Safety & Health Programs
A safety and health program is a company’s system for finding and fixing hazards before someone gets hurt. Good programs involve workers at every step.
- Construction
- General Industry
- California
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- Washington
OSHA’s recommended core elements
- Management leadership: owners and managers commit time, money and attention to safety.
- Worker participation: workers help find hazards, plan work, and investigate incidents, and can raise concerns without fear.
- Hazard identification and assessment: inspections, JHAs, incident and near-miss reviews.
- Hazard prevention and control: using the hierarchy of controls. See Hierarchy of Controls.
- Education and training: everyone knows the hazards and how to work safely.
- Program evaluation and improvement: check what’s working and fix what isn’t.
- Communication and coordination among host employers, contractors and staffing agencies.
Is a written program required?
Federal OSHA requires written programs for specific hazards (for example hazard communication, respiratory protection, lockout/tagout, silica). Construction employers must also have programs for frequent inspections by competent persons. Several states require a full written injury and illness prevention program, including California, Washington, Minnesota and Nevada.
Standards & references
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