Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created by the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. OSHA is tasked with assuring safe and healthful working conditions for the American people, and achieves this by setting and enforcing standards for workplace safety.

OSHA has a significant number of regulations that apply variably based on the type of industry and workplace environment. In general, every employer is required to keep a record of serious on-the-job injuries and to train employees on how to record health and safety incidents. OSHA also requires every employer to create an Emergency Action Plan, detailing what employees are required to do in the event of an emergency situation at work. In addition to Emergency Action Plans, employers must also provide employees with such things as Fire Safety training and a map of Exit Routes. Any employer with potentially toxic or hazardous chemicals in the building must also develop Hazard Communication Standards to distribute to employees.

To demonstrate compliance with OSHA regulations, employers are encouraged to develop and distribute Business Continuity plans, Emergency Contact sheets and various workplace safety handouts, as well as inform employees of emergency action plans, avenues of information regarding workplace safety, and strategies to keep safe at work.

For each distribution of health and safety information, it is advisable to have employees certify that they have read and understood the safety documentation, as well as certify that they agree to follow all health and safety instructions therein.

How DocRead can help

DocRead is compliance software that utilizes SharePoint to enable an employer to disperse safety documentation to various user groups, maintain certification that the documentation has been read, and monitor the progress of employees’ acknowledgment of the documentation.

DocRead ensures that your documents are distributed to appropriate employees or groups of employees, and that the documents are acknowledged within a designated timeframe.

After choosing the appropriate document to distribute and the group of employees to receive the document, DocRead notifies each employee of an assigned reading task.

Employees are required to read the document and certify that they have understood and agree to abide by the information and guidelines it contains. They must check the 'I agree' box and then click the 'confirm' button.

The certification message is fully configurable by your organization, so you can tailor the message to meet your specific requirements.

Once an employee has acknowledged their understanding of the notification, they receive a reading receipt that they may download or print for their records. The reading receipts are also securely stored in a central database, allowing quick access and time-stamped verification of compliance.

DocRead software provides reading reports that can be used to monitor the progress of the documentation’s acknowledgement, clearly outlining how many documents have been assigned, completed or are overdue.

DocRead can help

DocRead has been helping our customers managing their policies and procedures in SharePoint for over 12 years.