5 Reasons to Join OSHA’s Safe + Sound Campaign
Safety and health programs are vital to the operation of any business. These initiatives help prevent workplace injuries and illnesses—along with improving compliance, reducing costs, engaging workers, boosting productivity, and promoting more efficient employee workflows. And thanks to quality programs like OSHA’s year-round Safe + Sound campaign, employers can proactively work toward maximizing safety in the workplace.
If your company is looking for an opportunity to kickstart its own safety and health program, there’s no better time than during OSHA’s Safe + Sound week—August 12-18, 2019. This nationwide event is dedicated to celebrating businesses who have incorporated a safety and health program into their workplace. Businesses who participate in the campaign work on encouraging worker participation—and building a systematic approach for identifying and eliminating safety hazards across their organization.
Why should your business join OSHA’s Safe + Sound campaign? There are several benefits to the campaign, along with plenty of information that can assist your company in creating a stronger, safer, and more transparent workplace culture. By participating in the campaign, your company can also demonstrate its commitment to the safety and health of your employees.
1. Reduce Workplace Injuries & Illnesses
Incorporating a safety and health program into your business can dramatically decrease the risk of employee injuries and illnesses. A good program will work to educate employees on what sort of hazards they should be looking for in the workplace—along with how to properly manage and remove them. Employees should also be trained on how to report injuries, illnesses, and near misses. A thorough training plan will empower employees with specific safety information that’s tailored to their unique industry and work environment. A safety and health program also works to correct potential safety problems in a timely manner before they become larger issues.
2. Improve Compliance
By participating in OSHA’s year-round event, your company can improve compliance with various industry rules and regulations. Staying on top of safety best practices is an essential step to avoiding fines, citations, injuries, illnesses, and more. By conducting an assessment of hazards in the workplace, your team might find areas where its facilities are lacking. Do you have the proper physical safeguards? Are there safety signs and tags that adequately identify hazardous areas or provide necessary information? By incorporating these regular assessments, your company can stay up to date on OSHA’s specific rules, regulations, and standards.
3. Reduce Costs
Running a business is expensive, especially if your employees are being injured on the job. By incorporating a safety and health program into your business model, your team can reduce costs in workers’ compensation premiums, time away from work, and expenses for hiring and training replacement workers. These programs can also mitigate expenses for losses or damage to material, machinery, and property. Reducing costs in these areas allows you to reinvest these funds into new projects, better training, or upgraded machinery to boost your bottom line.
4. Engage Workers & Boost Productivity
A high-quality safety and health program will increase the engagement of employees—as well as overall productivity. With adequate training, workers will know how to efficiently operate machines, identify hazards quickly, and address them properly. By encouraging participation from employees in a program geared toward safety, you can work to build up a stronger and more productive safety culture within your organization.
5. Improve Communication
Having the safest possible workplace requires clear and efficient communication. It can be incredibly challenging to spread critical information on new safety rules and regulations, training procedures, and emergencies to every relevant employee. Thankfully, an in-depth safety and health program can help with driving these communication efforts. Formalized programs enable your team to spread essential information in a timely manner—and work to create an open, honest environment for employees to express their questions and concerns regarding safety.
Create a Safer Workplace with Stronghold Safety
To maximize workplace safety and productivity, you need to create a collaborative, safety-first culture. By encouraging participation in OSHA’s Safe + Sound campaign, your team will come one step closer to developing that culture—while reducing safety risks and improving worker productivity in the process. But staying compliant with OSHA standards is just the beginning.
By partnering with Stronghold Safety Engineering, we can help you identify areas of risk (and opportunities for improvement) across your machine operations. From machine guarding assessments to remediation services, we offer a host of safety solutions to safeguard your employees and machines. If you’re ready to get serious about protecting your most important asset, then contact Stronghold Safety today. Together, we can create a stronger, safer workplace for every employee.