First: understand what applies to you
The OSH Act covers most private-sector employers with employees, from headcount one. What varies is which duties attach: recordkeeping depends on company size and industry, specific standards depend on your operations and exposures, and the work-site jurisdiction determines whether federal OSHA or an OSHA-approved State Plan enforces.
Two universal duties apply regardless of size: the General Duty Clause (furnish a workplace free from recognized serious hazards) and severe-injury reporting under 29 CFR 1904.39 — the 8- and 24-hour clocks bind even the smallest, most exempt employer.
The first-90-days sequence
Work the list in order — each step feeds the next:
- Post the notices. The official workplace-rights poster (OSHA 3165 federally; State Plans have equivalents) is free from the agency and mandatory. While you are at that wall, plan the February 300A posting spot.
- Settle recordkeeping coverage. Count employees company-wide against the 10-or-fewer exemption and check your NAICS code against the low-hazard list — then set up the 300/301/300A workflow if covered (see our recordkeeping guide).
- Stand up severe-injury reporting. Decide today who calls OSHA when the worst happens, with the 8/24-hour rules and agency contacts written into the incident-intake step — not searched for during the emergency.
- Run the hazard assessment. A documented walkthrough of your operations (1910.132(d) requires a written PPE hazard assessment) tells you which standards and written programs apply.
- Build the written programs the assessment demands. Hazard communication if chemicals are present, emergency action plan, lockout/tagout, PPE, and whatever else your exposures trigger — current, site-specific, and matching actual practice.
- Train against the standards, in a language employees understand, and document every session: topic, standard, date, trainer, attendees, verification.
- Establish incident intake. One capture path for every injury, near miss, and hazard report — the record that feeds the log, the claim, the corrective action, and the inspection response.
Free help most employers never use
OSHA's On-Site Consultation Program provides free, confidential consultation visits for small and medium employers, separate from enforcement — findings are not citations and are not reported to inspection staff, provided identified hazards are corrected. For a new program, it is the cheapest expert audit available.
The agency's small-business resources, standard-by-standard eTools, and the published inspection data are all free inputs a new safety program should be built on.
What growing past thresholds changes
Growth flips duties on: crossing 11 employees ends the recordkeeping size exemption the following year; crossing 20 in a designated industry adds the March 2 electronic submission; new activities (construction work, chemicals, powered trucks) attach new standards. Put a headcount-and-operations review on the calendar annually so the obligations list never lags reality.
Frequently asked questions
The baseline, systematized from day one
SafeGora gives a new program its spine: incident intake, recordkeeping artifacts, training tracking, and written-program evidence — organized per establishment from the first employee.