Why Do I Need a Safety Plan?
Imagine starting a job at a chemical plant. On the first day, you receive no training and no warning about the dangers you will face when entering work. The likelihood that you will mishandle chemicals, or burn yourself or someone else is higher than it would be with a safety plan in place. A safety plan is part of a program that educates, trains and prepares employees to handle hazards within their workplace.
A well-established safety plan will help to reduce the chance of injury and illness in the workplace. As a result of this, it will also lessen the chance of violations and fines. It may be necessary to have many safety plans within your workplace if there are different types of hazards that you need to address. On top of that, there are certain safety training topics that need hands-on training to fulfill training requirements. Implementing safety plans can help to provide that hands-on experience.
Does OSHA Require My Workplace to Have a Safety Plan?
OSHA does not require your workplace to have a safety plan. However, federal law enforces OSHA regulations and guidelines for each individual workplace.
A safety plan is the most effective way for you to assess your workplace’s ability to comply with these regulations put in place by OSHA.
OSHA guidelines and regulations can help you develop an effective safety plan based on what they require. All Safety Provisions safety plan templates follow OSHA standards for each work industry.
General Safety Plan Format
Organization and labeling are key when it comes to the layout of your safety plan. This makes it easy to navigate by all personnel in the workplace.
- The cover page – This is simply a page containing the company name and logo, along with the title of the safety plan. This is an official component but provides no additional information.
- Table of contents – This page contains the page number of subsequent sections and subsections.
- Introduction – The introduction is usually the smallest section of the safety plan and includes the purpose of the safety plan. It is generally a statement of the company’s commitment to safety and what the safety plan seeks to accomplish. There can also be a reference list that contains the OSHA regulation(s) with which the safety plan seeks to comply.
- The safety program – This should be the largest section of the safety plan. It contains the procedures and resources necessary for guaranteeing safety when working with or around a particular hazard. Each aspect can be divided into subsections. For example, in a safety plan for fall protection, it would be good to provide subsections for guardrails and fall arrest systems.
- Appendixes – The appendix can contain any additional information or statements that should be included in a safety plan. A good example is training requirements and topics. This may look like a statement that explains the company’s commitment to training its employees on the program components would be a good start.
- Signatures of trained employees – This section is simply a list with spaces for an employee’s name, title, signature, and date that they completed the training. This is a good section to have to keep track of when employees were trained according to the safety plan.
General Components of a Safety Plan
Every Safety Plan Is Different
Depending on the nature of the workplace, the individual components addressed within a safety plan will be different. This also means that not every safety plan will contain all the components discussed above. To help give you some direction on what to include in your safety plan, some general components of an effective safety plan are:
- Company policy concerning safety and health in the workplace
- Roles and responsibilities of each employee
- Employee information and training
- Description of hazardous tasks (both routine and non-routine)
- Definitions of key terms included in the safety plan
- Sections for each industry
Additional Support
More Resources
Safety Provisions provides some templates and sample safety plans. Our online training program is a great way to stay safe and stay OSHA Aligned. OSHA also provides some sample safety plans and guidelines on their website.