A Brief Introduction to the OSHA Standards

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has created and laid down certain guidelines to help employers comply easily with the occupational health and safety standards. The agency aims towards reducing workplace related deaths, accidents and injuries. It achieves this by advising employers on how to create safety training programs for employees working in potentially hazardous industries.

The general training guidelines laid down by OSHA tell employers to determine whether the employees are in need of training. They also help them figure out the training needs and goals. The employers can then develop their own training programs and train workers. Over time, they will be able to assess the effectiveness of the program developed by them and improve it, if required. OSHA allows flexibility in training standards. This means, employers have the freedom to set up their training programs as per the hazards specific to their own work place.

The OSHA standards have been laid down so that employers provide a safe, healthy and hazard free environment to their workers. Although work place related injuries and deaths still occur, these OSHA standards have helped reduce the amount of workplace injuries and saved thousands of lives. Therefore, employers are expected to follow these rules and regulations as laid down by OSHA.