Saying that “employers, employees and safety and health professionals — and all who have a direct stake in occupational safety and health — have an obligation to try to improve” OSHA’s effectivness, a Washington-based consulting firm is calling for a post-election dialog on what needs to be done to revitalize and redirect OSHA.

Organization Resources Counselors, Inc., with almost 30 years experience in working with corporate safety and health leaders, has issued a paper, “An OSHA That Works: A Proposal For Seeking A Collaborative National Agenda.” ORC states that “OSHA is regarded by many as being out of touch with the business world of the 21st century.”

In the coming weeks, ORC will be working with interested stakeholders to develop an approach to conducting collaborative discussions. ORC suggests that OSHA could:

• Strive through broad partnerships with business, labor and professional groups to become a leader in computer-based training/distance learning;

   

• Leverage growing business efforts to develop new methods for demonstrating the value and effectiveness of safety and health investments;

   

• Through partnerships with business, labor and professional groups, collect “best practice” information and broadly distribute it to employers and workers through an expanded “expert adviser” program.

  ORC also states that OSHA should:

   

• Identify the nation’s most serious safety and health risks and mobilize all its resources and programs toward their reduction;

   

• Involve stakeholders in priority-setting and program implementation and evaluation;

   

• Improve the effectiveness and timeliness of its regulatory, compliance and other program initiatives and of its communication, outreach and other “service delivery” efforts.