If you don’t already know, next week is the fifth annual Safe + Sound Week, a national initiative of OSHA, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)and a coalition of safety organizations — including the National Safety Council. 

The OSHA event (Aug. 9 – 15) promotes awareness and understanding of workplace safety and health programs that help improve sustainability and the bottom line by identifying and managing workplace hazards before they cause injury or illness.

Our clients are leaders in workplace safety and we’re proud to be part of their safety programs. For example, our clients have already delivered more than 5.1 million Intertek Alchemy workplace safety training courses so far this year.

We encourage them to also participate in Safe + Sound Week to create additional engagement with their workforce regarding safety. It can also be an opportunity to recognize the safety successes within an organization. Last year, more than 3,400 employers participated in Safe + Sound Week.

Since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act in 1984, worker deaths and reported injuries in the United States have decreased by more than 60%. However, every year more than 5,000 workers are killed on the job and more than 3.6 million suffer a serious job-related injury or illness.

OSHA’S continued education and awareness efforts like Safe + Sound Week are designed to further improve the safety of frontline workers and drastically reduce the number of worker deaths each year.

There are lots of ways to participate in Safe + Sound Week. OSHA encourages employers to use this time to engage with workers on the importance of workplace safety with activities. This is your chance to be creative and plan activities that adapt to your environment.

Here are a few ideas promoted by OSHA.

• Host a trivia session on how well workers know safety and health practices.
• Complete OSHA’s 3 in 30 Challenge.
• Ask workers to share how COVID-19 changed the way they think about safety in their workplace and home.
• Create a board for workers to display suggestions to help find and fix workplace hazards.
• Recognize safety milestones and contributions.
• Conduct refresher training on safe equipment use.
• Offer “on the spot” recognitions of worker participation.

Additional ideas and information can be found in the OSHA Safe + Sound work kit,

In addition, visit our website for these Intertek Alchemy resources:

Report: The State of Workplace Safety Training, Insights and Action Items

Webinar: Solve the Maze of OSHA Regulations: A Complete Guide to Compliance Readiness

Blogs: OSHA’s 7 Elements to Creating a Safe and Healthy Workplace