Orientation and training
Documented Safe Work Practices
Safety Program Coordination
Return to Work Program
Internal Program Verification
The best Safety and Health Programs involve every level of the organization, instilling a safety culture that reduces accidents for workers and improves the bottom line for managers.
What are the common characteristics of a safety and health culture?
Management believes that safety and health on the job is as important a company goal as other organizational objectives, such as cost control, quality, and productivity.
Individuals within the organization believe they have a right to a safe and healthy workplace.
- Each person accepts personal responsibility for ensuring his or her own safety and health.
- Everyone believes he or she has a duty to protect the safety and health of others.

4. A Written Safety and Health Policy
The policy should be signed by the top company official and express the employer’s commitment to workplace safety and health.
It should include responsibilities for managers, supervisors, team leaders and employees.
All new hires should be provided with a copy to reinforce that safety is a priority.
Posting the policy in common areas and/or including it with a paycheck once a year will ensure that all employees are aware of the company’s focus on safety.

5. Visible Senior Management Leadership
It should be apparent to everyone in the company that safety is an organizational value.
Senior management should attend training sessions and conduct safety audits in their departments.
They could conduct accident investigations and participate in new hire safety orientation.
By taking the lead, management ensures that safety is, in fact, an organizational value.
Management must be committed to safety and health protection as much as other organizational purposes.
Management leadership and employee involvement are tied together because one is not effective without the other. A plant manager can be totally committed, but if employees follow blindly or are not involved, problems will only temporarily be solved.

6. Employee Involvement and Recognition
If a company understands when and why employees are at risk, they can more easily prevent injuries. That is why it is important to involve and recognize the workforce.
Safety committees are a good option but they are not effective for all workplaces.
Another way to involve employees is with risk surveys. For instance, if fire prevention is a concern, employees could be asked to identify: missing extinguishers, inappropriate storage containers, or potential ignition sources. The employees could use an inspection card that they turn in to the human resource department. Employees that identify any target hazards can be publicly recognized for their involvement. The following month, a survey card on a different topic such as ergonomic hazards could be distributed.
Recognition for participating in such activities will encourage greater employee involvement and an abundance of ideas.
Communicate responsibility for all program aspects

7. Safety Communication
As the old cliché goes, communication is the key to success.
How do all levels of employees understand what your goals are?
For instance, communication regarding whether or not important safety activities are being performed will ensure that the activities are actually performed.
Such activities may include: timely reporting of injuries and management attendance at training sessions
Employees must commit to safety and health protection for themselves and fellow workers.
Examples: inspection or hazard analysis teams; developing or revising safe work rules; training new hires or co-workers; assisting in accident investigations.

8. Orientation and Training
Are new hires put to work without proper knowledge of the risks they face or the safe work rules?
Orientation must be job specific and documented.
Job specific training allows for better enforcement of safe work practices. If the employee signs off on a job-specific safety orientation form, they can be held accountable for following the job-specific safety requirements.
Annual or refresher training can also be made more effective and efficient by developing a training matrix that identifies all the training to be provided by topic and by job title.
BMSO or BWC Safety Consultant assist with determining the right topics for the right job titles.

9. Documented Safe Work Practices
Identify, document and distribute both general and job-specific safe work practices.
Have them posted in the work area.
Can be made available electronically
Provide employees with copies and have all employees sign a statement that they have read, understand and will abide by your policies.
This can be a extremely useful in a WC hearing or OSHA inspection!
Management must provide the resources and authority so all personnel can find the hazards in the worksite and, once found, eliminate or control those hazards.

10. Safety Program Coordination
While safety should be everyone’s job, it’s a great idea to have an individual that can coordinate and execute the organization’s safety program.
This individual should be responsible for continuously getting educated, researching and looking for the latest and greatest in safety.
The Safety Program Coordinator should bring what they learn back to the organization and work with other employees to improve the program.
They could also be the point of contact for all employee safety concerns/suggestions
Job Hazard Analysis (JHA)
This involves studying and recording each step of a job, identifying existing or potential job hazards and determining the best way to perform the job to reduce or eliminate hazards. Jobs that were initially designed to be safe may change over time so they have hazards or require unsafe operations. Job safety analysis should form a base for the comprehensive survey. It includes analyzing planned and new facilities, processes, materials, and equipment.
-- See Publication #3071, Job Hazard Analysis
OSHA’ s Consultation Service
For small businesses, OSHA-funded, state-run consultation services can conduct a comprehensive survey at no cost. Many workers’ compensation carriers and other insurance companies offer expert services to help their clients evaluate safety and health hazards. Larger businesses may find the needed expertise at the company or corporate level.
-- See for more information
Industrial hygiene survey: at a minimum, all chemicals and hazardous materials in the plant should be inventoried, the hazard communication program should be reviewed, and air samples analyzed. For many industries, a survey of noise levels, a review of the respirator program, and a review of ergonomic risk factors are needed.

11. Return to Work Program
To control workers’ compensation expenses, it is important to bring injured workers back in a productive capacity as quickly as medically appropriate.
Employees that transition back to work on modified duty before they are fully recovered have been known to heal faster.
Injured worker restrictions, which are provided by the employees’ physician, should never be exceeded.
Combined with other cost containment measures such as wage continuation while the employee is off, an early return to work will reduce the cost of the claim and as a result reduce premium.
The injured worker should know that the company is concerned about the employees’ recovery. Keep in regular contact with the employee. Stay in touch and stay informed.
Discuss alternate jobs with the injured employee and always communicate offers to return to work via certified mail.

12. Internal Program Verification
How to verify that your H&S program is working?
Performance must be compared against goals at least once a year
Most organizations measure incidents and/or lost work days with a goal to have a decrease of both compared to the prior year. This is called a Lagging Indicator.
It is also important to measure program activities such as the number of audits, Fix-it items completed, near misses reported or safety committee meetings completed. These are called Leading Indicators
Goals could easily be set for each. For instance the Safety Program Coordinator could require that an audit of each department be completed once a month. The safety committee could be required to meet ten times a year.
Lastly, the workforce’s buy-in to the program is an absolute necessity.
Informal discussions and formal surveys can be used to gauge buy-in.

13. Safety and Health Inspections
Conduct regular (usually weekly) site inspections
Establish daily work area inspection procedures
Develop and use a checklist
Provide a reliable system for employees, without fear of reprisal, to notify management about apparent hazardous conditions and to receive timely and appropriate responses
Fix-it List
5S – A place for everything, Everything in its place.
Routine site safety and health inspections are designed to catch hazards missed at other stages. This type of inspection should be done at regular intervals, generally on a weekly basis. In addition, procedures should be established that provide a daily inspection of the work area.
You can use a checklist already developed or make your own, based on:
- Past problems
- Standards that apply to your industry
- Input from everyone involved
- Your company's safety practices or rules
Important things to remember about inspections are:
- Inspections should cover every part of the worksite
- They should be done at regular intervals
- In-house inspectors should be trained to recognize and control hazards
- Identified hazards should be tracked to correction
Information from inspections should be used to improve the hazard prevention and control program.

14. Additional Worksite Analysis
Investigate accidents and “near miss” incidents, so that their causes and means for prevention are identified
Analyze injury and illness trends, so that common cause patterns can be identified and prevented
Your TPA can help with this.
Six key questions should be answered in the accident investigation and report: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Thorough interviews with all involved are necessary. The primary purpose of the investigation is to prevent future occurrences. Therefore, the results of the investigation should be used to initiate corrective action.
Review of the OSHA injury and illness forms is the most common form of pattern analysis, but other records of hazards can be analyzed for patterns. Examples are inspection records, workers’ compensation claims, and employee hazard reporting records.

15. Hazard Prevention and Control
Start by determining that a hazard or potential hazard exists
Where feasible, prevent hazards by effective design of job or job site
If the hazard cannot be eliminated, use hazard controls
Eliminate or control hazards in a timely manner
OSHA Safety & Health Management Systems eCat
This eCAT (electronic Compliance Assistance Tool) will help you review and evaluate key aspects of your Safety and Health Program, if you have one. If you do not have one, it could help you think about elements of a good program. It is straightforward and very easy to use.
OSHA invites you to try out this tool, and welcomes your comments and suggestions.

16. Controlling the Hazards
To prevent and control hazards:
Engineering controls
Administrative controls
Personal protective equipment
Safe work practices communicated
via training, positive reinforcement,
correction of unsafe performance,
and enforcement
Engineering controls Where feasible and appropriate, the first and best strategy is to control the hazard at its source. Engineering controls do this, unlike other controls that generally focus on the employee exposed to the hazard. The basic concept is that the work environment and the job itself should be designed to eliminate hazards or reduce exposure to hazards.
Administrative Controls Includes exercise breaks and rotation of workers. These types of controls are normally used in conjunction with other controls.
Personal Protective Equipment PPE is a supplementary method of control via clothing or equipment when hazard exposure cannot be engineered completely out, and when other forms of control cannot provide sufficient additional protection. Remember, PPE is the last level of control!
Safe Work Practices Include your company’s general workplace rules and other operation-specific rules. For example, even when a hazard is enclosed, exposure can occur when maintenance is necessary.

17. Hazard Prevention Planning
Maintain the facility and equipment
Emergency planning
Training and drills, as needed
Medical program
First aid on site
Physician and emergency care nearby

18. Specific Training Needs
Hazard recognition
Training required in standards
Emergency response
Accident investigation
Emergency drills

19. Safety and Health Orientation
Employees must understand the hazards they may be exposed to and how to prevent harm to themselves and others from hazard exposure
Orientation training must be given to site and contract workers

20. Supervisor Responsibilities
Analyze work to identify potential hazards in area of responsibility
Maintain physical protections in work areas
Reinforce employee training through performance feedback and, if needed, enforcement of safe work practices
Managers must understand their safety and health responsibilities, as described under the Management Commitment and Employee Involvement element of the guidelines.

21. Summary Effective worker safety and health programs:
Reduce work related injuries and illnesses
Improve morale and productivity
Reduce workers’ compensation costs
Include these four elements:
Management commitment and employee involvement
Worksite analysis
Hazard prevention and control
Safety and health training
For more information:
- See OSHA's Voluntary Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines. Federal Register (1989, January 26), (54 FR 3904).
It is available at the OSHA technical link for Safety and Health Programs at