The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced new electronic recordkeeping requirements set to take effect in 2024. Designed to enhance workplace safety reporting and streamline data submission, these new requirements have prompted many questions from our subscriber community regarding the details of these new guidelines and how we’re helping you stay ahead of the curve.
Here’s what you need to know about these upcoming changes:
New Requirements at a Glance
The new OSHA requirements mark a significant shift in how employers report workplace injuries and illnesses. Here are the key points you should be aware of:
- Annual Electronic Submission of Forms 300 and 301: In addition to the Form 300A that employers are already familiar with, OSHA now mandates the electronic submission of information from Forms 300 and 301 from organizations with over 100 employees in covered industries. This electronic submission must take place once per year.
- Compatible Format for OSHA’s Electronic Recordkeeping System: The electronic records must be submitted in a format that is compatible with OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA), their electronic recordkeeping system. This marks a transition from traditional paper-based submissions.
- Required Information: The submitted information must include the date, physical location, and severity of the injury or illness. It should also provide details about the injured worker, excluding Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and specifics about how the injury or illness occurred.
- Expanded Coverage: The scope of industries subject to these electronic recordkeeping requirements is being broadened. This expansion covers industries such as logging, hunting and trapping, other furniture-related product manufacturing, miscellaneous durable goods merchants, taxi and limousine services, and other support activities for transportation.
- Submission Deadline: The new deadline for submission of this information is March 2nd each year, starting in 2024.
Preparing for the Requirements
Regulatory changes and associated business impacts are top priority for industry. In collaboration with our subscriber community, the Benchmark Gensuite® Incident Management digital solution will be enhanced to align seamlessly with the new U.S. OSHA requirements, including extended automation of OSHA forms 300 and 301 generation and submission and integration with the agency’s ITA XML feed, pending release and publication of the agency’s technical requirements for system integration.
Future Proofing Incident Management Programs Through Digitization
Built on the award-winning Benchmark Gensuite® Environment Health & Safety (EHS) platform, the Incident Management solution has supported cross-industry efforts to ensure worker safety and improve safety performance through enterprise-wide employee engagement, configurable best practice workflows, and complementary advanced technologies such as AI. Enhancements in progress to help companies prepare for and fulfill the new OSHA reporting requirements extends an already robust solution for Incident Management, including many OSHA recordkeeping and automation capabilities, including:
- CSV Download of Form 300A: Support for easy electronic submission of injury and illness information through a CSV download of the 300A form.
- Direct Data Export to Forms 300 and 301: We offer a flexible data export feature that allows organizations to export data directly to Forms 300 and 301. This feature operates at multiple levels within your organization and provides the option to include or exclude employee names for Form 300, streamlining reporting and submission workflows.
- I&I Recordables Manager: This feature simplifies and standardizes the presentation of OSHA-recordable injury and illness records. It streamlines the evaluation and verification process for accurate and comprehensive OSHA Logs.
What’s Next: Gearing Up for 2024
While preparation for the upcoming U.S. OSHA changes is a top priority for our subscribers, the Benchmark Gensuite® community is also working actively to address other global EH&S priorities, including practical approaches to advanced technologies such as AI and computer vision to help organizations reduce and eliminate the occurrence of significant injuries and incidents in the workplace. To learn more about the upcoming OSHA changes and other innovations mentioned above, please contact our team of experts. Contact us today!
Explore our full suite of Incident Management software solutions, request a demo, explore our webinars (including upcoming sessions on Incident Management in September and October) and stay tuned for more updates as we approach 2024!
