Can OSHCON Manage Your Company's OSHA Compliance? - Texas Steel Fabrication Safety Consulting Services

Can OSHCON Manage Your Company’s OSHA Compliance?

Many Companies Make The Mistake of Believing They Can Outsource Their OSHA Compliance to OSHCON

Throughout the years I’ve had many small business owners and managers tell me something like, “we don’t need your help, we use OSHCON and they manage all of our OSHA compliance.”

Don’t get me wrong, OSHCON is a fantastic and free resource for helping small companies to build safety programs, but they can’t do it all for you nor can they protect your company from OSHA inspections and resulting fines and penalties.

It’s a very common misconception that OSHCON can somehow manage all of a company’s OSHA compliance requirements, but it’s impossible and this blog post will briefly explain why.

– No legal mandate: OSHCON has no legal requirement to manage safety for any given company, and that’s because their services don’t allow for this level of service.

– Annual Inspections: OSHCON is only authorized to visit your company once per year to audit your facility and make recommendations. But once that’s done and they hand over the report, now the ball’s in your court.

– Managing Health and Safety Compliance: Once OSHCON hands over the report, now it’s your company’s legal obligation to fix all of the problems, implement all recommendations and then manage them on an ongoing basis, from week to week, and month to month and year to year. But that’s exactly what most companies fail to do and it’s due to the overwhelming requirements and complexity of safety regulations. I’m referring to all of the recurring employee safety training requirements, conducting routine inspections to identify and correct health and safety hazards, record keeping requirements, lockout/tagout programs and procedures, managing Hazard Communication requirements and the list goes on and on. OSHCON cannot and will not do all of this for your company.

– Generic Safety Resources: OSHA requires that companies build customized health and safety programs to address company specific health and safety hazards, however OSHCON only provides generic resources which don’t meet this standard. This includes generic training videos and program templates. In other words, companies must figure out which resources apply, and then update and customize them to meet OSHA standards. This can be a very complicated and difficult process.

– No Protection from OSHA fines and penalties: There’s also a very common misconception from companies who work with OSHCON, that they’re somehow protected from OSHA inspections and resulting fines and penalties. Other than during the initial inspection and the short time period following the inspection while OSHCON is preparing the report, companies have no protection from inspections, citations and fines.

In summary, don’t get us wrong, they’re a great resource but you can’t outsource your compliance to OSHCON. In reality, they’re nothing more than a good starting point. Managing the rest is up to your company.

We have been contacted by many companies over the years who worked with OSHCON but ultimately figured out that it wasn’t enough and that they needed more help.

For small companies who are worried about their OSHA compliance condition, and aren’t sure where to begin, we have created a free guide called How To Build A Safety Program From Scratch which will get you well on your way towards achieving these objectives and is a must-read for companies who don’t have a full time and experienced health and safety compliance manager. By the time you’ve finished reading this document, you’ll have gained a much better understanding of what the Occupational Health & Safety Administration demands of your company and can then begin to use the knowledge gained to assess your company’s current compliance condition, determine what needs to be fixed, and hopefully begin work on making improvements.

For companies who already know they need help managing compliance, checkout our Virtual and Turn-Key OSHA compliance consulting services.

CALL US TODAY AT 512-457-0374 TO SCHEDULE YOUR FREE CONSULTATION

Most small businesses lack the expertise and time needed to navigate the complicated mess of OSHA & EPA regulations, leaving them vulnerable to costly injuries, fines, and lawsuits.

Berg Compliance Solutions offers turnkey programs to help businesses get peace of mind knowing they are fully compliant and positioned for success.

By Russell Carr|2022-03-21T13:03:54-05:00February 28th, 2016|Good To Know|Comments Off

About the Author: Russell Carr

How A Sales Guy Transformed Into An Environmental, Health & Safety Expert & Advocate For Small Businesses I've spent my entire 30+ year career working within the manufacturing and “industrial services” sectors. The first 15 years of my career focused on sales of hazardous materials related products and services to the manufacturing sector, then for the last 16+ years transitioned into entrepreneurship, founding 3 small industrial services related contracting businesses. As you’ll see below, running these companies eventually lead me to found yet a 4th business, but more on that in a minute…. Here’s a brief description of the first 3 companies: Berg Environmental Services, Inc.: hazardous waste disposal & transportation services, founded in August of 2003 3rd party wind energy operations & maintenance services provider to utility scale wind farms throughout the US, founded in September 2007 3rd party oil & gas exploration & production services provider, founded in August of 2011 Each of these companies operated in extremely dangerous working conditions and exposed my employees to a wide range of serious health & safety hazards on a daily basis. To complicate matters, 2 of the companies also exposed the environment to significant potential harm. In other words, I learned very early the critical importance of managing environmental, health and safety issues so as to ensure the safety of our employees and the environment, as well as minimizing related risks. But I also learned how incredibly difficult and challenging this endeavor can be due to the wide range of complicated and continually changing environmental, health and safety rules and regulations that impacted the companies. To summarize the challenges: First I had to determine which regulations applied to each company, then I had to build compliance programs to meet those regulations, and finally I had to ensure that the programs were being managed and followed by our staff on a daily basis. All while trying to run and grow 3 profitable businesses…. It was overwhelming and I always struggled to keep up. To make matters worse, throughout this time I also witnessed the devastating price that companies, management and ownership can pay for failing to manage EHS compliance. This included seeing one of my hazardous waste management clients get sent to jail over environmental issues, another client’s management team threatened with jail time, a direct competitor get fined $378,000 by OSHA fine after an employee was nearly killed, and many others face major fines and penalties. Full disclosure, one of my companies got fined by OSHA at one point, & another was cited by TCEQ, so I know how it feels. In summary, I learned first hand how incredibly difficult it is for small companies to manage EHS compliance due to a common lack of the critical expertise, time and resources that are needed to keep up, and how this situation then ends up exposing them to these potentially catastrophic risks that can literally destroy lives and businesses. This later inspired me to found my 4th company, Berg Compliance Solutions in 2012, which is dedicated to helping other small businesses, and business owners, to manage EHS compliance and risk. Education BA, Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder, December, 1990. Summary of Professional Experience & Qualifications: 30+ years serving the manufacturing & industrial services sectors 30+ years of sales and marketing experience 16+ years as small business owner & entrepreneur: Founded and operated 4 small businesses since 2003. Environmental, Health & Safety Compliance & Program Related: 19 plus years of hazardous waste management including EPA, TCEQ & RCRA regulations 8 years of DOT/FMCSA compliance experience, including hazardous materials transportation 8 years of combined experience implementing and managing OSHA health and safety compliance programs for 2 high risk energy services businesses Successfully implemented and gained ISO 9001 Quality Management Certification and OHSAS 18001 (Occupational Health & Safety Advisory Service) Certification for wind energy maintenance business. Regulatory Enforcement Related Experience: Served as expert witness in criminal environmental compliance enforcement cases Superfund-CERCLA OSHA enforcement inspections, investigations and resolution in following industries: industrial services, manufacturing & construction. TCEQ enforcement inspections, investigations and resolution in manufacturing.

Can OSHCON Manage Your Company’s OSHA Compliance?