OSHA Safety Champion Program Series: Part 2

Show Notes

In Part 2 of this Safety Champions series, Sheldon Primus moves beyond the introduction and breaks down how OSHA’s Safety Champions Program can help organizations build a stronger, more connected safety and health system. He explains that while SHARP and VPP are designed for organizations already operating at a higher level of safety maturity, the Safety Champions Program is meant to help employers start earlier and build step by step. 

In this episode, Sheldon walks listeners through OSHA’s seven core elements of a strong safety and health program: management leadership, worker participation, hazard identification and assessment, hazard prevention and control, education and training, program evaluation and improvement, and communication and coordination for host employers, contractors, and staffing agencies. He explains how each element strengthens the overall system and helps move safety from disconnected activities into a more complete safety management approach. 

He also connects the framework to concepts like ISO 45001, leading and lagging indicators, worker trust, JSAs/JHAs, hierarchy of controls, learning teams, and contractor management, showing how the Safety Champions approach can become a real operational advantage rather than just another initiative. 

This episode is for safety professionals, consultants, and leaders who want to understand not just what the program is, but how it can help improve the way an organization leads, communicates, trains, evaluates, and reduces risk.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Safety Consultant Show with Sheldon primus, where we blend safety sparks with business brilliance and the pitch of Sheldon's signature width, whether you're a safety pro of fresh face consultant, or just safety curious, get ready for a show that'll educate, entertain and elevate your safety game.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's dive into the artist's consulting with your safety shirt for himself, Sheldon primus.

[SPEAKER_01]: This episode is powered by Safety FM.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, welcome to the Safety Consultant Podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: I am your host, Sheldon Prime Minister.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is to show where I teach you the business of being a safety consultant.

[SPEAKER_02]: We talk about OSHA compliance.

[SPEAKER_02]: We talk about EHNS stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: We do some interviews.

[SPEAKER_02]: whole bunch of stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we are getting ready to talk about episode two of the safety champion program with OSHA.

[SPEAKER_02]: So if you have not listened to the OSHA safety champion program that I did in the episode one,

[SPEAKER_02]: Then that's all right.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to do episode two and if you want you could stop us right now Go listening to episode one and then come back and lip it so it too while you're doing that I'm going to talk to the people who have not Subscribe to this podcast yet, so please go ahead and hit the subscribe button Go ahead and hit the like and follow button The plus button whatever it is on your Who are we're going to listen to me on right now?

[SPEAKER_02]: Get ahead and hit that, because I'm looking for new subscribers.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's free to do, you don't have to pay anything.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's going to help with the algorithm from all the different social media services.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I am honestly, I'm pimpin' myself.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's like I had it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever it is, I would appreciate the support.

[SPEAKER_02]: And honestly, it's a great support.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's something that everyone could do.

[SPEAKER_02]: the program and it's going to bring more visibility to this so I can help more people.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I thank you in advance for doing that and I'll keep an eye on the numbers and when we start getting an increase I'll let you know.

[SPEAKER_02]: I like to thank everybody who's listening to me around the globe too.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's a big thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I know that I was OSHA centric in the last episode and I will be this episode in a following just because of the safety champion program.

[SPEAKER_02]: But again, I encourage you to listen this through, but then encourage you to think about the core principles then I'm going to describe in the stages, because these principles and stages is going to help you when you're going to talk, or is, or going to help you.

[SPEAKER_02]: is going to help you?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm a little too sure about that one.

[SPEAKER_02]: You science and are not science, you, you weren't spent out there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let me know if which one I need to think of there.

[SPEAKER_02]: So anyway, so...

[SPEAKER_02]: Again, the safety championship program is specific to the U.S. and to OSHA and only OSHA's jurisdiction, not even people in the public sector for OSHA can do this.

[SPEAKER_02]: Unless your public sector has a state plan, but those you public sector workers that doesn't have a state plan, you guys can't qualify for this either because it's only OSHA's jurisdiction.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, what you're going to need to do is just listen to these principles of what OSHA is trying to get the safety champions to do and you do this for yourself.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's the goal here.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want you to be able to use this to reduce risk to make it easier for you to get workers know that you care and show that there's going to be a new safety and health initiative that you're going to do for yourself.

[SPEAKER_02]: regardless of getting OSHA's stamp of approval, but for those of you that are ready for the OSHA readiness program where you want to be, all right.

[SPEAKER_02]: You got even more of an incentive to listen out today, all right?

[SPEAKER_02]: So listen clearly, listen closely.

[SPEAKER_02]: We are going to do this thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just kidding.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so let's get this thing going.

[SPEAKER_02]: First, we talked about just gave you a nice little overview of what the safety program is and isn't.

[SPEAKER_02]: So OSHA has the Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program, and then they also have the program that is called

[SPEAKER_02]: VPP, voluntary protection program.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you guys heard me go through that last time and I was trying to figure out VPP and all the other stuff and just not wanting to to say those acronyms too much.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to do the same thing now.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're not going to say the acronyms.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we're not going to spell out everything like before.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's just

[SPEAKER_02]: It's too much.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just don't have the energy for that just don't have it.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you're gonna hear me talk in jargon and I'll, you know, we'll talk of jargon sometimes, not jargon other times.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, sharp and VPP both are ocean initiatives that will exempt you from some ocean enforcement.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you qualify because you're ready at that stage where your program is good enough that to be recognized and ocean can trust you to reduce risk on your own for your workers.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, there's...

[SPEAKER_02]: differences and nuances between VPP and Sharpe, VPP being the higher or the two.

[SPEAKER_02]: But honestly, listen to episode one, you'll get to know a little bit about that.

[SPEAKER_02]: The safety championship structure that we're going to really talk about in this episode is three major steps.

[SPEAKER_02]: introductory, intermediate, and advanced.

[SPEAKER_02]: And all of that is built around OSHA's seven core principles.

[SPEAKER_02]: So if you can't remember the seven core principles, it's management leadership, work participation, has an identification and assessment,

[SPEAKER_02]: has a prevention and control, education and training, program evaluation and improvement, communication and coordination for host employers, contractors, and staffing agencies.

[SPEAKER_02]: So those are going to be the pillars

[SPEAKER_02]: for your program and in the past, I used to do a webinar and some of you may still be able to look up my webinar entitled Seven Steps to Creating an Effective Safety and Health Program.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that's...

[SPEAKER_02]: That is out there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you could probably find it in some of the webinar companies that I've done that on.

[SPEAKER_02]: So this seven principles are about the same.

[SPEAKER_02]: So anyway, I'm going to kind of go through this with you.

[SPEAKER_02]: and just want to make sure that you guys are going to be ready for not only the stages, but just understand how to get all these things going.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay?

[SPEAKER_02]: The big picture.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is the framework for the safety champion program.

[SPEAKER_02]: I like that oh she's doing this because again sharp and VPP you have to be at a certain level of safety and health that you can't even qualify until you are really getting to that advanced stage.

[SPEAKER_02]: Safety champion is to help people start earlier.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the big picture here is you want to make sure that

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to get all your safety activities in a nice safety management system if you would make sure and everything's fully connected.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if you're hearing that term safety management system and you're thinking of another initiative called ISO 45,000 and a one,

[SPEAKER_02]: you are correct.

[SPEAKER_02]: That is also an influencer if you would for this safety champion program.

[SPEAKER_02]: So what you're going to see is the first element of the seven core elements and again introductory intermediate advanced is just how much are you putting that into your everyday working system.

[SPEAKER_02]: The more advanced people are doing it in all their activities, introductory, you may not even have a safety health program yet, but you want to.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's the difference.

[SPEAKER_02]: So first core principle is management leadership.

[SPEAKER_02]: So there's a guide and a tracker that the safety champion program gives you.

[SPEAKER_02]: And what you want is your management to start doing things such as give you a mission for a safety, setting goals, providing resources, establishing accountability.

[SPEAKER_02]: Those are the things that's going to show that management really cares.

[SPEAKER_02]: Even down to your boss walking into an area that is clearly has a sign hearing protection beyond this point, and they are going to wear their hair protection, or if not,

[SPEAKER_02]: It's very easy for someone who's a regular worker to say, hey, boss and tap their air and point out that the boss isn't wearing hair and protection and the boss throws up that thumb and says, cool, thank you.

[SPEAKER_02]: And they put on their hair and protection and it's not weird.

[SPEAKER_02]: and no one's getting written up or any of that stuff, that is truly going to show management commitment and support into the safety system.

[SPEAKER_02]: So leadership has to believe that everyone's job is safety.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's not just about compliance, it's about what can we do beyond safety compliance.

[SPEAKER_02]: It could be even, you know, being visible when it comes to safety meetings and showing up for whatever time they have in the safety meetings and giving their input in safety initiatives, as much as they would their input in.

[SPEAKER_02]: operational and production and quality initiatives.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's what it looks like for management and leadership.

[SPEAKER_02]: And they're going to talk about ethics too.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a big thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: So after that, the next element is going to be worker participation.

[SPEAKER_02]: How do we get workers to feel like they have a voice in your system?

[SPEAKER_02]: So you're going to have to do some sort of baseline worker survey.

[SPEAKER_02]: Create an action plan from the findings.

[SPEAKER_02]: and you're going to think about workers' right stuff so that's going to be discipline with HR, crossing over to our discipline, which is good.

[SPEAKER_02]: You want all the disciplines to cross over, which organization and all the different people, like the production, quality, HR, finance, sales.

[SPEAKER_02]: Everybody's going to be working together towards this initiative.

[SPEAKER_02]: So first we're going to have to check and see where everybody, where their feelings are, their perception study on safety and health.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's going to be important.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to have to create committees.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to have to create documentation and have the workers participate in that stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: Help them create JSAs and start utilizing the JSAs.

[SPEAKER_02]: job safety analysis.

[SPEAKER_02]: JHA is the same thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Job has been analysis.

[SPEAKER_02]: Going to do investigations with worker participation, learning teams.

[SPEAKER_02]: All of that is going to be how the workers are going to get involved in your safety and health program.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that information that is being gathered and the participation that's happening is going to make everyone feel that we're in this together.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that's step two.

[SPEAKER_02]: And important step because you're going to build trust and you want to build the trust.

[SPEAKER_02]: Next after that is going to be hazard identification and assessment, so this is a big portion of, you know, what the safety and health the EH and S departments are going to be working on.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to be trying to figure out the listing of hazards, chemical hazards, physical hazards, how exposure happens to these hazards.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's going to be your JSAs.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's going to be

[SPEAKER_02]: Anything, really, it's going to be regarding risk looking and finding risk as best you can through regular audits and inspections, emergency action preparation, contingency planning, the nuances of looking for high-risk situations identifying and assessing hazards as to how badly someone will be impacted by this hazard, if they get exposed to it.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that information is going to help you go to the next phase, which is to figure out all right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now that we know the blind spots, we know where incidents are likely to happen, we did our learning team to figure out where risk exists.

[SPEAKER_02]: We listen to the workers.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's now do a hazard prevention and control.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you can use the hierarchy of controls for this.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that hierarchy of controls is going to lead you to

[SPEAKER_02]: elimination, substitution, next after that will be an engineering control, an ad administrative control which is historic rules, then very last line of defense we say is PPE, personal protective equipment, that doesn't dismiss that, that equipment is important, it's only the last line of defense because there's so much human interaction,

[SPEAKER_02]: You want to make sure that the human, the people know, here's my PPE, this is what it's good for, this is how I store it, this is where is the best place, or let me clean it up after I use it.

[SPEAKER_02]: All that is human interaction, that's why I still last line at offense because it really relies on the human knowing a lot about their PPE.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it's not that it's bad, it just means that we're

[SPEAKER_02]: It's truly because there's a lot of people know how to take care and use and all the other stuff related to their PPE.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that is the stage four as a prevention and control and after you build credibility with that prevention and control and understanding how to do it.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to have to truly train and educate your workers as to what your findings were.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to have to teach them about their rights, teach them about all kinds of stuff related to the hazards they're going to be exposed to.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that this effective training, and you're going to have to figure out what effective training looks like with retention and people's understanding, you're going to have to train your auditory learners, your visual learners, your kinesthetic learners, you're going to have to make sure that the retention is good.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not boring training where they're going to be sitting in the back with their sunglasses on.

[SPEAKER_02]: That kind of stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: So those are the things that you can really really need to work on in the education and training portion in order for your information that you gathered from has a assessment and all the other stuff that you found out for the risk and exposure.

[SPEAKER_02]: and then all your controls that you created due to your findings of hazard assessment, that now has to that information has to get transferred to the worker so that they can take in that information and understand what the true risk is.

[SPEAKER_02]: So at that point, that's the next stage.

[SPEAKER_02]: When it's the education and training done, then we're going to check our full system, safety management system, and look for improvements.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to ask perception studies again to see how everything's going.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to do learning teams to find weaknesses.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to analyze for trends.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're not looking just for

[SPEAKER_02]: absence of injuries that's a very weak matrix.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're looking for engagement of workers and that's going to be a matrix that you really want to hone into.

[SPEAKER_02]: And honestly even it's important to know things like total recordable injury rates, days away restricted transfer rates.

[SPEAKER_02]: Those are important but they shouldn't be the

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that stuff is lagging into cators.

[SPEAKER_02]: You want the leading indicators, worker feedback.

[SPEAKER_02]: How many actions, item actions are closed and certain given period of time, things like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Then after you work on your improvement,

[SPEAKER_02]: evaluation of the programs and improvement of the programs, then the next stages to let's work with the contractors, hiring contractors, vetting them, making sure that they know hazards in their area, making sure the training of the contractors are working well.

[SPEAKER_02]: So temporary workers turn

[SPEAKER_02]: You want to make sure that everybody in that organization and even outside your organization is going to be prepped and prepared.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that is...

[SPEAKER_02]: the core principles related to the safety championship program.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that's a lot of information.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to stick with that information for now.

[SPEAKER_02]: So what we're going to do is to the next episode, part three of this, the closing part.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to have pretty much help you answer some of these practical

[SPEAKER_02]: Chris, questions as to how do I start building the program for you consultants?

[SPEAKER_02]: How can I create a practice or add some services in my practice so I could gain some customers through using the Safety Champion program?

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, which is a valid question.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to help you guys work that part out so I am going to leave you though with letting you know that I have a safety champion rating this workshop and this is going to be

[SPEAKER_02]: April 21st, 2026 from AAM to 1230 PM and I am going to do my best to get you guys to understand this and not only that, this is a workshop because it's four hours.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we're going to spend a good time helping you assess your organization.

[SPEAKER_02]: I got a workbook that we're going to take stuff step by step by step.

[SPEAKER_02]: And those of you that need continuing education units, I can't promise CEUs, but I can promise contact time.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to give you four hours of contact time, and if you are able to get that into the EU, it will be 0.4 in the continued education units, but you will get four hours of contact time with a certification to go towards your renewal for whatever.

[SPEAKER_02]: certification you have.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I will follow the IA set rules for that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if you want to be part of this and you want to get into the early bird, that's up till midnight at April 11th.

[SPEAKER_02]: and that price for early bird is 94 bucks.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you missed that, then the single person rate is going to be 165.

[SPEAKER_02]: Both of those rates will include a workbook.

[SPEAKER_02]: It'll include 14 days replay.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's going to give you just some action items with a checklist, what to do next.

[SPEAKER_02]: Things like that, so it's still very valuable.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you missed early bird, get the single ticket.

[SPEAKER_02]: If your company feels like you really want to invest in this, then go for the VIP ticket to 1997 and with that VIP ticket, I am going to do a 30 minute assessment or just talk you through what to do and if you're ready and you want to submit stuff to OSHA, but you need a third party just to look at.

[SPEAKER_02]: through and to check you out, you're going to get a 15% discount on an interim person, safety championship, readiness facility audit, where I go to your facility and I look through your paperwork and we just make sure you're ready and then you could go ahead and go through the ocean steps with the SGE and everything else so wherever level you're at just

[SPEAKER_02]: Just be ready.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna be ready.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're gonna be ready.

[SPEAKER_02]: So this is something that we're gonna work on together You got this Go get know

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a wrap for today's safety show.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, safety isn't just about hard hats and caution signs.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about business smarts too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for joining us on the safety consultant show with Sheldon primus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, stay safe, stay savvy, and keep consulting like a boss.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, get him.

[SPEAKER_00]: The views in the opinion you expressed on this podcast or broadcast are those of the host in its guest and not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the company.

[SPEAKER_00]: Examples of analysis discussed within the past hour only examples.

[SPEAKER_00]: It should not be utilized in the real world as the only solution available, as they are based only on very limited and dated open source information.

[SPEAKER_00]: Assumption made within this analysis are not reflective of the positions of the company.

[SPEAKER_00]: No part of this podcast of broadcast may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means mechanical electronic recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the creator of the podcast of broadcasts Sheldon Primes.

[SPEAKER_01]: This episode has been powered by Safety FM.