Revised Handbook for Small Business from OSHA 

OSHA and NIOSH announced cooperation that resulted in a new guidebook for small company employers on workplace safety and health information. The Small Business Safety and Health Handbook indicates the advantages of implementing an effective safety and health program, includes self-inspection checklists for employers to detect workplace hazards, and reviews significant small business safety and health resources. 

The updated Small Business Handbook is a useful guide for businesses who want to make their workplaces safer and healthier for their employees. The prevention of accidents and sickness, besides the preservation of lives, must be a continual endeavor. 

The manual provides self-inspection checklists for re protection, hazard communication, permit-required conned spaces, respiratory protection, and walking-working surfaces in general industry settings. The checklists do not cover construction and maritime businesses. 

The new Small Business Handbook is a simple tool for keeping your most precious asset — your people – safe and healthy at work. 

OSHA and NIOSH resources, such as the OSHA On-Site Consultation Program, are listed in a section of the manual to assist employers in recognizing and correcting workplace safety and health concerns. Employers can also learn about whistleblower protection legislation, OSHA’s education centers, professional occupational safety, and health associations with local chapters that small enterprises can join in the guidebook.

More than 5,000 people are killed on the job (an approximation of 14 every day), and exceeding 3.6 million are injured or sickened due to their work. Even a single serious workplace injury or illness can be devastating to a small business, with costs such as increasing workers’ compensation premiums, medical bills, legal costs, replacement worker training, lost productivity, equipment repairs, and lower worker morale – to say nothing of the devastating personal effects. 

Implementing a safety and health program benefits firms in the following ways: 

• Preventing injuries and diseases at work 
• Increase adherence to laws and regulations. 
• Cut costs, such as workers’ compensation premiums, by a large amount.
• Encourage employees to participate. 
• Improve social responsibility objectives.
• Improve overall business operations and productivity. 

You and other small business owners place a high value on your employees’ well-being. You may hire family members and close acquaintances, as many small firms do. And, if you don’t get to know your employees before hiring them, the modest size of your office will encourage the intimacy and concern for one another that small firms cherish. 

A safety and health program’s major purpose is to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses, and deaths and the pain and financial hardship these occurrences can create for employees, families, and employers. Traditional procedures are frequently reactive because problems are addressed after a worker is harmed or becomes ill, a new standard or regulation is issued, or an external inspection uncovers a aw. 

Every company should have a safety and health program, according to OSHA’s Safe + Sound initiative. Through this campaign, OSHA collaborates with NIOSH and other organizations to provide tools to assist employers in developing and recognizing successful safety and health programs.