Years ago, before seat belt laws were even dreamed of, I took an insurance class as part of a fleet insurance safety program. I remember the impact walking out of that class: From that moment on, my routine was to get in the car, pull that strange shoulder strap (kind of a new feature in cars!) across my body, and connect that buckle. I felt pretty unsafe—almost naked—if I discovered I hadn’t buckled up.
Fast forward a lot of years. I just became certified by OSHA by completing my “OSHA 10-Hour”, in a class with seven of BCN’s best clients. It is a designation which I always looked at with interest, because 10 hours of anything, particularly government regulation, seems daunting. I can assure you, the risk management professionals that organized and taught this class needed every minute to focus the audience of owners, managers, and key administrators on learning to stay safe, and complying with the very detailed OSHA law.
In every module, we started by reviewing raw statistics on fines assessed to businesses, and what drove those amounts. Chilling, to say the least. Then we learned step by step, video by video, demonstration by demonstration, situation by situation, what it takes to do it right. The Safety Data Sheet (what used to be Material Safety Data Sheet, or MSDS), is your roadmap. PPD’s are required by us as business owners to protect workers from untimely and serious injury (lost time, cost). Reacting properly to an incident, from reporting, to investigating using the 5-Whys, gives you a shot to prevent the next injury and get it right going forward (lost time, cost). Too often, we just accept that things happen in the workplace; I can confidently say that these problems can be prevented.
So you are all worried about Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act), right? How about December 1st? What’s that, you say? All of our worksites will have completed the initial requirement for the Globally Harmonized System for OSHA compliance by that date. We will then work to help you through Phase II and beyond.
As a business owner, when I hire people, it is my responsibility to keep my employees safe, no matter what the environment. OSHA always seemed like a four letter word and something to avoid. But the truth is, the OSHA body of work provides a great framework to keep employees productive, creating your products and delivering your services, and making you more profitable. I couldn’t recommend this OSHA 10-hour workshop enough for creating a great business environment and culture of success.
Thank you to Amerisure, Wells Fargo, attending clients, and the entire Risk Management team of BCN Services. The next “Certified OSHA-10 Hour” is scheduled for February 6 & 7, 2014. I would highly recommend this to our clients. Please contact us to reserve your spot in this workshop.
