Every Company Needs at Least One of These – 02/21/2022

Safety E-QuickTips

U.S. Compliance Systems, Inc.

Monday Feb 21, 2022

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every Company Needs at Least One of These

Whether you’re a contractor, service industry, industry or manufacturing, making sure you have at least one or more designated competent persons at every worksite goes a long way in providing a safe workplace for your employees and protecting your company’s best interests.

Do you have one or more designated competent persons working for you? Let’s see.

OSHA defines a competent person as follows:

“Competent person means one who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards in the surroundings or working conditions, which are unsanitary, hazardous, or dangerous to employees, and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate them.”

When you break down OSHA’s definition you see that a competent person has 2 specific responsibilities.

1. They must be able to identify existing and predictable workplace hazards. To do this properly, the competent person must first be trained and/or have the experience to recognize the hazards associated with the work being performed. Next, they should have enough experience in their industry that they are able to predict potential exposure.

2. They must be authorized to take prompt action to correct and eliminate hazards in the workplace. To meet this responsibility, a company must give the competent person complete authority to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate the hazards without requiring them to ask upper management for permission before making the necessary corrections.

Now that you’ve heard OSHA’s definition of a competent person, I’ll ask the question one more time.

Do you have one or more designated competent persons working for you?

If not, don’t you think you should?

Based on the above I’m sure you’ll agree that designating a competent person who has the proper safety training, experience, and authority to take corrective action at every worksite is one of the best defenses your company has to protect employees from hazards in the workplace and to protect your company’s best interests.

Competent persons may not be superheroes, but if they do their job and prevent potential workplace accidents, I’d say they are pretty close.

Employee QuickTip

Even if you are not the competent person, if you recognize a potential workplace hazard, do your part and eliminate the hazard or report it to management.

Employer/Management QuickTip

Remember, a competent person can only do their job if you give them authority to make necessary corrections to eliminate hazards in the workplace.

Have you received your first Safety E-QuickTip or just want to look at 500+ past issues? Check out our Safety E-QuickTips Archive Page on our website.

If you know of someone or a company that might benefit from receiving Safety E-QuickTips, please take a moment to share this with them so they can sign-up today.

Thanks for Reading and Please – Stay Healthy and Work Safe.