Automation of Safety Management and OSHA Compliance: A Step-by-Step Guide

Creating a safe workplace for your workforce, as mandated by the United States Department of Labor through Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1970, can help prevent work-related injury and death, especially in high-risk industries.

While most businesses have some form of the safety management system, many times it is manual or digitization is very basic. This may be fine in very small setups, but as the organization grows, and in larger organizations, this may be severely inadequate.

Safety management is about being proactive in the prevention of incidents. To be able to predict events and accidents at all times is humanly impossible. Automation can enable this to a large extent through a focused approach to improving safety outcomes and promoting organizational and operational excellence. An automated safety management system is also an FDA requirement since 2018. It empowers businesses with better risk assessment capabilities and helps schedule periodic audits while improving the company’s safety and quality processes. Simply put, automating OSHA compliance guidelines ensures:

• Faster emergency responses to shop floor injuries
• Reduction in operational risks
• Better safety planning by analyzing pattern risks
• Improvement in employee performance
• Safety and health compliance

8 Pillars of a Robust Safety Management System

The prerequisites for the successful automation of your safety management system include:

• Top management commitment
• Implementation of a reporting system that encourages employee participation
• Training workers to identify and mitigate risks
• Performing periodic inspections and Job Hazard Analyses to reduce risks
• Collecting data and performing analytics to prevent future occurrences
• Prioritization of risks and insertion of controls
• Planning for emergencies and unusual occurrences
• Constantly improving based on experience

The PDCA cycle is essential for a smooth implementation and continuous improvement of your systems to keep pace with the changing market and regulatory requirements.

Step 1: Plan

Once the team is aware of the safety policy, employee roles, and responsibilities, the first step in automating OSHA compliance will be planning. While building an SMS for the workplace, it is necessary to plan the execution methodology of the system that allows the HR and safety teams to work collaboratively. Broadly, the following points should be considered:

• OHSMS issues in the order of priority including hazards, risks, areas for improvement, safety deficiencies
• Objectives of the safety and health management system based on the issues identified
• An implementation plan that includes a list of process items from safety checklist, daily data entry, document management, risk management, CAPA, inspection management

Step 2: Do

Next is implementation. it is essential to have a safety checklist that will cover all aspects of the compliance requirements. The four broad components of the implementation process include:

• Operational elements such as risk assessment, emergency responses, process verification, among others
• Training
• Communication
• Documentation

Step 3: Check

Having a proactive approach is the key to OSHA compliance. Safety and health compliance is a continuous process. By automating OSHA compliance, employers can have data visibility, quality monitoring, and an incident-free work environment. Using a digitized and automated checklist and workflow, employers have a proactive approach to prevent safety events from occurring. Monitor to ensure that the system is working as per the plan and is relevant to the evolving regulatory and organizational requirements.

Step 4: Act

Continuous evaluation is the cornerstone of a successful safety program and enables remaining OSHA compliant. Employers must constantly evaluate the safety program for early indicators to predict mishaps on the shop floor. With a strong communication system, businesses can leverage these data points to train and educate employees on safety standards. Over time, these parameters can be used as a checklist to improve the safety and health standards of the organization.

EHS Solution from ComplianceQuest

The Environment, Health and Safety solution from ComplianceQuest has been designed with OSHA as the guiding principle, making compliance automatic and intuitive. The EHS solution is modular and therefore can be implemented cost-effectively and quickly, based on your risks and priorities.

ComplianceQuest has also launched the Workplace Safety app for Work.com on the Salesforce.com platform. This app upholds OSHA’s safety standards by offering a data-driven, collaborative platform to manage the workflows for employee health and workplace safety. Organizations can use the Workplace Safety app to create a robust SMS for employees.

For more information, visit: https://www.compliancequest.com/work-health-and-safety-management-system/