What Is the Supervisors Role in Safety

January, 27 2025

Supervisors are in charge of much that occurs daily in the workplace; it is not simply an assignment of duties. Supervisors are responsible for ensuring a safe and healthful workplace for employees. Employees should be able to inform supervisors about unsafe or unhealthful workplace conditions or hazards without fear of reprisal.

The following is a list of primary responsibilities that supervisors have in the area of occupational safety and health for all employees under their supervision.

Conduct Orientation and Training of Employees: Train and educate workers to perform their work safely. Understand what personal protective equipment is required for the task at hand and how that equipment needs to be properly used, stored, and maintained. If there are mandatory safety training classes, your employees take them, and this is appropriately recorded. Also ensure that employees attend mandatory safety training sessions, with attendance properly documented, as part of compliance with OSHA Safety Audits and Site Inspection protocols.

Enforce Safe Work Practices: The supervisor must enforce safe work practices and procedures. Failure to do so invites accidents. Workers must be encouraged to identify unsafe or unhealthful workplace conditions or hazards and absolutely must not be disciplined for doing so. Enforcing safe work practices is one of the primary duties of a supervisor. A lack of enforcement can lead to accidents. Workers should be encouraged to report unsafe conditions or hazards without fear of discipline, aligning with OSHA’s emphasis on fostering a culture of safety.

Correct Unsafe Conditions: Supervisors must act promptly to abate unsafe or unhealthful workplace conditions or hazards within their control and ability to do so. If an unsafe or unhealthful workplace condition or hazard cannot be abated promptly, the supervisor must take interim protective measures. The supervisor must follow up to ensure that corrective action is taken on time to eliminate the hazard. This proactive approach aligns with OSHA safety audits and site inspection requirements, ensuring compliance and reducing risk.

Positive Communication: The ability to effectively communicate is a tremendously valuable skill set for supervisors to have. It’s also exceedingly rare—which is unfortunate because supervisors should be talking about safety daily. Safety-related communications come in many shapes and sizes, from the standard safety huddle to having difficult one-on-one conversations with a worker about a specific safety concern. There are several notable aspects of supervisor-to-worker safety communication worth exploring. The first is the tone. There’s a dramatic difference in outcomes when conversations are conducted in a positive tone, rather than with a blame-first approach. This is true even for discussions about potentially dangerous behaviors. Difficult conversations can, and should be, direct without being negative. In many cases, the tone of a conversation will determine whether the supervisor will alienate a worker or get them to change their conduct.

Prevent Lingering Unsafe or Unhealthful Workplace Conditions or Hazards: Often incidents arise from unsafe or unhealthful workplace conditions or hazards. Supervisors must train employees and periodically refresh their memory regarding what to be on the lookout for and what to correct or report as hazardous and unsafe conditions. If a supervisor sees an identified hazard, he or she shall act.

Inquire into the causes of workplace accidents: Supervisors are responsible for conducting accident investigations and ensuring that all occupationally injured employees are reported immediately. NIH Policy requires all injuries, including those sustained by contractors, to be reported to OMS. OMS works with the position of Occupational Health and Safety to identify hazardous conditions leading to injuries.

The OMS will document and treat any acute injuries. These investigations should adhere to company protocols and OSHA guidelines. The supervisors must read the incident, sign the forms, and forward them within 48 hours. Supervisors will need to have a good understanding of the legal and company safety requirements before they can properly evaluate the workers in the field. This includes all the safety rules, policies, and procedures available at the work site.

Ensure Compliance with OSHA Safety Audits and Site Inspection Requirements

Supervisors are integral to passing OSHA safety audits and site inspections and ensure that corrective actions have been taken to rectify any unsafe conditions. A supervisor's work includes many details requiring a lot of your time to make sure that not only are you getting your job done but that your workers are safe, too.

As you inspect these sites, it's essential that you adequately concentrate your efforts in judging the performance of your workers to make the best use of time spent on the job site. Employees should be motivated to return to work as quickly as possible. The longer the employee is off work, the less likely the employee will return. If available, light or limited duties can be identified and considered to assist in returning the employee to work." By prioritizing safety through training, enforcement, communication, and compliance with OSHA safety audits and site inspections, they create a safer, more productive work environment for everyone.