Workplaces that implement an injury and illness prevention program will notice a drastic decrease in workplace injuries.
Reduced incidents of workplace injuries can lead to a more positive employee culture. Happier employees boast higher levels of productivity and quality of work, reduced staff turnover rates, and ultimately, reduced costs.
In addition to costs that arise from occupational injury and illness, being OSHA compliant means you won’t be penalized with fines for not meeting the standards.
If you want to learn more about OSHA’s injury and illness prevention program and how to implement it, we’ve compiled this guide of everything you need to know.
What Needs To Be Included in an Injury and Illness Prevention Program?
An injury and illness prevention program (IIPP) is a written safety program that aims to reduce health and safety hazards in the workplace. It is used to identify unsafe conditions which can lead to injuries and illnesses whereby each condition is addressed and recorded.
OSHA regulations state that an injury and illness prevention program should include the following eight sections to target prevention efforts:
- Responsibility
- Compliance
- Communication
- Hazard assessment
- Accident or exposure investigation
- Hazard correction
- Training and instruction
- Recordkeeping
Section 1: Who Will Manage the Injury and Illness Prevention Programs?
Appoint one person of authority to be in charge of the safety program, and detail in the program their name and their roles and responsibilities.
This person must be knowledgeable about the health and safety problems in the workplace and how to control them.
As the need arises, this person should make and enforce amendments to the safety program to maintain currency and relevance at all times.
All employees must be made aware of who their injury and illness prevention program representative is.
Section 2: How Will Compliance Be Ensured?
A system to ensure that employees follow the safety rules needs to be created.
Management and supervisors should perform safety audits and inspections spontaneously and on regular set dates, such as bi-weekly.
A checklist should be compiled to ensure everything is assessed and nothing is overlooked, from hazards to employee work practices. Anything that doesn’t meet the requirements must be immediately addressed, or removed from service if unable to be addressed immediately.
Positive recognition should be awarded to employees who follow safety procedures and maintain healthy work practices.
And, employees who don’t comply with the detailed safe work practices should be disciplined.
Section 3: How Will You Inform Employees About Your Safety Program?
All employees, including contractors, must understand your company’s injury and illness prevention program and know what their responsibilities entail.
Ways to communicate your safety program to employees include:
- training,
- safety meetings,
- announcements,
- emails,
- handouts,
- newsletters.
- memos, and
Document your communication and dates accordingly so that you can produce it as proof during an OSHA inspection.
Section 4: What Are the Health and Safety Hazards in Your Workplace?
Employers should perform periodic inspections and hazard assessments to ensure occupational safety.
These should be done:
- before the injury and illness prevention program is compiled,
- when new equipment or procedures are implemented, and
- when a previously unrecognized hazard arises.
Inspections should be done according to OSHA standards of hazard assessment. But, employees are encouraged to participate and offer any on the ground scenarios that need solutions.
Section 5: What Has Caused an Accident or a Near-Miss in the Past?
OSHA has strict regulations on how to conduct an accident investigation.
To investigate an accident or near-miss, the supervisor should:
- take photos of the scene, including damaged areas and machinery or equipment involved,
- draw diagrams of the (potential) contributing factors to the accident, and
- collect data of any other relevant information.
A root cause analysis should be conducted to identify the underlying causes. For example, poor housekeeping could be a factor as floors were wet, but outdated PPE with boots’ soles rubbed smooth could be a cause theory.
Keeping a record of what has caused an accident or a near-miss in the past is crucial for correcting unsafe scenarios and putting safety rules in place to ensure the same thing doesn’t reoccur.
Section 6: How Will You Correct the Hazards Leading to Occupational Health and Safety Problems?
Any hazard that arises compromising occupational safety must be addressed immediately.
If doing so can put employees at risk, all employees should be evacuated from the hazardous area in a timely manner except those correcting the issue.
Employees designated to eliminate the unsafe conditions are to be issued with appropriate personal protective equipment when doing so.
They should evaluate the identified hazard and then come up with a solution. Employers should detail in their injury and illness prevention program which methods have been used to correct hazards.
Corrective actions that employers can take to prevent further incidents include:
- increasing training,
- improving company policies,
- establishing communication strategies and between employees, supervisors and management,
- implementing design or operational changes to machines and equipment, and
- improving safety equipment, including PPE.
Section 7: How Will You Train Your Employees To Perform Their Duties Safely?
There are three ways to train employees on health and safety matters in the workplace:
- you, as the employer, can undergo training and relay it to your workers,
- you can send the supervisors on training courses and have them be your in-house employee safety trainers, or
- you could employ an OSHA consultant such as us, at Insure Compliance, to provide training for the entire team.
Section 8: What Must You Document for Recordkeeping?
You must document everything discussed in sections 1-7 in your injury and illness prevention program.
Inspection records must include:
- the employee who performed the inspection,
- the date the inspection occurred,
- the hazard or unsafe conditions identified,
- the procedures or practices actioned to correct the hazard, and
- who the hazard was reported to.
You must keep training records of who attended the training on what date to ensure that those who weren’t present receive training on another date.
How Insure Compliance Can Help
We help companies structure injury and illness prevention programs, and in turn, systematically foster a positive safety culture without breaking the bank.
This is done using our proven Safety Gap Model assessment which helps companies see where they can make the most considerable improvements to their safety program – while ensuring safety and profitability.
When it comes to creating a safety program, it’s essential to address any gaps quickly:
- Awareness gap: understand what employers are required to do to protect their workplace’s health and safety.
- Process gap: expressly detail employee behavior not allowed in the workplace using contractor agreements, policies and handbooks.
- Knowledge gap: conduct training for all employees.
- Verification gap: engage with employees in their workplace and inspect their behavior.
- Accountability gap: hold employees accountable for violating workplace policies.
Once we’ve established your safety gaps, Insure Compliance can:
- do a hazard analysis,
- help you implement appropriate policies,
- provide training,
- conduct inspections, and
- help you create accountability programs.
Key Takeaways
An injury and illness prevention program is a written document that is constantly updated and maintained by a designated employee.
This program should keep a record of the accidents and near-misses that have occurred in the past, as well as the health and safety hazards that could lead to injury or illness, and how they’ve been corrected.
Employees need adequate occupational safety training and training on the injury and illness prevention program itself.
Records of all of these things need to be kept to ensure OSHA compliance.
To start bridging your safety gaps and begin your journey to compliance, contact Insure Compliance today.
Disclaimer:
Please note that every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided in this guide is accurate. You should note, however, that the information is intended as a guide only, providing an overview of general information available to businesses. This guide is not intended to be an exhaustive source of information and should not be seen to constitute legal, safety or business advice. You should, where necessary, seek your own advice for any issues raised in your affairs.
