The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) affects the bottom line nearly every industry, from asphalt workers to zookeepers.
In 2018, OSHA issued penalties of more than $73 million in the construction industry alone, based on 25,294 citations and with an average fine of $2,900. The recent emergence of coronaviruses has only complicated matters. Individual states may even have requirements that exceed federal regulations. The cost comparison of having a few Nurse in a Bag first aid bags around – even buying mini first aid kits in bulk – is negligible compared to the fines you could receive for not being prepared.
Many companies treat OSHA recordables as simply a cost of business, but it doesn’t have to be. Chris Lawrence, a regional manager of a large wood products manufacturer, reports that “along with the work-hardening activities [such as a strengthening program using resistance bands], PRE-tasks, and automation, the use of employee care kits [prepared individual first aid bags for a specific injury, such as one for strains, another for splinters, etc.] helped a sustained reduction of 57% in injuries requiring medical attention.” Translated into fiscal terms, such a reduction can result in a savings of thousands of dollars per year. OSHA issues both recordable (lesser injury) penalties as well as reportable (major injury) fines. Not only do these affect the bottom line, employee absence for recovery reflects an additional burden. It behooves every company interested in profitability and employee health to lower its recordable and reportable rates.
Here are 8 steps to take to lower your business’ recordable rate.
- Review your industry’s history. There are four categories of OSHA standards: General Industry, Construction, Maritime, and Agriculture. Which one (or more) applies to you? What injuries occur most often in your line of business? Are they preventable or one-offs? Have you taken measures to prevent the sorts of injuries that are most common in your industry, or have you been relying on luck and employees’ sense of self-preservation? List the ones that apply to you.
- Now dial down to your company in particular. Have you had OSHA recordables in the past, and what were they? Have you taken steps to mitigate those accidents? If not, do so immediately. For example, if you have been cited for failure to provide adequate eye- and face-protection measures, take steps now to have the proper equipment in place. Repeat citations are more costly and damaging to employee morale. Buying a few mini first aid kits wholesale is a great place to start to mitigate small, predictable injuries.
- Take that list you created in step 1 and look around. Take a walk on the shop floor, the lumber yards, and even the offices. Look for places where accidents might occur. Don’t just limit yourself to big machinery; is an office desktop copy machine precarious? Is a broom left where someone might trip over it? Are the floors slippery when cleaned?
- Take it a step further. For those injuries that you have had in the past, what could you have done to eliminate them? For sprain and strain injuries, could you educate your employees on how to move so that such injuries don’t occur? If trash is piled in a corner and might become flammable, put a trash can there and have it regularly emptied. Take action.
- Talk to your medical staff, whether it’s a visiting nurse, full-time professional, or anyone who deals with employee injuries. What sorts of issues do they see? Can you prevent those? If you have part-time medical help, what happens if that person is not on the premises? Can a supervisor access the everyday first aid equipment (bandages, antibiotic cream, cold packs, and
so forth)? What about truckers? Do they have first aid supplies available? - Talk to your employees. What are their concerns? Is equipment moving too quickly or too slowly? Are forklift drivers attentive to what’s around them? Are floors slippery, even when dry? Make health education a priority company wide, not just for line workers. Not only do you need at least one person well versed in OSHA regulations—and this person needs the authority to
enforce them–you need a chain of command to make sure everyone knows the regulations that pertain directly to them and their coworkers. If necessary, have the responsible person attend webinars or seminars on updated requirements. - Have a budget for OSHA requirements. Those posters you have to put up in common areas aren’t expensive, but fines ranging from $110 to $17,000 (deliberate, repeated infractions) are. Ignorance is no excuse and posters are updated frequently.
- Have a written manual outlining what to do in the event of an injury accident. What you don’t need are employees who think they feel fine but two weeks later are filing a complaint. Take immediate action for every injury—and document it.
One of our clients, after putting in place his program:
The end result was a significant reduction in lingering discomfort conditions for new hires and existing employees moving to new positions…. We now have very few injuries requiring medication attention and of the ones we do have, they are minor in nature and are usually self-induced by mishandling tools such as rakes, pike poles, and such.