Tips to Make Your Company a Safe and Healthy Workplace

PMA members can benefit from free safety and health advice

As we approach the end of the year, PMA members should take the time to reflect on their safety practices.

A safe and healthy work environment is proven to significantly reduce direct costs from workers’ compensation payments, medical expenses and legal services, as well as indirect costs including lost productivity, accident investigation, and training and replacing employees.

New safety processes are even resulting in improvements in productivity and profitability. One OSHA study cited a plant with 50 employees that decreased defects and saved more than $265,000 by following a more rigid health and safety program.

At the PMA, we take health and safety seriously and strongly encourage our members to do the same. For example, we’ve issued extensive MbOCA guidelines. We’ve also partnered with Dr. Ted Hogan, a leading Industrial Hygienist, who has developed the Comprehensive Safety and Health Model Program for our organization.

As a member, you can get up to up to two hours of industrial safety and health guidance from Dr. Hogan per year—at no charge. He can be reached at (877) 94-HOGAN or (630) 257-3939.

In the meantime, here are some tips from Dr. Hogan’s plan to help you create a safe and healthy working environment for employees.

• Have a mandated health and safety program.
• Develop a checklist and guidelines.
• Form a safety committee to improve and develop procedures.
• Maintain detailed records of accident reports and fatalities, illness or injuries.
• Schedule periodic safety inspections to examine equipment, hazards & jobs.
• Keep all work areas, floors and aisles in a clean condition.
• Clean up spills and leaks properly, particularly of TDI and MbOCA.
• Develop a written emergency evacuation plan and train each employee.