Securing a Safe 2024: 6 Ways to Evaluate Your Safety Program and Start the Year Strong

Toby Graham

Safety is a critical aspect of any organization, and it’s vital to evaluate your safety program regularly to ensure its effectiveness. This time of year is pivotal for safety professionals to review their safety initiatives, reflect on successes and failures, and plan for the coming year. 

As the year comes to a close, the holiday season brings a host of challenges to safety professionals, with schedules changing, PTO being taken, and everyone trying to finish what they started. In this article, we’ll discuss the essential things that safety professionals should add to their to-do list before the end of the year to ensure finish the year strong.

1. What worked for your facility this year?

What was successful, and kind of more importantly, what wasn’t successful?

If you’re wondering if your program or initiatives were successful, there are a couple of ways to evaluate this. First, you have to be honest with your answer. Your self-assessment probably isn’t all that off if you are gauging if something was a win or a loss. But if you aren’t sure, just ask someone. You can do this with a more casual conversation or by creating an anonymous safety survey to gather more feedback.

2. Review any regulatory enforcement and how you’ve handled that situation.

Was OSHA on site? The EPA? A state inspector?

If they were, how did it go for you? Were you able to gather the requested documents easily? Could you answer their questions in a reasonable amount of time? Did you feel prepared? And did any citations result from an inspection?

3. Take a look at accident trends for the year.

You should have a list of injuries that have happened this year already, so you can use this data to focus your time and your safety goals.

These accident trends also make great content for your upcoming safety committee meetings.

  • When looking at your injuries for the year, what are you seeing? 
  • Are there trends and patterns? 
  • Are injuries from the same department? 
  • How severe were the injuries? 

You’ll also want to evaluate the cost of the injury versus the frequency and severity of what happened. One accident that led to surgery and time away from work can also impact your X-modification rate with your workers’ compensation carrier.

4. Update your OSHA 300 log.

For most industries, severe injuries must be recorded on the OSHA 300 log.

Most need to do this throughout the year. So, at the start of 2024, you’ll need to complete that OSHA 300A form, which will require the log data from 2023. So it’s a good idea to ensure that your OSHA 300 log is up to date throughout 2023, but definitely before the end of the year.

5. Assess your training completion.

Training…it’s so easy and it’s so hard.

It’s easy to complete if you do it one topic at a time, but it can be hard to manage for just a handful of employees. Take a look and see if your employees are managing this well. 

This is important because if OSHA is on site, they always ask for training. Always. 

And it’s a black-and-white thing. You either have the training done or you don’t. There’s really just not any in-between. So have your employees completed it? And if not, what has the challenge been in getting this done?

6. Look at next year’s budget and how you can make a case for any necessary requests.

It’s important for you to find out when these budget meetings are happening so you can prepare.

You’ve had enough time this year to gather some good data points. Hopefully, you’ve had some year-to-year statistics to help back up your requests.

So how much is safety costing you? It’s important in these budget meetings to reinforce that these aren’t just dollars spent but it’s an investment in your people and your safety culture. 

Easy budget requests could be replacing broken emergency equipment, rethinking how to restock your first aid kits, or replacing some personal protective equipment for employees.

Now is a critical time of year for safety professionals to review their programs and initiatives. 

As the year winds down, it’s essential to assess what worked and what didn’t, evaluate accident trends, update OSHA logs, and ensure that training is completed. By doing so, you can finish the year strong and prepare for the coming year with a clear plan of action. 

Remember, safety is not just a cost but an investment in your people and your organization’s success.

Get the Guide: How to Secure EHS Software Budget

How do you convince leadership to invest in EHS software? Learn how to frame the conversation in terms that can get your leadership on board.

Download the Guide

Toby Graham

Toby manages the marketing communications team here at KPA. She's on a quest to help people tell clear, fun stories that their audience can relate to. She's a HUGE sugar junkie...and usually starts wandering the halls looking for cookies around 3pm daily.

More from this Author >

Back To Top