Between 1987 and 1991, OSHA promulgated the Hazard Communication Standard, the Formaldehyde Standard, and the Bloodborne Pathogen Standard. If that wasn’t enough to get the attention of the funeral industry, OSHA followed up with a flurry of inspection activity. In the first few years, they levied a number of fines. Some of the proposed fines were in excess of $50,000.

  Funeral homes were wanting help. A number of organizations tried to provide it. There are some things organizations do well. Serving as an industry safety consultant was not one of them. OSHA would continue to evolve and require more from employers. It took 20 to 30 years, but the help funeral industry employers were demanding back then is available today. There are assorted methods and various approaches funeral home employers may choose to follow. The good news is nearly all of them are good when used properly.

  The following are some of the approaches some funeral homes use to comply with OSHA.

1.      Do it yourself. The standards are accessible online. Training resources are also available. The drawback is that it is not really efficient as it takes a lot of time, especially if there is just one or a few funeral homes. People who do this often overlook short cuts and end up doing things the hard way.

2.      I have a labor attorney who tells me what I need to do. No one knows the law better. Most of the attorneys need you to fill in the industry expertise and if you don’t communicate well, your program may become overly bureaucratic. There is a reason most of us go to CVS or Walgreens to get our flu vaccinations today. It’s more efficient than going to a physician.

3.      I have an online safety program. These can work great, especially if you know what you need and know what you want. While they have broad safety expertise, they will lack insight in your field. For example, don’t send in a question asking whether or not it is safe to inject a CJD case. Most online programs are very affordable. Most will not meet with OSHA on your behalf in an informal conference. Most will not prepare your abatement responses. Online consultants tend to specialize in broad written programs and training resources. Most do a terrific job with light industry and construction topics.

4.      Our consultant makes an annual visit where he conducts annual training. This was a widely used format by funeral homes in the early days of OSHA compliance. It gave hand holding. It was what funeral homes wanted. As funeral homes realized OSHA intended that employers be responsible for their own safety program, this type of service began to lose its appeal. Surely, the answer to training a new employee was not to wait on that once a year visit. Especially not when the standard requires you to train the new employee prior to assigning them a task that would expose them to hazards.

5.      The Compliance Plus program is evolving from a safety program company to a safety resource company exclusively for the funeral industry. The basic concept is “Here are 60 narrated PowerPoint programs. Choose and use the ones you need and ignore the rest. Here are your written programs. Here are the forms to use for documentation. Core funeral home safety training is updated annually.” And we get involved in inspections and work with the customer until the case is closed. We view funeral homes as light industry, so there is a healthy mix of slip, trip and fall, ladder safety, office safety, etc. It offers a good mix of putting you in charge of your own program but now you have a large safety training library at the ready.

  The bottom line is the funeral industry has never had a wider choice of help on matters of safety and compliance. Most of it is good. Most is affordable. If you are a frequent reader of this column, you know OSHA just doubled their fines. You should do an audit and determine if you are in compliance. Old programs most likely do not reflect the many regulatory changes that have occurred over the past few years. The good news is, you have help. You have it in spades.