Developing a Workplace Health and Safety Program 

Making workplace health and safety a priority at your organization is essential to keeping injury rates low, reducing costs and maintaining healthy, happy employees. If you don’t yet have a formal workplace health and safety program, or you’re looking to revamp the one you currently have, here are some tips for setting up a successful program. 

Understanding the Importance of Workplace Health and Safety 

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has certain requirements for workplace safety, including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) suited to individual jobs, maintaining equipment to avoid accidents and taking steps to correct hazards when they’re identified. 

Having a workplace health and safety program is more than just a requirement; it’s a key way that you protect your workers and your profits. Without a proper program, you’re likely to experience more workplace accidents and injuries, costing you thousands in workers’ comp claims, OSHA recordables and potential fines. 

How to Develop a Workplace Health and Safety Program 

If you’re looking to create a workplace health and safety program from scratch, or to improve one you’ve already got, here are some tips. 

Assess Workplace Hazards 

The first step to developing an effective workplace health and safety program is to know what hazards you’ll need to protect your workers from. Your needs will be different from those of a business in another industry, or even a different business in your same industry. 

Carefully evaluate your workplace, including reviewing reports of prior accidents, to develop a list of potential hazards that must be addressed. Some common workplace hazards include: 

• Scaffolding and ladders 

• Building features in poor repair, such as cracked flooring 

• Electrical hazards 

• Equipment operation hazards 

• Equipment maintenance hazard 

• Fire and explosion hazards 

• Work organization and process flow, including staffing 

• General work practices 

• Workplace violence risks 

• Ergonomic issues 

• Lack of proper emergency plans or procedures 

• Environmental exposure, such as particulates or adhesives 

• Noise hazards 

• Biological hazards 

• Weather hazards, such as heat 

Consider seeking input from your managers or workers, as they may have identified potential hazards about which you aren’t aware. Conducting a safety audit, either yourself or in partnership with a third party, can help you identify hazards that your program should address. 

Develop Safety Policies and Procedures 

Once you have identified the major hazards your workplace faces, you must create guidelines for your safety program. This includes ensuring that all employee job descriptions speak to health and safety requirements, putting in writing the responsibilities each worker bears for preserving workplace safety. 

Creating a comprehensive workplace health and safety plan requires you to account for emergency and nonroutine tasks and should be put in writing. Every worker must be given a copy upon employment, and you need to provide any updates to the plan to every worker when they’re made. 

Some things to include in your workplace health and safety program and plan, according to OSHA, include: 

• Fires and explosions 

• Chemical releases 

• Hazardous material spills 

• Startups after planned or unplanned equipment shutdowns 

• Nonroutine tasks, such as infrequently performed maintenance activities 

• Structural collapse 

• Disease outbreak 

• Weather emergencies and natural disasters 

• Medical emergencies 

• Workplace violence 

The more complete and detailed your plan, the better you and your team will be prepared to respond to an issue should one arise. 

Train and Educate Workers 

The more training your workers receive on your safety plan as a whole and specific situations, the more prepared they will be to confidently respond. It may seem as if frequent safety reminders and training sessions are overkill, but repetition breeds familiarity, and the more familiar workers are with the protocols, the more prepared they will be to calmly respond in an emergency. 

Having a big meeting to discuss your workplace health and safety program once it’s finalized is a key first step. Make sure everyone has a copy of the plan and go over important highlights from the plan.  

Schedule safety meetings on a regular basis — monthly or quarterly, depending on your organization’s needs — and provide more in-depth information and training on individual topics. If necessary, bring in a specialized safety training team to provide formalized safety training to your team.  

Adjust Your Program As Necessary 

Once your program is in place and your workers have received some training and education on it, plan for regular program evaluation sessions. These are times when you will go over the safety program, look at any accidents that have happened and discuss any changes that need to be made to your program to keep workers safer. 

Your workplace health and safety program is a living entity; you won’t be able to create it once and it will be set in stone forever. Don’t be afraid to add new facets to your program so workers feel safe and protected on the job. 

Your Partner in Workplace Safety 

Keeping workers safe and healthy is our main priority at Medcor. Our comprehensive safety training service uses experienced safety trainers to help you protect worker health and safety every day. Your team gets the knowledge and tools they need to take safety firmly in hand, helping you reduce accidents. Learn more by speaking with an advocate today.