And now for part two in our ongoing series on employment and employee relations:
Running a company in the United States means that there are a lot of bureaucratic hoops to jump through. Most of them involve filing paperwork, sending information into the government, and allowing people to keep track of your records so that everybody pays their fair share. Some of the requirements you have to meet are educational, however, and it’s important that you take the time to properly train your employees so they’re aware of the potential risks they might face on the job.
The first thing you have to ask yourself is, “Who sets the standards for training?” Obviously somebody has to decide what qualifies as federally acceptable training, both in terms of quality and content. The answer is that this is determined by the US Department of Labor’s Office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). They are the ones who decide exactly what is important for every US worker to know in every conceivable type of corporation. Regardless of what you do, there are certain types of training you will be required to have, and in specific industries there is additional knowledge you will need to know. More importantly, as a company owner, you’ll have to make sure your employees know it.
Before you even consider hiring employees, start at OSHA’s website and take a look at the materials you’ll need in order to properly train your employees. The OSHA Compliance Assistance Quick Start is a wonderful guide that will be able to help you pick the industry that you’re in and the types of training that might be required for it. Construction and Health Care are vastly different from other industries and have a different set of regulations that you’ll have to follow in order to be considered in line with federal requirements.
The next question you should ask is, “How am I supposed to actually train my employees?” If everyone trains new hires the way they want, there is no guarantee that the same information is being passed along or that it’s being done in an efficient and effective manner. It would be far too easy for a business owner to give a five minute rundown to an employee still on the job that can be misinterpreted or simply missed. Either way, there is a solution to that as well.
To quote their website, “The OSHA Directorate of Training and Education (DTE) develops, directs, oversees, manages and ensures implementation of OSHA’s national training and education policies and procedures.” What this means is that they’re provided the training and reference materials you need in order to make sure that your employees are up to date on federal safety requirements and the processes involved in maintaining them.
This is by no means comprehensive. Federally mandated training is not difficult to do once you understand what does and does not apply to your company, but it is vitally important to stay in compliance with the procedures. It’s also important to ask questions. Spend time browsing through the OSHA resources and getting an idea of what is required for you, and if you have questions, contact them and ask. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by spending a few minutes familiarizing yourself with these regulations.
