In order to promote increased safety and health in small and medium sized businesses OSHA provides an On-site Consultation Program offering free and confidential advice. Priority for using this program is given to high-hazard worksites. The service is delivered by state governments using well trained professional staff who help the business:

  • Recognize and remove hazards from the workplace
  • Protect the workers from injury and illness
  • Prevent loss of life at the worksite
  • Cultivate informed and alert employees who take responsibility for their own and their coworkers' safety and for worksite safety as a whole
  • Improve employee morale

Consultants do not issue citations or penalties. Names and information are not reported to OSHA nor are any unsafe or unhealthful working conditions that the consultant uncovers. However companies are obliged to correct serious job safety and health hazards. Businesses are taught ways to:

  • Lower injury and illness rates
  • Decrease workers' compensation costs
  • Reduce lost workdays
  • Limit equipment damage and product losses

Companies that participate are eligible for recognition in OSHA's Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP).

CamGlass: A Case Study

Cameron Glass (CamGlass) of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, is a prototyping and fabrication company that makes the glass used in the cabs of road graders, back hoes, dozers, skid steers, farm and logging equipment. CamGlass was experiencing a high rate of workplace accidents, resulting in higher workers' compensation insurance costs in the late 1990s. Since its first consultation in 2000, CamGlass has reduced its injuries and illness rate by 82%. In 2011 it celebrated its tenth year in SHARP.

The CamGlass case demonstrates that a proactive approach to workplace safety can pay off. What is even more interesting is that some of the things CamGlass did were effective but not difficult or expensive to the company. For example, some of the CamGlass improvements were:

  • Holding "Tool Box" meetings with employees to communicate and review incidents for awareness training
  • Individual workplace hazard assessments made by both management and employees
  • Root cause investigations of accidents with corrective and preventive actions
  • Recommendations for safety improvement are communicated to management, supervisors, and employees

The company's workers compensation insurance premium was reduced in the last ten years by 38%.

"It takes a significant commitment at all levels in an organization to pursue and achieve SHARP certification, but the program works and the benefits to workplace safety and health are certainly worth it. I would highly recommend the Oklahoma On-site Consultation Program to other employers interested in improving workplace safety and health." stated Mr. Skotarek, the Safety Manager at CamGlass.

Take-Away Messages

A proactive approach to workplace safety can be beneficial:

  • The On-site Consultation Program may be available to your business—and it's free
  • The CamGlass case study shows that involving employees as well as managers in safety can identify and address potential safety issues before they cause trouble
  • Accidents hurt not only employees, they hurt business in the form of higher workmans' compensation premiums and potential fines, penalties, and lawsuits—why not prevent them before they hurt employees and cost employers?

References:

http://www.osha.gov/as/opa/quicktakes/qt060111.html#9

http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/success_stories/sharp/ss_camglass.html

http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/smallbusiness/sharp.html

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