Once the OSHA inspection is over and the inspector leaves the site, many companies make the mistake of believing that “it’s done” and there’s nothing more to do and nothing more to worry about.
Unfortunately in most cases, these assumptions couldn’t be further from the truth, and in reality, the work has just begun…..
In other words, the vast majority of inspections result in multiple citations for serious health and safety hazards, and it’s the employers responsibility to immediately get to work fixing everything to help protect their employees from harm. If they don’t, they could not only face serious injuries, but also even more fines and penalties.
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But I’m getting ahead of myself, this video covers everything you need to know about what happens, and what you need to do once your OSHA inspection has finished, including:
– How long OSHA has to issue citations and fines
– How to know which citations might be issued and how much they could cost you
– Why it’s so critical to immediately get started on fixing issues
– Your action plan to minimize risk and damage
– How long it might take and cost to get everything fixed
– How to communicate with OSHA during this process
– How to deal with the citation letter
and much more…..
(BELOW IS A TRANSCRIPT OF THE VIDEO, OR YOU CAN SKIP THAT AND JUST WATCH IT)
All right, so are you worried about the possibility of OSHA showing up in your lobby for a surprise inspection? And at this point, you’re not exactly sure what to do about that or how to prepare for that possibility, if that sounds like you don’t feel bad because you’re not alone and you’ve come to the right place? Because I’ve put together this new series of videos called How to Pass Your Ocean Inspection, and in this addition of the series, I’m going to actually talk about what to do after an inspection. So if you do get inspected, there are, uh, really critical steps that you have to take after the ocean inspection. So unless that inspector tells you at the end of the inspection that everything’s fine and there’s no citations, trust me, you’ve got to get to work. There’s certain critical steps that you’ve gotta start taking now in order to prepare for those citations that are surely coming.
Again, it’s important to understand OSHA has up to six months to issue, uh, their citations during that time period where there takes two weeks, a month, or six months, you gotta start taking action. Uh, after that inspection ends, prepare for those citations, because once they arrive, that clock starts ticking. So I’m getting kind of ahead of myself, kind of giving you a preview of what we’re going to talk about. A again, we’re going to talk about what to do after that inspection, to minimize your risk and minimize the damage, minimize citations, fines, and everything I else. All right, so before getting into that, if you haven’t already, please go ahead and subscribe to our channel. Make sure to hit that notifications bell so that you’re notified every time that I upload new content two to three times per month, where I’m going to do deep dive discussions into the most important environmental health and safety regulations and issues that impact small manufacturers. All right, so as I mentioned in previous editions, my name is Russell Carr, and I’ve helped many small manufacturing companies navigate the entire OSHA enforcement process from that first inspection towards fixing violations, also helping companies to defend and fight back against citations and fines, and sometimes helping them even get thrown out. And in this series, I’m going to share with you the most important things I’ve learned during those experiences. So again, you can prepare for and pass your ocean inspection. All right, so with that said, let’s get started.
All right, so now we’re going to go ahead and talk about what to do after an inspection. So this is what you want to be thinking about and doing after the inspections ended, after that closing conference is over, assuming that during that closing conference, the inspector told you that there were violations and that he or she’s going to make recommendations for actual site citations. So, as I mentioned in a previous video, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from a company that said, look, we got inspected. You know, the, uh, the, the enforce the compliance officer told us that we had some violations. Uh, we haven’t heard anything since. So we, we guess everything’s okay. <laugh>, unfortunately, that’s not the case. Again, unless they specifically told you during that closing conference that no, no citations will be be issued, then unfortunately, in a lot of cases, this is when the, this is when the real hard work begins.
And that’s what we’re going to talk about, uh, in this video, what that hard work looks like, depending on, you know, what recommendations they made for citations. So let’s go ahead and look at that in detail. So here are the follow up items. Number one, you want to review the inspection with everyone who participated. So, as we talked about and how to prepare for an inspection, if you have multiple managers involved in the inspection process, sit down with them immediately after that closing conference, no later than the day after to compare notes, update your notes as needed, uh, if you want to do that, while that’s still fresh in everybody’s mind. Otherwise, you know, the memories start to fade and you might not have the right, uh, you know, notes of what actually happened that you might need later if you want to fight back against citations and so forth.
Um, already covered that. Again, you want to review your notes and update ’em as needed as soon as possible. After the inspection. And that closing conference ends, you want to consolidate all your photos and videos, depending on the scope of the inspection, how long it took. There might be a lot of photos and a lot of, uh, videos that you must upload to your, uh, computer, computer drive in a, you know, secure location where everybody knows where to find it. Just get all that together, uh, with your notes right after that closing conference. Then you want to make sure to communicate everything that you know about the inspection to company leadership. That’s going to be really important, because if there were a lot of citations, even if there weren’t, uh, as we talked about in, in a, pardon me, a previous video, depending on what those citations were, you know, those fines and penalties could be significant.
Nobody wants to, wants or likes a surprise. Uh, when it comes to company management, you want to make them aware as soon as possible, even if it’s bad news, so that they know what’s coming, right? Also, depending on what the violations are and the corrective actions are, there might be a lot of work involved. There might be, you know, time allocations that they need to be aware of, so you can get things fixed. There might be expenses, you know, depending on what the violations are that they need to be aware of and, uh, might need to approve. Just roll that up to company leadership. You don’t want to surprise them, obviously. The other thing, um, that’s important, and, and as I already touched on in the previous video, you want to immediately start fixing violations and don’t stop until you’re done. So if it’s a simple, you know, single, uh, citation that you know about, that might be simple to fix, okay, fair enough.
Uh, but, uh, go ahead and do it. Now, don’t forget about it, but if it, if it was a more of a comprehensive inspection, there’s multiple citations, especially if they’re programmatic. You know, for example, a hearing conservation program, a respiratory protection program, no lockout tagout program. It takes a long time to build those programs and, and put in place all those aspects that I talked about in the previous video. This is not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take a concerted focused effort to get from, you know, a to, to, to completion. So, as we’re going to talk about in a minute here, when those citations arrive, there’s, the clocks are going to start ticking. There’s going to be a hard deadline. So you want to start working on those violations immediately. Don’t stop until, uh, you’re finished. Once the violations are fixed, no matter you know what they are, document everything and communicate it to the inspector.
So I, I talked in the previous video, a bucket and the inspector’s, uh, business card document, everything, email it to them, you know, even before those citation letters, those citation letters shows up, you want to maintain that line of communication and let them know that you are actively fixing everything. Remember, they’re reviewing everything. If they don’t hear from you and there’s a lot of violations, that’s going to be a red flag to them. And it might, you know, uh, it might indicate to them that there’s no management commitment. You’re not taking it seriously. You, as you fix these problems, you want to be emailing them and make them aware. I promise you it’s very important to stay in communication and let them know as you’re fixing things. Then let me end off here by talking about how important it’s to be on the lookout for that citations letter, which will be sent via certified mail.
As I mentioned before, they have up to six months to issue that letter to you. Uh, they have multiple layers of, you know, uh, review and approval before they issue those citations. You need to be on the lookout for that. So if you just had one or two citations, you know, you might get that letter within two or two to four weeks. That’s not uncommon. But if it was a comprehensive inspection and there were, and or there were a lot of citations, um, that could take all the way up to six months, we’ve seen that letter to show up literally at the 11th hour also. So you want, you want whoever gets your mail, uh, sorts through your mail, you want to make them aware of that so that they’re on the lookout for it. It’s going to be certified, so they have to sign off on that.
It’s important to understand that once you sign off on that letter, I don’t, it doesn’t matter who your company did that there is a two week deadline, all right? So that clock starts ticking as soon as you get that letter. And during that time period, you have to prove that you fix everything and decide if you’re going to pay the citations and fines and everything. You gotta decide what you’re going to do. So this goes back to the importance of starting to fix everything immediately after the, uh, you know, the inspection happens. Because once that clock starts ticking, you can’t, if you have a lot of stuff to do, especially if it’s programmatic, you’re not going to get it done, done in two weeks or does not. It’s impossible to do that. You know, I can’t tell you also how many times I’ve seen where a company, you know, the management doesn’t even know about that letter until long after that, you know, that deadline passes.
That’s not at all uncommon. So again, you want that person who sorts through your mail to be on the lookout and instruct them to make you and management aware as soon as that letter comes in. All right? So assuming you get that citation letter, that’s what we’re going to talk about in the next video. You know, what are your options once you get that citation letter, depending on what type of citations, how many fines, we’re going to talk about what your options are and what to do about that. Also, if you’ve had any experience dealing with any of these issues, you have any questions, make sure to post them below, I promise to respond. Finally, make sure to stick around here for a moment where I’m going to make you a very special, uh, free, no obligation offer for companies, people out there who want to be proactive about this.
The, if you know, your safety program is not up to snuff or you don’t even have one, I’m going to make you a very special free offer that’s going to get you on track towards building a custom, uh, tailored safety program for your company that’s going to help you to get that competence to pass any ocean inspection, even if it’s a comprehensive inspection. All right? So stick around for a second for that, and thanks for watching. All right. So let me begin to wrap up by asking you a very simple, but also a very important question. And that’s this. Are you and your company really ready if Oshi shows up tomorrow in your lobby for a surprise inspection? The fact is, if you’re like most small manufacturing and industrial companies, the answer is probably no. And if that sounds like you don’t feel bad, again, you’re not alone.
But the fact is, if that’s the case, you are currently at major risk. The fact is that OSHA goes across the country every single day and hits small companies just like yours and issues, all kinds of citations, fines, and penalties that run in often run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. And you gotta ask yourself, could you really afford that? So, having said that, I also want, want to make the point that the best preparation and the best way to pass an inspection is to know and have the confidence that you have a fully functioning OSHA compliance health and safety program. I know that’s easier said than done, but at this point in Tom Auto, make a very special, free, no obligation to offer to you to help you get on track if you don’t have a safety program. Right now, I want to offer you free enrollment in our small manufacturer safety school.
So let me tell you about this program. What it does is it gives you the training, the knowledge, and the resources so you can actually start to build a customized safety program and get prepared for that inspector. So let me explain what comes with that with that program. It’s a three partner. Number one, we have the, uh, mini OSHA crash course designed specifically to meet the needs of small manufacturing and industrial companies. So in this, uh, free training, I’m going to walk you step by step through the process of determining which OSHA compliance requirements apply to your company and how to build that program and how to manage that program for the long term. Another really important thing to understand about this, uh, crash course, it’s built for non-expert. So most of the people, most of the companies that come to us, they don’t know anything about safety.
So I built that program with that in mind. So even if you know enough, nothing from safety, you’ll really bene you’ll really benefit from it. The other thing that you’re going to get is an OSHA compliance check sheet. So after you watch the course, you can use this as a self-assessment gap assessment tool to see which one of these OSHA laws apply to, to your company. Figure out if you have it in place or not if you don’t, this, uh, document will also function as sort of a roadmap forward to get your company on the road towards compliance. The final thing that we’re offering in a small manufacturer safety school, I’m going to invite you to live free monthly, uh, training sessions where I’m going to do deep dives and cover everything that’s covered in the crash course so that you can learn step-by-step instructions for actually h how to build a customized safety program for your company.
Again, it’s free, it’s no obligation. You have absolutely nothing to lose. I’m going to put a link in the vi below the video here where you can enroll and get started immediately on your road towards compliance. I look forward to seeing you and some of those live sessions. Also, make sure to stick around for the next, uh, edition of how to Pass Your Ocean Inspection. And finally, if you haven’t already and you like what you learned today, please go ahead and subscribe to our channel. Make sure to hit that notifications bell so that you’re notified every time that I upload new content, which will be two to three times per month diving deep into the environmental health and safety regulations and issues that impact small manufacturing and industrial companies. All right, thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon.
