A safe and healthy workplace not only protects workers from injury and illness, but a robust safety culture can also lower injury/illness costs, reduce absenteeism and turnover, increase productivity and quality, and raise employee morale. In other words, safety is good for business. Plus, protecting workers is the right thing to do. 2023 is here, and IMEC wants this to be your safest year yet. Here are 5 tips to start the new year and keep your organization OSHA compliant:

It has been a little over a year since the beginning of the pandemic. As you are rebounding from the global crisis, thinking back to the past year, what a great challenge that was. Now, as you continue to operate with the pandemic, what is next? What steps are you taking to protect your company? To strengthen and to make sure you stay competitive during this chaotic time? The Cook County Bureau of Economic Development and IMEC wondered the same thing, therefore we reached out to manufacturers seeking answers. Using a 10-questions survey aligning with the US Commerce NIST Baldridge Performance Excellence Framework, over 1000 manufacturers responded with their priorities. In which, over half responded with ‘Creating Growth Opportunities’ as the number one priority.

Written by Options Travel.

The pandemic has had a wrenching effect on the travel industry. Within weeks of President Trump’s European travel ban, airline passenger loads were reduced to less than 5% of the same period (day, week, month) one year earlier.

The CDC has defined general guidelines that will help prevent the spread of COVID-19. To help share these with a larger audience, our friends at Argo Translation created an infographic that demonstrates the guidelines in 14 languages:

As businesses open back up everyone’s attention is on keeping their employees & coworkers safe. While CDC guidelines regarding face coverings, frequent hand washing, and disinfecting protocols are the best way to slow the spread of COVID-19, there are other ways for organizations to slow the spread. The ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) formed a task force to provide guidelines on how a building’s HVAC systems can help slow the spread.

Respiratory Protection Programs are a little more complicated than other aspects of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for many employers.  There are annual requirements for training and review.  Now is a good time to consider the current state of your program and make some goals as needed to maintain and improve. 

The Department of Labor has issued a new poster for the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Employers must post this in their workplace. You can find the poster at this link: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/posters/FFCRA_Poster_WH1422_Non-Federal.pdf

Are your employees wearing N95 filtering facepiece respirators to protect themselves? Please Note: the information in this blog pertains only to N95 filtering facepiece respirators. Other respirator types may follow different requirements.

Yesterday we wrote about companies being essential businesses and staying open during the "Stay at Home" order. If you do remain open, here are some recommendations to help keep employees safe while they are at work:

Workers play a strong role in keeping themselves safe due to their willingness to take personal responsibility for decisions that will keep them safe. Safety training and policies are commonly used tools to help encourage risk-free behaviors through building safety knowledge. However, these practices alone will not be enough to create a complete safety culture.