There are many benefits to keeping employees safe on work sites – the first being that your people get to go home each day in the same shape as when they came to work.
But there is also value in being recognized for having a sound program that helps create and sustain those quality working conditions. An OSHA initiative, the Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program, is designed to give credit to smaller companies that have exemplary health and safety management programs.
SHARP is for companies with fewer than 250 employees. If your company gains acceptance, you’ve earned a status that will single you out among competitors as a model for work site safety and health. More important, upon earning SHARP recognition, you will be exempt from programmed OSHA inspections for as long as your certification is valid.
The few, the proud
SHARP isn’t for just anyone, but few worthwhile recognitions are. To earn SHARP certification, you first have to ask OSHA for a consultation visit that involves a complete hazard identification survey.
Then you need to involve your employees in the consultation process and correct all hazards the consultant who visits you identifies. After that, you implement and maintain a safety and health management system that addresses, at the minimum, OSHA’s 1989 Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines.
Then comes the challenging part: You have to lower your company’s Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART) and Total Recordable Case (TRC) rates to levels below the national average. Finally, you must agree to notify your state OSHA Consultation Project Office before making any changes in the working conditions or introducing new hazards to your workplaces.
Making the grade
After you satisfy all SHARP requirements, your Consultation Project Manager recommends your company for final SHARP approval and certification. The state and federal OSHA will then formally recognize you at a SHARP awards ceremony.
When you first earn SHARP certification, you will receive an exemption from inspections for up to two years. After that initial certification period, you can ask for a renewal lasting up to three years. To earn the renewal, you have to:
• Apply for renewal during the last quarter of the exemption period.
• Allow a full-service, comprehensive OSHA visit to ensure that your safety and health management system has been effective and that you are maintaining or improving it.
• Continue to meet all eligibility criteria and program requirements.
• Agree (if seeking a multiple-year renewal) to conduct annual self-evaluations and to submit written reports to your state Consultation Project Manager.
More than recognition
It’s rewarding in many ways to receive an honor for an exemplary health and safety program. The real rewards, though, come in the results – less risk of injury to the people who are any company’s most critical resources.
The safety coordinator for a SHARP-certified construction company in Oregon observed, “It has been very beneficial in changing our safety program from one that looked good on paper to one that is an important working part of all aspects of our company, from the accounting department to the employee on the job site.”
You can find out more about the SHARP program on the OSHA Web site at www.osha.gov.
