According to OSHA, the importance of recordkeeping is a critical part in employer's safety and health efforts for a few reasons:
- Keeping track of work-related injuries and illnesses can help you prevent them in the future.
- Using injury and illness data helps identify problem areas. The more you know, the better you can identify and correct hazardous workplace conditions.
- You can better administer company safety and health programs with accurate records.
- As employee awareness about injuries, illnesses, and hazards in the workplace improves, workers are more likely to follow safe work practices and report workplace hazards. OSHA compliance officers can rely on the data to help them properly identify and focus on injuries and illnesses in a particular area. The agency also asks about 80,000 establishments each year to report the data directly to OSHA, which uses the information as part of its site-specific inspection targeting program. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also uses injury and illness records as the source data for the Annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses that shows safety and health trends nationwide and industrywide.
To help guide you through OSHA recordkeeping, R&R Insurance provides a complimentary guide to the OSHA 300 Log.
Additional OSHA 300 Log resources:
- The effects of over recording in the OSHA 300 log
- What is the OSHA 300 Log and why do I need to comply?
- Public sector employers are NOT exempt from OSHA reporting
Email our knowledgebroker OSHA expert John Brengosz for additional information.
