Why Your Small Business Needs a Safety Manual

Small businesses face the same issues as large business regarding employee health and safety. However, unlike large businesses, small businesses usually do not have the service benefits of safety engineers or industrial hygienists that can help with safety evaluation, training, and incident investigation. Therefore, a safety manual is essential if a small business intends to not only comply with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration's (OSHA) Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (P.L.91-596), but to also protect the health and well-being of its workforce.

Pragmatically, a safety manual helps ensure that employees are informed about workplace safety hazards and precautions. A safety manual also ensures that employees have a readily available resource to consult should there be a safety concern or uncertainty. For the small business, a safety manual helps keep business costs down by helping to reduce workplace injuries and resulting insurance claims and/or litigation, as well as OSHA compliance violations and resulting fines.

A safety manual helps a small business in several ways, including the following:

Recognition of potential workplace hazards.

Containment or elimination of recognized workplace hazards.

Cultivation of an environment wherein employees monitor and take responsibility for their own safety as well as the safety of others.

Prevention of loss of life and/or limb at the work site.

Improvement of employee morale.

While employees who receive safety training are also more likely to be aware of potential job hazards and to avoid them, or to take proper safety precautions in order to avoid injury and/or death, they are more likely to retain the information they have received if there is a written record of it. In addition, a safety manual may be updated as new concerns arise, and employees can be requested to read the altered manual rather than undergo additional training sessions.

The basic company safety manual can be divided into several sections, including the following:

Safety issues and concerns that affect the business.

Preventative measures for personal and group safety.

Procedures for containment or removal of recognized safety hazards.

Emergency evacuation procedures.

Injury response and treatment.

Injury and/or death reporting.

Corrective measures for safety violations.

While a safety manual is not an absolute guarantee that injuries on the job site will never occur, it does emphasize the business's focus on and commitment to safety. Because small companies cannot easily afford designated safety personnel, a safety manual helps satisfy the need for safety awareness while keeping costs from becoming prohibitive. Finally, a safety manual helps organize and address safety concerns and their solutions.