Safety Toolkit

OSHA considerations

Safety metrics & analytics

Safety and wellness

Safety Toolkit

The health and safety of employees is among the highest priorities of every business owner. The way to achieving a safe workplace is creating a culture of safety. This toolkit will guide you in the steps to creating a culture of safety and improve safety in your workplace.

The best injury is one that never occurred. Injury prevention is the tool that drives the success. But simply providing basic safety programs will not achieve that result. You must elevate the engagement of your employees in safety to ensure success. Once employees are engaged in their safety, an awareness of safety develops and preventing injuries becomes part of the job and culture of the organization. Click through the seven common factors found in a true safety culture.

A commitment to safety Safety treated as an investment, not a cost Safety part of continuous process improvement Training & information provided Workplace analysis & hazard prevention completed A “blame free” workplace environment Celebrate successes

Why build a safety culture

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A commitment to safety

Making safety a core value creates a vision that the workplace will be 100% accident-free. This starts from the top down and includes everyone. But it’s not merely putting up signs and mentioning it during a once a year meeting. It must be a standing agenda item, part of the company’s constant vision and a routine part of the business decision making process.

Safety is funded properly and not viewed as an investment in your employees. Safety is a part of the cost savings program because it’s the “vehicle” to lower claims and insurance costs and increase productivity.

Safety treated as an investment, not a cost

Resources and time must be spent to identify ways to strengthen and improve safety performance.

Safety part of continuous process improvement

People who are properly trained in safety are more aware of how their actions can affect themselves and others. Posters and signs are useful, but not enough. Training can be done in different formats, but should be ongoing and part of professional development.

Training & information provided

Data analysis is instrumental in devising appropriate control and prevention measures. Developing Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that target specific safety metrics is essential to understanding where the issues are and what’s working.

Workplace analysis & hazard prevention completed

This encourages employees to report incidents (injuries and near-misses) so that corrective actions can be taken. It’s important to find and correct the root cause of the incident. This is the best way to prevent reoccurrences.

A "blame free" workplace environment

Recognition, rewards, reinforcement, and positive feedback are important. Celebrate successes both big and small. Rewarding managers and employees for their commitment to safety is essential in reinforcing the psychology of safety.

Celebrate successes

Resources

Safety overview

Safety and wellness

Safety metrics & analytics

OSHA considerations

Safety overview

Resources

Creating an effective safety culture isn’t achieved overnight. While working towards it, it’s important to emphasize your commitment to safety by setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals. Establishing goals for your safety program provides a vital blueprint for implementing and directing the organization’s resources to achieve desired outcomes. Regardless of your company’s size, it’s a good idea to have safety-related goals in writing. Setting the right safety goals can have a measurable impact on the safety program and on the company. So, what steps can you take to help set the best and most meaningful goals for your company?

Six steps for setting effective safety goals

Make sure safety goals are realistic and achievable

Zero injuries is not a realistic goal. However, setting a goal to see a reduction of lost time injuries by 10 percent from the previous year, for example, allows your company to focus on minimizing the severity of injuries while also incorporating an element to improve from the previous year.

Do not create your safety goals in a vacuum

Involve other people, like your established company safety committee, to get different perspectives on the issues. There should also be representation from all levels of the company for varied opinions and viewpoints.

Make the goals measurable

A goal that states avoid soft tissue injuries is too vague to be measured and tracked. A measurable goal would be no more than 4 soft tissue injuries this year. Utilizing incident rates such as the total recordable incident rate (TRIR) or days away, restricted, or transferred rate (DART) can be a good measurement to start with as well since industry benchmark data is publicly available.

Review injuries sustained over the past year

Look for any trends in incidents or types of injuries. Once trends have been discovered, these can be used as a focus of upcoming goals.

Start at the top

Remember, management needs to participate in safety decisions. It’s as important as setting the budget. If employees are to buy into the goals, management needs to lead by example.

Keep trying

When goals are not met, go back and evaluate what went wrong. Involve key personnel and discuss what changes could be made to meet the goal in the future. If it becomes clear early in the year the goal is unattainable, adjust that goal for the year so there is still something to work towards.

It’s important to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your meetings and not be afraid to add or change agenda items as necessary. Also, decide as a group how often the committee meets. For a company with a buttoned up safety culture, quarterly is often sufficient. For those still getting their feet wet, monthly or every other month might make more sense, at least initially.

How to break the ice and start a safety committee

Icebreaker idea

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Icebreaker idea

Ask the committee to break into small groups and spend two or three minutes coming up with a list of everything that can be fixed using duct tape. You’ll get plenty of great suggestions. Compile everyone’s list as a group into one master. Around the time everyone starts looking confused as to what the point of that was, ask them to repeat the exercise, and instead take ten minutes to come up with a list of everything someone in their department could do with a ten pound lifting restriction. Not only will you come up with some great ideas for creating or expanding your Return to Work and modified duty programs, but your employees will feel great about contributing to the company in such a fun and unusual way.

A good place to start would be to select one or more employees from each department or division (depending on size) that have demonstrated strong communication and work safety skills to participate.

Then, set the first meeting date. In the first meeting, a fun icebreaker really sets the tone in terms of what you’d like to achieve, and that you can have fun in the process.

Once the ice is broken and the tone is set, outline an agenda of things you’d like to cover regularly at each meeting. Click the plus sign to see some suggestions.

Agenda suggestions

Review and provide an update on corporate safety goals and objectives Track and discuss each near miss, including how to prevent similar incidents in the future Track and discuss each claim, including how to prevent similar incidents in the future Track all employees currently away from work due to injury or on modified duty due to injury, and discuss the timetable and action plan for getting them back to full duty Track OSHA and job-specific trainings employees will require for upcoming jobs or general development Discuss safety incentive programs Provide an open forum for employee feedback

• • • • • • •

When writing the manual, ensure that not only the sections required by OSHA are in place, but try to include best practices policies as well. Write an organizational statement from management about the company’s commitment to a safe and healthy workplace. The manual should include the company’s chosen discipline program, so employees understand any consequences and discipline can be enforced fairly and consistently.

3. Use organic and fresh materials

Review manuals from other companies that conduct similar work. This will give you a good idea of where to start and some of the policies needed for a safe and effective workplace. When conducting research for the manual, identify specific hazards relative to your industry. Ask employees how they would like to see their jobs performed safer. Also set specific responsibilities for different personnel to ensure every type of employee, from management down, has some sort of responsibility when it comes to safety.

2. Add flavoring that’s industry and company specific

Since safety starts from the top down, management needs to be an integral part of this process. Employees should also get involved, as they will be affected most by the policies and are the ones completing the task. Utilize management and your safety committee to share ideas and write the manual.

1. Get the right mix of people together

A winning recipe for any safety program lies within your health and safety manual. A health and safety manual establishes the proper procedures for employees to work in a safe capacity. This manual will serve as management’s voice and position creating a safe environment for all concerned. The following ideas to consider when writing your manual.

Three key ingredients for writing a health and safety manual

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OSHA considerations

Safety metrics & analytics

Safety and wellness

Resources

Safety overview

At MMA, we’re all about “minimizing risk and maximizing health” and helping companies see the correlation between wellness and safety. Safety and wellness programs have many areas of “mutual impact” – providing a real benefit to employees and your company’s bottom line. These areas of impact can drive reduction in injuries and illness and positively impact related insurance premiums. As you’re formulating goals, starting a safety committee and creating your health & safety manual, it’s important to integrate wellness programs and tactics into the mix for a more holistic approach.

Correlation of wellness and safety

Three key ingredients for writing a health and safety manual

1. Get the right mix of people together

2. Add flavoring that’s industry and company specific

3. Use organic and fresh materials

Back injury prevention can be addressed as a safety program focusing on ergonomic improvements and employee training related to proper body mechanics. The wellness approach focuses on obesity reduction of the workforce which greatly increases the potential for a back injury and other medical complications, requiring significant healthcare costs.

Example

A company that cares about its employees’ health is often seen as a better place to work, and wellness programs can attract top talent in a competitive market. In addition, expressing a commitment to your employees’ health and safety can improve employee morale and strengthen retention.

Employees who make healthy changes and lower their health risk factors often have a reduced chance of a workplace injury, illness or a disability. This can save employers money not just on insurance premiums and benefits paid out, but also on the replacement cost of recruiting and training a new worker to replace one who is out of work for health reasons.

Reduced absenteeism can yield significant cost savings and return on your wellness investment. Healthier employees mean fewer sick days and/or working while ill.

An investment in your employees’ health may lower healthcare costs or slow the cost increases. Employees with more health risk factors, including obesity, smoking and diabetes, cost more to insure and pay more for healthcare. A wellness program can help employees with high risk factors make lifestyle changes to improve their quality of life and lower costs.

Why concentrate on wellness

Reduce workers’ compensation and disability costs

Control costs

Get more productive employees

Have less missed work

Improve moral and recruiting

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Safety and wellness

Safety overview

OSHA considerations

Safety metrics & analytics

Resources

OSHA compliance officers are out at millions of worksites each year assessing worksite safety and the measures put in place to protect employees. Here’s a list of the most frequently cited OSHA standards. Click on some of the standards for additional tips and best practices.

Frequently cited OSHA violations

Power industrial trucks

Control of hazardous energy

Scaffolding

Respiratory protection

Ladders

Hazard communication

Fall protection

Personal protective equipment

Electrical

Machine guarding

Note all of the inspector’s observations and take photos of the alleged violations. Do not argue with the officer on-site as to whether something is in violation of OSHA standards.

Step 5

Correct any apparent violations detected by the officer immediately and on the spot. The officer will record this and take your good faith actions into account when assessing citations and fines.

Step 4

Show only the sections of the facility that the officer came to inspect. Be aware that if an officer sees a violation of OSHA standards in open view, they can legally expand the inspection beyond the previously established boundaries.

Step 3

Notify your designated inspection team of OSHA’s arrival and gather them for an opening conference with the compliance officer. You have the right to know why the inspector is visiting your facility, so if he or she does not specify, be sure to politely ask. Also, establish whether the inspection is to cover the entire facility or only the areas involving a particular complaint.

Step 2

Greet the officer cordially, but ask to see the individual’s credentials right away if he or she does not immediately present them. Be sure to verify them by calling the nearest federal or state OSHA office.

Step 1

Top 5 steps for interacting with an OSHA compliance officer

Now that you know the most frequently cited violations and have some key best practices, it’s important to know what to do when the OSHA compliance officer comes knocking on you door. Get off on the right foot with these five steps:

OSHA inspections are stressful – organizing visits, collecting documentation and the ever- looming question: “Am I going to receive a citation?” Then after the inspection, there’s calm before the storm while you wait for the outcome. From the time of inspection, OSHA has six months to issue citations. The actual timeframes of when these will be issued vary depending on the area office and compliance officer. Unfortunately, many of these visits do end in citations being issued. Within the citation packet, there will be instructions on next steps. Often (if offered) companies are tempted to take the Expedited Informal Settlement Agreement (EISA). This option provides the opportunity to reduce the penalty by 50 percent if an outside consultant is hired or by 30 percent if you show evidence that the violations have been corrected. While this option can seem appealing since it provides fast closure, the EISA does not give companies the opportunity to discuss the violations with OSHA and informally contest the citations issued, called the OSHA Informal Conference. Another potential option within the packet will be “Discuss with OSHA.” This is a chance to meet with OSHA, either in person or telephonically, to discuss the citations issued and corrections that have been made since the inspection. In most cases, attending an informal conference and providing at least a plan of corrective actions will lead to a penalty reduction of 50 percent. In other cases, where the potential exists, this can even be an opportunity to change the severity of the citation (serious vs. other-than-serious) or have citations dropped altogether if you can prove they were unwarranted. Of course, there’s always the option to formally contest the citation. However, this is normally a long-drawn out process that would involve obtaining an OSHA attorney and going to court to fight the case. Unless the violation was clearly issued incorrectly and there’s documented proof to fight it, this option can be expensive and unnecessary. Regardless of the option chosen, any company that receives a citation will still need to show evidence of correction through the Certification of Abatement and post a copy of the citation and corrections for the timeframe specified in the packet.

I received an OSHA citation – now what?

Any company that receives a citation will need to show evidence of correction through the Certification of Abatement.

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Safety and wellness

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Putting measurements in place is a powerful tool in gauging the overall success of your safety program. There are various calculations and analytics you can do to see the impact of safety on your organization and use as guidance for any existing gaps.

Calculating metrics and analytics

Measuring the effectiveness of a safety program is a crucial, but sometimes forgotten step. The impact of safety activities has obvious benefits to protecting employees and also has a large impact on the financial health of the company. There are a variety of methods that can be used to measure safety programs: • Financial (overall cost of claims, average cost of claims, etc.) • Incident rates (utilizing OSHA 300 logs or other relative metrics)• Program compliance (audit scores, training participation, lag time, etc.)

Safety measuring methods

OSHA 300 logs are spreadsheets that track recordable employee injuries and are required by OSHA for employers with 10 or more employees in most industries. An annual summary is also required as part of these process which will total the types of injuries (medical treatment only, days away cases, etc.) along with hours worked for the organization. The numbers from these summaries are used to calculate two commonly used incident rates:

OSHA 300 logs

Aside from utilizing the OSHA 300 forms, frequency and severity can also be measured using other internal baselines such as number of claims per $xx payroll or cost of claims per $xx revenue. This allows you to accurately compare numbers each year by accounting for company changes such as growth or reductions. In addition to measuring overall annual claims and costs, strong metric programs include further breakdown such as losses by cause, losses by injury type, losses by department, etc. This provides the insight needed to ensure your safety efforts are focusing on the areas that are having the most impact. Ideally, a company will measure safety effectiveness throughout the year and interpret the results in a way that will direct future safety program activities with a goal toward continued improvement until zero losses are achieved. As with any other key performance indicator, management support and follow up is important.

Frequency / Severity

Calculating metrics and analytics

Safety measuring methods

OSHA 300 logs

Frequency / Severity

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a good reference for obtaining national industry averages for RIR and DART by NAICS or SIC codes. This provides a good point of comparison for your company to other similar companies in the U.S.

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Total recordable incident rate (also referred to as TRIR) measures the number of recordable injuries per 100 full-time employees. Days away, restricted, or transferred Rate (also referred to as DART rate) measures of number of severe recordable injuries (those that resulted in days away or restrictions) per 100 full-time employees.

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