Many businesses use the start of the new year to develop and launch their safety goals and objectives for the next 12 months. Thus, many employers take the opportunity to start off the first quarter by focusing on their required annual U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandatory compliance "refresher" safety training.
Mandatory OSHA safety training requirements and related OSHA safety training resources can be accessed on the OSHA's training site and through the agency's Safety Training Library. The OSHA 2254 publication details training requirements in the OSHA standards.
Small business owners will find OSHA's Small Business Safety and Health Handbook helpful in prioritizing and fulfilling OSHA safety training obligations. Savvy site safety managers and safety committees will systematically go through the safety checklists applicable to their establishments during the first quarter, documenting annual refresher safety risk assessments and mandatory OSHA safety training addressing their workplace exposures.
The handbook also highlights the benefits of implementing an effective safety and health program, provides a variety of self-inspection checklists for employers to identify their workplace hazards and safety training obligations, and reviews important workplace safety and health resources for small businesses and their employees.
While not intended to be a sole means to meet one's OSHA safety training obligations, OSHA has many excellent free videos online to supplement safety training. The videos cover key topics such as HazCom, Machine Guarding and Safeguarding, Lockout/Tagout (LOTO), Respirators, Hearing Conservation Programs, and more. Again, safety videos should only supplement OSHA safety training obligations covered through preferred measures such as classroom instruction, lectures, quizzes, workplace demonstrations and student hands-on safety training.
Site-specific machine, equipment, and operational hazards safety control policies and procedures are to be the primary safety training focus, with PowerPoint presentations, videos, literature, etc., augmenting these primary core safety training techniques.
Newly hired or transferred employees starting after any annual group OSHA refresher safety training are to be OSHA-safety trained as soon as practicable, as they begin their new job assignment duties. One-on-one, hands-on safety training is very effective for new or transferred workers who are new to their work environment and accompanying job hazards and procedures.
Most worker's compensation insurance agents, brokers, and underwriting carriers have risk management and loss control consultants, along with various in-person and online safety training resources/services available to assist their policyholder clients in OSHA training activities.
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