5 OSHA Compliance Considerations for All General Industry Employers

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September 16, 2016

Resource: Blog Industry: Industrial
Tags: Vector EHS Management

osha general industry compliance requirements image This is the third and last article in a three-article series looking at OSHA compliance requirements for general industry employers.

In the first article, we looked at six compliance requirements that apply for most general industry employers.

In the second article, we looked at an additional nine compliance requirements that may also apply to those employers.

And in this third article, we're going to kind of "mop up" and provide a series of five additional compliance considerations that all general industry employers should keep in mind.

The information in these articles is coming from OSHA's handy online Compliance Assistance "Quick Start" Guide for General Industry. If you're not familiar with it, we definitely encourage you to check it out.

And with that, let's continue and wrap up our series.



As we work our way through the final sections of the OSHA Compliance Assistance Quick Start Guide, we'll look at the following issues:

  • Surveying the workplace for hazards
  • Safety and health management/jobsite safety and health programs
  • Safety and/or EHS training for employees
  • Recordkeeping, reporting, and posting obligations
  • Additional resources for compliance assistance

We'll give a quick overview of what OSHA discusses in each section, and we'll list out and link to helpful resources that OSHA provides for each section as well.

In addition, we'll give you some tips for training your workers on topics related to each of the sections. In doing that, we'll provide some sample videos from our online environmental, health, and safety training course library.

As you read, remember we're focusing on the general industry suggestions.

Survey Workplace for Additional Hazards

OSHA recommends employers survey the workplace for additional hazards beyond what we've discussed in earlier articles.

To help with this, they offer the following resources:

On the training front, a course on the Job Hazard Analysis may prove a helpful contribution here.

Other training related to workplace hazards and hazard identification may also help.

For example, some training on general safety and health issues may help workers assist you in identifying hazards in the work area.

Likewise, you could provide training on Equipment Hazards in general or training on hazards associated with specific equipment as well.

It may also help to provide some training on hazards and safety issues associated with maintenance, as there are special requirements here.

In addition, providing training on Machine Operator Basic Care may help your employees identify any hazards and flag them for correction before an incident occurs.

In wrapping up this section, OSHA also provides some resources for the following types of hazards:

In keeping with OSHA's focus on those topics, training you could consider might include topics like:

Training on distracted and alert driving.

And training on Heat Stress Symptoms and Prevention.

For more on this topic, check out our article on performing a job hazard analysis (JHA) and download the free JHA guide/template there.

Develop a Comprehensive Jobsite Safety and Health Program

In the next step, the OSHA Quick Start Guide notes that "While OSHA does not require employers to develop comprehensive safety and health programs, development and implementation of these programs is an effective way to comply with OSHA standards and prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. The information you've obtained from the steps above is a good start for developing a comprehensive safety and health program."

OSHA offers the following resources to help with this:

In addition, in case you're not sure why you'd want to do this, OSHA also offers these resources to show you how they can contribute value to your organization:

And finally, you may find the following articles from the Convergence Training blog about safety and health management programs interesting or helpful:

Safety and Health Training for Your Employees: Compliance Requirements and Resources

The next step deals with providing proper safety and health training to employees.

OSHA provides a number of resources to help with this. One of the most important is this list of Training Requirements in OSHA Standards. This training guide can help you identify any training requirements that working through the OSHA Compliance Quick Guide as you've been doing has left uncovered.

In addition, OSHA provides the following resources:

For additional safety training needs, you can want to check the EHS Training Library from Convergence Training. We've included a short video that shows some highlights from those and other workforce training courses, below.

For administering your safety training, including automating assignments, tracking completion, storing training records, reporting, and more, you may find that a learning management system (LMS) is very helpful. The short video below explains this more.

You can sample our online health and safety courses and even get them in pay-per-view versions online here; you might also be interested in our LMS for safety training management and administration and our mobile apps for mobile safety training.

In addition, here's a small sample of the articles at the Convergence Training blog that can help you with your training program:

OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting, Plus additional Posting Requirements

Another aspect of OSHA compliance involves recordkeeping, reporting, and posting.

Let's look at some of the resources OSHA provides for each.

Recordkeeping of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses

You might be interested in our OSHA Recordkeeping online course, shown below:

Reporting Fatalities and Severe Injuries

Electronic Submission of Injury and Illness Data

Current status of OSHA's soon-to-be-implemented Online Reporting and Recordkeeping System (as of June 2017)

OSHA Poster

Employers must post the OSHA Poster or a state-plan equivalent). Get it here.

Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records

Access to Medical and Exposure Records PDF

Get Help with OSHA Recordkeeping & Reporting

Many workplaces now use some form of online system, like the Convergence Training Incident Management Software highlighted below, to help create and store OSHA injury/illlness reports, handle the new OSHA online submission requirements, and more.

Find Additional Compliance Assistance Information

In the final step of their compliance assistance guide, OSHA offers a bunch of other resources for "all the other stuff."

Here's what they've got for you.

For Small Businesses

For Spanish-Speaking Employees

Temporary Workers

OSHA's Protecting Temporary Workers Page

Heat Illness for Outdoor Workers

OSHA's Heat Illness Prevention Page

Ergonomic and Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) Concerns

OSHA's Ergonomics Page

Industry-Specific Compliance Aids

OSHA's Industry-Specific Resources

OSHA's Voluntary and Cooperative Programs

Cooperative Programs, including Alliance, OSPP, VPP, OSHA Challenge Program, and SHARP

Concerns about Pandemic Influenza

OSHA's Pandemic Influenza Safety and Health Topics page

Keeping Updated on Compliance Assistance Resources

Additional Questions

Conclusion: OSHA General Industry Compliance Ain't Easy, But The Guide Sure Helps

While OSHA general industry compliance isn't something you can do with no planning and with absolute ease, it's also far from impossible, and OSHA provides many resources to help you out.

Their compliance quick-start guide is a great resource for general industry employers. In particular, perhaps, for smaller companies that don't have large safety and health staffs or don't have a lot of experience putting together a compliance program and sticking with it.

In addition to the guide, remember that our three-article series presented the information this way:

  1. Six compliance requirements that apply at most all companies
  2. Nine additional compliance requirements that may apply at your company
  3. Five final compliance considerations to keep in mind (this article)

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