Read Most
Frequent Questions
Common Questions and Statements We Are Asked and Told!
If you have a specific question, and cannot find it below, please contact us!
Once our initial surveys are completed and determinations are made as to your company’s exact needs, we will enter into a 1-year contract. The terms and services will be outlined in the contract. The service will be tailored specifically to your requirements. The services will then be scheduled with your management on a weekly basis. With the exception of the training program development, all services will be performed on an hourly basis.
Yes, many insurance companies employ competent safety professionals. However, most of the companies do not actually conduct the training. The surveys done by your insurance company are reports that list all of your company’s discrepancies and recommendations. Most of the time you are left on your own to implement their recommendations. If you do not or cannot, you may be faced with future increases in premiums, loss of whatever discounts you may be receiving or termination of your coverage.
Then you may not our service! There are many skilled and qualified consultants available to you; I feel that we are among that group. However, our Errors and Omissions coverage, as well as our Workers Compensation Insurance, elevates us above the competition. If your present service makes all of this available to you, for such an affordable price, we encourage you to stay with them! Although, if your consultant is not making these packages readily available to you, we encourage you to contact us and discover what we can do for your company.
We understand, and in most cases, that is true. However, it is anticipated that OSHA (MOSH) will become more aggressive with its inspections and fines in the future. Therefore, it is important to take action sooner, rather than later.
We have heard that stated often and the truth is the ONLY regulations that you are exempted from is OSHA 300 reporting and that is ONLY if you have fewer then 11 employees for the entire year and some minor written programs. Otherwise, unless you are involved in one of the situations listed below, you are covered by the entire OSHA standard.:
Self-employed (One Person Only)
Farms with ONLY family members
Work Places covered by other agencies
That’s great. We don’t propose to take his/her place. Instead, we would like to help you and that person work together better. Do you honestly expect this “part time safety officer” to be able to keep your company safe from costly injuries and accidents, or from OSHA fines and at the same time provide the employees information on how to do their jobs safely, while still doing their “regular” job? There are thousands of regulations to which you may be subject and a part-time effort may not be enough. This process is one of the greatest challenges for companies that have full time safety officers as well as insurance companies and consultant firms. In addition to the quantity of existing and new regulations, there are other issues such as site safety audits, accident/incident investigation, hazard recognition and analysis and training. We have qualified people to assist in administering these different aspects of your program.
Our programs are tailored to your company’s needs and, besides the on-site training, you receive all of the written programs that OSHA requires, as well as the updates, as they come into effect. This also includes accident investigation, new employee orientation, supervisor orientation, weekly toolbox safety meetings at your locations and other support you may need.
If an individual draws a salary, whether they are family or not, they are subject to the OSHA Standards; the only exception may be the owner.
If an inspection of your facility uncovers a safety or health violation and you are using leased/temp employees, then both you and the lease/temp company can be fined. Simply using temps does not relieve the site employer from providing a safe work place where the employees are working under OSHA qualified conditions.
OSHA (MOSH) does not restrict their inspections to companies with a specific number of employees. In fact, there are hundreds of citations worth thousands of dollars written to companies with as few as three employees. These inspections were both construction sites and general industry locations.
While that is impressive, and we hope you can continue that record, serious issues are not planned. If a serious issue does occur, and the proper procedures are not set in place your company could face serious repercussions on federal and state levels
A safety program should provide you with two components: one is a factual information resource and the other is a program to protect you from liability (negligence) suits. Even with workers’ compensation insurance, you are not exempt from suits. Until you have been on the stand and had to defend your program in court, under oath, it is hard to comprehend how important it is to have a formal, documented program. As you sit there considering this information, imagine how you would testify as to the diligence, or lack of it, of your safety activities. If you “DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS STUFF”, just consider how that attitude would play in court!!
A fully documented safety program can help you keep control of your company assets and provide the employees with qualified information. Simply conducting some safety meetings does not qualify as OSHA qualified training. A compliance officer will ask your employees questions and based on the answers the employees give, the officer will determine whether or not you have an effective training program.