The US federal government created the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) to maintain worker safety and health across the country. One of the biggest threats to worker safety and health is employers who fail to communicate hazardous chemical information effectively to employees. If you notice your company is lacking in this area, that’s okay. We’ll list steps to creating a training course below so you can change your business practices to protect your employees and stay within OSHA compliance.
Understand OSHA Requirements
Before you can effectively communicate OSHA requirements to your employees, the administration and trainers need to understand the requirements themselves. Certain hazards require different safety measures, but there is overlap when working with various hazardous chemicals. For example, no matter the type of hazardous waste, you should label it and store it separately from other types of waste. Learn about additional OSHA requirements and write them down so your administration can train lower-level employees properly.
Identify and Assign Responsible Employees
Who oversees the hazardous chemicals at your company? Everyone at your company should know who this person or people are. Everyone at your company should know who to contact if something goes wrong with the hazardous chemicals. Knowing their names and roles will also help you assign more leaders to oversee hazardous chemicals as your company grows or administrators leave.
Create a Hazard Communication Standard Plan
OSHA requires companies that work with hazardous chemicals to establish a hazard communication standard (HCS) plan. You must create this plan for ease of communication and submit it to the proper authorities for approval.
List the people you identified above in this plan and explain their roles. You should also make it clear what all employees should do in case of an emergency, including employees who may not directly work with the hazardous chemicals. Safety data sheets (SDSs) about hazardous chemicals and an inventory of those chemicals are important parts of an HCS plan.
Schedule Training Time
Include all information listed above in a hazardous chemical training course. You will need to take additional steps, such as creating a slideshow presentation on properly labeling hazardous waste, to flesh out this course. Failing to classify hazardous waste properly is one of the most common mistakes of handling hazardous waste, which you don’t want employees to make. Schedule a regular training time for new and existing employees so everyone knows this information and feels safe while working.
OSHA requires you to keep your employees safe, especially if you work with hazardous chemicals. Providing proper training is one of the best ways to keep your employees safe and help them feel confident while working with these dangerous chemicals.