OSHA guidelines help smaller firms create effective safety programs

While the soon-to-be-published ISO 45001 safety standard aims to help large and multinational employers implement workplace safety systems, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s safety and health program guidelines help small to midsize employers implement effective programs.

OSHA released its long-awaited update to its 1989 guidelines in October 2016, with a key change being the addition of a section specifically addressing multiemployer workplaces. The guidelines now include seven core elements — up from six — for a safety and health program: management leadership, worker participation, hazard identification and assessment, hazard prevention and control, education and training, program evaluation and improvement, and communication and coordination for host employers, contractors and staffing agencies.

Although the OSHA guidelines talk about some of the same topics as the ISO 45001 standard set for publication on March 12, they do not go into the same level of detail as the private-sector standard, experts say.

“If you’re a small company in particular and you don’t have the resources to do anything else, that helps you,” said Edwin Foulke, an Atlanta-based partner at Fisher & Phillips L.L.P., a former OSHA assistant secretary of labor and a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers’ technical advisory group on 45001. “But you’re going to see more and more companies go into 45001.”

“The OSHA program is particularly good for small businesses that are looking for a simple system,” said Victor Toy, chair of the ASSE’s technical advisory group and San Francisco-based principal with consultancy Insyst OH&S. “Those who are a little more advanced seek to adopt (ANSI Z10) or 45001 because they have a higher level of integration and concepts related to managing these risks.”