creating a workplace safety plan

March 13, 2023

Putting together a safety plan and deciding what should be in it does more than just provide a framework to help keep your employees protected. It also confirms your organization’s commitment to a safer workforce and shows that you’re doing all you can to keep them happy, healthy and more productive.

What Should Go Into Your Safety Plan?

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), every safety plan should accomplish the following:¹

• Prevent workplace injuries and illnesses
• Improve compliance with laws and regulations
• Reduce costs, including significant reductions in workers' compensation premiums
• Engage workers
• Enhance their social responsibility goals
• Increase productivity and enhance overall business operations 

How Do You Get Started?

First things first: it’s not always smart to try to create a plan alone. After all, it’s difficult to come up with a list of every possible safety issue that you need a plan for. That’s why you should form a safety committee across several work disciplines and management levels.

Then, you should work with your team to determine all of the possible situations that need a safety plan. Even if you have existing plans, consider this the time to work with others to improve them. Walk through each activity and observe the different ways that you can prepare others for any potential accidents or safety concerns.

To properly build out a plan, ask yourself these questions:

• What immediate action needs to be taken?
• How will the area be secured and made safe?
• Who needs to be contacted when an incident occurs?
• How will they be contacted?
• What safety information needs to be posted?
• What safety equipment is needed?
• What is the evacuation route?
• Who will be in charge during an incident?
• Who will track employees to ensure that everyone is safe after an incident?
• What are your company’s data collection and reporting techniques?
• How will employees be trained?
• How often will they be trained?
• How will waste or impacted equipment be taken care of?
• Who will handle media relations, if needed?

MedExpress Pro Tip: Safety plans are never one and done. Instead, consider each one a constantly evolving plan that will change as your business changes. They should be reviewed at least once a year for accuracy and any tweaks that are needed.

OSHA also recommends the following ten steps as a base for setting up your plan:²

1. Safety should be a core value: Have a meeting with your employees to explain that ensuring that they get home safe each day is one of the main values of your business. Ask them to work with you to identify and solve any hazards they encounter.
2. Be an example: Practice what you preach when it comes to safety and make it a daily part of your work.
3. Create a reporting system: Create a simple way to report any injuries, illnesses, incidents (including near misses and close calls), hazards or safety concerns without fear of retaliation. It helps if you include an anonymous option for reporting this information.
4. Train your team: Provide training on how to identify, avoid and control workplace dangers.
5. Inspect your workplace: Team up with your workforce and inspect the equipment, activities and materials that they work with each day. Create a checklist to identify problems, if any, and work to solve them.
6. Ask for suggestions: Your employees may already have ideas for hazard control improvements. You can also offer them time during work hours to implement these solutions.
7. Implement hazard controls. Create a team that will choose, implement and continually evaluate solutions.
8. Future proof for emergencies: Identify any emergencies that may happen now or in the future, as well as what to do in these situations. Create a series of procedures for these emergency scenarios and share them with the entire workforce, as well as post them in breakrooms.
9. Be open to input: Before making any major changes, consult with your employees.
10. Make the changes and remain open: After you implement these changes, create a regularly scheduled meeting to discuss safety and future improvements.

Turn to the Experts

If you’re unsure at any point, OSHA has plenty of resources to help. Their Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs Voluntary Standards Crosswalk³ provides links to their programs as well as compares them to similar standards and guidelines. This is incredibly helpful as you build your organization’s safety framework.

Make It Happen

There’s more to a plan than just writing it up and implementing it. You need to get buy-in from your employees as well as ensure that they are fully capable of executing your safety plan. They must be thoroughly trained and as new employees are hired, there should also be a system to get them onboarded and properly trained in your company’s safety protocols. After all, safety first should begin with each employee’s first day as a new hire.

You should always have your safety plans ready for use at a moment’s notice. It may be best to have them online so that they are accessible on and off-site. You should also check with the laws in your state and within your industry to see what documents should be posted.

Keep in mind that you aren’t just creating emergency documents. If you want your business to become safer, you need to create a culture of safety. Consider rewarding your workforce to encourage them to follow safety guidelines. This will keep your staff invested in your culture of safety and working together to reduce accidents and injuries.

Most importantly, remember that your workplace safety plans should never be completely finished. They need to constantly evolve for new management, employees, equipment and ways of working. You should always be working to not just keep up with the latest issues but to promote a culture of safety. The more that you can include your entire organization, the better the overall results may be.

MedExpress Pro Tip: Depending on the type of business you conduct, your company may have very specific safety standards that they must follow. Your Emergency Action and Hazard Control Plans need to be shaped around those rules and regulations.

Our Team Is Ready to Help You

As much as you can plan for safety, accidents – and illnesses, too – can happen. If one of your employees is injured or ill, MedExpress is open from 8 to 8 seven days a week with no appointment necessary to assist with injuries, illnesses and more. Learn how we can help and find the neighborhood location closest to your business.

References:

1 OSHA: Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs. Accessed January 4. 2023.

2 OSHA: 10 Ways to Get Your Program Started. Accessed January 4, 2023.

3 OSHA: Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs Voluntary Standards Crosswalk. Added January 4, 2023.