The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) designated June 12-18, 2017, as the inaugural “Safe + Sound Week,” to raise awareness of workplace safety and health programs.
Safe + Sound Week is an event held each August that recognizes workplace health and safety programs (and their successes) and offers information and ways to keep America's workers safe. Safe + Sound Week 2024 will be held August 12-18 and will focus on Job Hazard Analysis (JHA).
Why Participate?
Successful safety and health programs enable potential hazards to be identified prior to causing illness or injury and ultimately improve sustainability. Participating in Safe + Sound Week can help companies start a safety and health program, energize an existing one, or provide time to recognize safety successes or address concerns.
Who Participates?
According to OSHA, any organizations looking for an opportunity to recognize their commitment to safety are welcome to participate. In 2023, more than 3,900 businesses took part in Safe + Sound Week to raise awareness about workers’ health and safety.
Safety and health programs can enable workers to gain knowledge and insight to find solutions to specific safety and health issues by tapping into collective experience and knowledge.
Safe + Sound Week is important because workers often know the most about potential hazards associated with their jobs. Therefore, when they are involved in finding solutions to problems or hazards they face, they become invested in the program. However, for maximum participation, workers must feel free of any fear of retaliation (such as reporting hazardous conditions).
Workers can participate by:
- Developing a program.
- Reporting incidents (including near misses).
- Analyzing hazards associated with all jobs, tasks and processes.
- Defining and documenting safe work practices.
- Conducting site inspections and incident investigations.
- Being trained and training new hires.
- Evaluating a program and identifying ways to improve it.
Management Leadership
Management leadership includes a commitment by managers to implement a safety program and use it to continuously improve the safety and health of all workers. This is important because when management leadership is supported by actions, workers know that safety and health are important to a business. Ultimately, the steps management takes to improve safety and health of workers shows workers they are valued and supported by the business.
Management can demonstrate its safety commitment by developing and communicating a safety and health policy statement and providing resources to implement and operate the program. Furthermore, a commitment to safety and health can be shown by factoring safety and health into operational decisions, recognizing or rewarding safety and health contributions and achievements and practicing safe behaviors.
Finding and fixing workplace hazards is the core of every effective safety and health program and every business must have a process for identifying and controlling hazards. Thus, knowing and controlling hazards is important because it is a proactive approach: identifying possible problems before they cause injury or illness and is more effective. Traditional approaches only take action after a problem is discovered or a worker is hurt.
Since workplaces are constantly evolving, utilizing a systematic approach to health and safety enables businesses to manage and control potential hazards before injuries or illnesses occur.
A "find and fix" approach to safety includes:
- Involving workers who often have the best understanding of the conditions that create hazards and insights into how they can be controlled.
- Reviewing hazard information.
- Conducting inspections to identify new or emerging hazards.
- Investigating incidents to identify causes and potential solutions.
- Considering how to protect workers during emergencies.
- Checking that existing controls are intact and remain effective.
Develop your Safety + Health Program
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of worker deaths and reported injuries in the United States has decreased by more than 60 percent in the past four decades since the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act was passed. However, more than 5,000 workers are killed on the job every year and more than 3.6 million suffer a job-related injury or illness.
Therefore, according to OSHA, implementing or updating a safety and health program can improve worker safety and health, save money and improve competitiveness.
Ultimately, safety and health programs help businesses prevent injuries and illnesses, improve compliance, enhance goals, engage workers, lower costs, increase productivity and refine business operations.
To find more information about Safe + Sound Week, or ways to implement a health and safety program, go to https://www.osha.gov/safeandsoundweek.
