CoreInsights has been designed to provide helpful tips and advice to VPPPA members, Safety and Health professonals, their managment and colleagues in order to assist in creating continuous safety and health improvement.

Volume 4 Number 4

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• Got a sticky question?  Bring it on.
• Would you like some free consulting?  Now's your chance.  

Continue sending me your "head scratchers" that you just can't seem to resolve.  You'll read my advice in upcoming CoreInsights newsletters.   

Email me your Hot Issue or Quesitons by clicking here.

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"HOT ISSUE" QUESTIONS & ADVICE

Question: “We recently set a goal to work towards achieving VPP certification. Our the biggest challenge is understanding what is needed and conveying the needed changes throughout the site. Do you have any advice on the best way to get started?”

ADVICE: Here’s how I would approach the certification process:

1. First, ensure that you are completely comfortable that you are complying with all of the OSHA regulatory requirements, physical standards, written compliance programs and training.

2. Compare your injury and illness rates (DART & TCIR) to your industry averages. Are you under or is it reasonable to expect that you can get under in the next two years? Don’t consider applying unless you can answer yes to at least getting under the averages in the next two years.

3. Develop a good understanding of the VPP requirements. Sources of the requirements can be found in:

Original VPP requirements: Federal Register Notice 47:29025, July 2, 1982
Updated VPP requirements: Federal Register Notice 65:45649-45663, July 24, 2000
Revised Benchmark rates: Federal Register Notice 68:68475-68479, December 8, 2003
VPP Policies and Procedures Manual: CSP 03-01-002 [TED 8.4]

All of these documents can be found on the OSHA website. Probably the most useful source of information can be found in Chapter 3 and Appendix E of CSP 03-01-002. You want to thoroughly understand each of the requirements.

4. Develop a list of major requirements/S&H processes required by VPP (CSP 03-01-002) and then perform a “gap analysis”.

5. To start educating and building buy-in, involve a team, comprised of a cross section of the organization, to perform the gap analysis.

6. From the gaps identified, you can then action plan and build the missing pieces. Again, use a cross functional team that represents the organization in your action planning and in the creation of the missing pieces.

You might find that you would benefit from outside help. The first place to call is your local OSHA VPP Program Manager. In addition, the VPPPA Mentoring Program, other VPP sites, your corporate office or, private consultants can help.

Here at CoreAdvantage we have developed a number of tools to help sites do exactly what you are faced with. Our SafePath VPP Foundation product breaks down the VPP model into 36 auditable criteria with guidance to educate team members and measurable benchmarks to bench mark against. SafePath VPP Readiness is a tool designed specifically for performing a VPP gap analysis. To educate the site, your results are published using a Dashboard.

To test drive SafePath VPP Foundation click here: SafePath VPP Foundation

To see the SafePath VPP Readiness Tool click here: SafePath VPP Readiness

KEEP YOUR QUESTIONS COMING AND I WILL DO MY BEST TO PROVIDE OR GET YOU ANSWERS Email me by clicking here.

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