Employee safety training programs are a vital part of any business but are an especially critical first step within a manufacturing environment. As an employer, it is important to protect your employees and your business from unsafe work environment practices. Oftentimes, safety programs are improperly instructed or emphasized. Or in the rush of daily operations, they can fail to be kept up with, for instance when OSHA updates its requirements, such as their recently updated fall protection requirements for ladders. Here are a few steps to help your company design a safety program that is consistent and efficient to implement.
DCI, Your Provider of Equipment Meeting OSHA Fall Protection Requirements for Ladders Asks, “Does Your Safety Program Measure Up?”
Company safety management systems, when introduced and taught thoroughly, can lead to better-trained employees, lower costs for the business, higher productivity and morale. The key is to implement them strategically and customizing to your company’s exact needs.
“As long as there are no accidents on your job site, you may never hear from or see safety inspectors or federal health agents. However, when an accident occurs and your business is found in violation of OSHA safety rules, the outcome of the event can be significantly compounded. In addition to potentially failing to meet obligations to your customers and other consequences of the accident, you may be required to pay hefty government fines along with other costs. Instead of having to deal with this unfavorable outcome, it makes dollars and sense to understand your legal responsibilities that apply to practically every employers (sic).” – Premier Safety Partners
In order to develop a safety training program you should take into consideration these 3 steps
- Analyze Worksite Safety Hazards: Through understanding your company’s safety hazards you can determine the best ways to combat them. This requires you to communicate with employees, work with a professional, and develop job hazard analysis reports.
- Sticking To Standards: To ensure safety is being taken seriously, managers should work hard to show their respect for safety rules. This keeps employees in line and ensures that they also continue to follow safety rules. Furthermore, your chief safety officer should work to eliminate safety hazards when they arise. As a company, you can also use monetary incentives such as bonuses to reward employees for exceptional safety procedures.
- Implement Continuous Training and Regularly Assess Safety Issues: This step involves keeping data on safety hazards and finding the best ways to combat them in the future. Furthermore, keeping your employees up-to-date on safety training is crucial – it allows new safety training to be learned and old safety training to be studied.
Keeping Up With OSHA’s Fall Protection Requirements for Ladders-Training
Beyond the need to establish a safety training program, it is equally essential to stay up-to-date on OSHA requirements. OSHA is continually updating its requirements and setting new industry standards for fall protection requirements for ladders safety. Design Components, Inc. constantly reviews OSHA requirements to ensure that your equipment is built for protecting your employees and company.
As an example, in 2018, there was an update to OSHA fall protection requirements for ladders fixed on buildings which phased out the need for cages on them as the cages failed to provide additional protection from falls and actually increased the risk of injury. In their place, OSHA is requiring an approved type of personal fall arrest system (PFAS), which we offer a wide variety of designs in.
Three primary types are:
- Bolt on cable systems (with a cable grab fall arrester)
- Track systems (with a climbing trolley)
- Top mounted self-retracting lifelines
That said, it can sometimes be tricky interpreting new rules. However at Design Components, Inc., we offer experienced and knowledgeable personnel that can help you navigate these new regulations and help ensure your company’s safety. We offer an array of ladders and approved personal fall arrest systems at Design Components, Inc. which are designed to meet OSHA’s standards and help protect your employees from dangerous falls.
Design Components, Inc., Your #1 OSHA Compliant Ladder and Fall Protection Provider
At Design Components, Inc., we offer an array of steel building accessories. This includes ladders built to protect employees and visitors at your commercial building by meeting OSHA’s fall protection requirements for ladders and other steel building accessories. We work hard to ensure that our client’s commercial buildings are OSHA compliant and safe for employees and customers.
