How Construction Safety Software Can Help Contractors Handle OSHA Requirements

OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is a federal agency in the U.S. Department of Labor that focuses on ensuring safe work conditions and environments for workers.

There are several hundred construction-specific OSHA requirements that contractors must adhere to.

This includes a wide range of safety issues, from what PPE is necessary for certain tasks to mandates for safety training for hazardous work.

The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 1926  specifically outlines OSHA’s comprehensive standards for the construction industry, focusing on:

• Safety and health standards
• PPE
• Hazards
• General Provisions
• Fire prevention & protection

Because OSHA is a government organization, its requirements are enforced by the law. Every contractor is legally responsible to adhere to OSHA or face strict penalties.

However, because of the sheer volume of OSHA’s construction-specific requirements, it can be challenging for contractors to stay compliant with safety standards.

According to some researchers, almost 68 percent of work-related injuries, including illnesses, are never reported. This lack of reporting is most likely due to:

• Complicated procedures and red tape: Employers may not want to deal with the paperwork for accident or illness reporting.
• Culture of injuries or accidents being “part of the job”: Workers may not want to seem weak or may be pressured by employers not to report any incidents, so reporting could be frowned upon.
• Lack of training or safety precautions: Employers may avoid reporting because of oversight, knowing that OSHA could charge strict penalties.

Construction safety software is a powerful asset and solution, helping businesses manage jobsite safety, ensuring protection for their workers, and making OSHA compliance more achievable.

While contractors and employers may find the process of reporting jobsite incidents or meeting OSHA compliance to be overwhelming or tedious, safety software can make every step simpler with its many tools and tracking systems to empower and protect against mistakes or dangerous accidents.

Key Takeaways For Construction Safety Software Making OSHA Requirements Easier:

Construction safety software is a powerful tool for contractors to streamline OSHA compliance. By automating many of the complex tasks associated with safety management, this technology helps businesses:

• Create a culture of safety: Taking a proactive approach, such as regular training and incident reporting, can create a workplace with a strong safety culture where safety is a top priority.
• Identify and mitigate hazardous conditions: Real-time monitoring and risk assessments allow for early detection and prevention of potential issues.
• Ensure compliance with safety regulations: Automated recordkeeping and reporting simplify the process of meeting OSHA’s strict requirements.
• Improve safety practices: Software helps workers understand and follow safe work procedures by providing access to up-to-date safety information and training materials.
• Reduce the occurrence of safety incidents: A well-managed safety program, supported by technology, can minimize accidents and injuries on construction sites.
• Construction safety software offers a comprehensive solution for contractors to manage OSHA compliance, protect their workers, and create a safer working environment across all construction sectors.

OSHA Requirements for Construction

OSHA maintains an extensive and stringent set of regulations that must be followed by all contractors and employers.

These regulations are in place not only to protect workers on the jobsite but also to prevent any potential hazards or risk of accidents during construction.

The most crucial requirements include:

• Health and safety programs: Employers are responsible for providing their workers with programs that teach workers to identify and control hazards, including emergency procedures.
• Special PPE (Personal Protective Equipment): Gear must be supplied by employers for specific tasks, such as respirators when working with harmful inhalants.
• Fall protection systems: Safety preventors must be in place for work being done at 6 or more feet up. This includes guardrails, nets and personal fall arrest systems.
• Hazard awareness and communication: Employees must be taught how to identify hazards, including dangerous chemicals.
• Excavating and trenching: Workers must be protected with engineering controls, such as shoring, sloping or shielding, to prevent cave-ins.
• Emergency response plans: Procedures must be planned, practiced and implemented for all projects, ready to address any emergency.
• Electrical safety: There needs to be systems in place, including PPE, engineering controls, and special training to protect workers against electrocution and other electrical hazards.

This brief overview only shows the most critical requirements for construction. OSHA regulations can be far more complex depending on the work being performed.

Below is an example of how much OSHA’s rules can influence a jobsite:

• A crew is working on demolishing a concrete silo which contains residual grain dust.
• Because of the silo’s unique characteristics with potentially hazardous atmosphere, OSHA would require special permitting with Confined Spaces (PRCS).
• Atmospheric monitoring and ventilation systems would be required to protect workers against combustible gasses or toxic chemicals.
• Specialized entry procedures must be implemented, including methods of communication, lockout/tagout and rescue.
• Specific training is mandatory for working in confined spaces, requiring multiple lessons in hazard recognition and atmospheric monitoring.

OSHA & Safety Records

OSHA has highly specific requirements for recordkeeping.

Documentation is always needed for work related injuries or illnesses (known as an OSHA 300 log), which requires the employees name, date and nature of injury or illness.

Other logs must be filed for severe incidents or fatalities. If a contractor fails to properly record or report any injury, illness, incident, or fatality, very heavy penalties will be incurred.

Meeting OSHA compliance for construction is extremely important, as OSHA can penalize with large fines for violations.

The more violations a business has, the more OSHA fines can increase drastically.

In serious cases, such as willful or repeated violations, OSHA can take legal action, with a business’ safety failures resulting in damage to their financials and reputation.

Even a failure to report any workplace accidents, major or minor, could still lead to fines up to thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

To avoid any possible penalties, it is best to stay in complete compliance with all of OSHA’s regulations.

Common OSHA Challenges

There are many reasons why it can be difficult for contractors to stay fully compliant with OSHA regulations, such as:

– Complexity of regulations: There are many OSHA regulations that can often be very nuanced depending on the job.

Frequent changes in the industry can often lead to OSHA revising or updating these regulations, making it even harder for contractors to stay informed.

– Employee compliance: It can be difficult for employers to track employee training, especially if they are working remote jobsites. Having a culture with a lack of safety-minded workers can also make it difficult to meet OSHA requirements, as they may be ignored.

– Economic pressures: When contractors are on a tight schedule or budget, workplace safety may often be overlooked or viewed as “non-priority.”

– High worker turnover: Working in an industry with a high turnover rate for construction workers makes keeping everyone up to date on safety training a struggle.

Seasonal work can make this challenge even harder to navigate, as workloads, deadlines, and the number of workers can fluctuate heavily.

Contractors may also face challenges with unannounced OSHA inspections.

OSHA inspections are typically scheduled in advance but can occur unexpectedly. Contractors could find themselves unprepared, facing any number of citations.

In the end, a disorganized business may face the most danger, as it is extremely important to keep workers up to date on safety training, a jobsite protected from hazards, and a system ready to report any incidents as fast as possible.

How Safety Software Can Help Contractors Meet OSHA Requirements

Because OSHA regulations can be very complex and subject to irregular changes, construction safety software can be a useful tool for any contractor who struggles to stay compliant in the construction industry.

Managing and documenting OSHA regulations without a data system can result in serious discrepancies and mistakes. The outcome of which can lead to an undertrained workforce in an unsafe jobsite.

Construction safety technology offers the benefits of streamlined recordkeeping and reporting, which can work to prevent late or inaccurate information from being recorded and sent to OSHA.

Construction safety software provides a variety of invaluable tools, including:

• Health and safety program management
• Risk assessment
• Health and safety risk management control
• Certification tracking
• Compliance monitoring
• Real-time incident monitoring with alerts
• Mobile and cloud access

Additionally, digital safety software uses automation to keep safety tracking efficient and accurate, integrating all these tools into a single platform.

Safety data (such as dates, roles of workers, protocols, etc.) can all be configured and customized, with training modules or safety Toolbox Talks being automatically assigned or scheduled.

Once any safety training has been completed, it will be documented and organized for ease of access.

Automated forms and reporting make filing incidents fast so as to avoid any mistakes or delays.

When an OSHA inspection occurs, contractors can be ready to demonstrate OSHA compliance with worksite safety and employee training.

Construction safety management software makes OSHA compliance simple, saving a business precious time, energy, and money, and most importantly helps to protect the lives of workers.

How Safety Software Can Fit Your Construction Company

With a user-friendly interface that is customizable to your business’ needs, construction safety software removes the burdens of tracking complicated OSHA regulations.

• If a company works exclusively in a specific field of construction (such as roofing), the software can be adapted to focus on the needed safety regulations (such as fall and equipment safety).

Whether you’re a large construction company, working across multiple states with remote construction jobsites and traveling workers or a smaller business within a single small location, safety software is designed to help track and organize worker compliance.

If a company is experiencing large growth, safety software is scalable to meet any new or advanced changes.

Any worker can have real-time mobile access, reducing the chances of past-due training or reporting of an injury, illness, or incident.

Furthermore, if your business already has systems of tracking for items like PPE or inventory, most safety software can integrate and collaborate, keeping all information in a centralized location.

With comprehensive safety software, any company can achieve a safer work environment, staying in complete compliance with OSHA.

Protect Your Company with SafetyHQ®

OSHA, as a federal agency, maintains a wide and complex variety of construction regulations, with heavy penalties if not followed correctly.

Contractors may find themselves overwhelmed by the challenge of meeting OSHA requirements, as even small projects can have many stringent regulations.

Other challenges, outside of requirement complexity, such as a lack of safety in worker culture, can make it extremely difficult to stay OSHA compliant.

Automated construction safety software offers many tools that can help overcome these struggles, and others like them, to meet OSHA compliance and help create a safe work environment.

With the ability to adapt and streamline any company’s safety systems, such as recordkeeping and proper training, safety software is vital.

OSHA is a very serious organization that does not take safety violations lightly.

Without an organized safety system, the penalties could be severe, possibly ruining a company’s reputation and profitability.

If you think construction safety software could benefit you or your company, SafetyHQ is here to help with all the services and tools you need to keep your workers safe.

Chat with a specialist today!