OSHA Wants to Build Relationships… How Many Businesses Want to Work With OSHA?

    My question is, who’s going to take OSHA up on its offer?
    The average pro is 45 years old, according to Data USA. They entered the field around the turn of the century. They’ve seen very few major new regulations issued. Few controversies. Few headlines. Few mega fines. OSHA leaders have been by and large moderates. I don’t think this OSHA Cares branding is as startling to them as to old school pros who date back to the 1980s, when the agency was more aggressive with standards-setting and enforcement, more controversial.
    Almost all the agency’s standards have been on the books for decades. With its small number of inspectors, it would take 186 years for compliance officers to visit every workplace in the U.S., according to the AFL-CIO. There’s one inspector for every 80,000 workers. The agency has been historically understaffed and under-funded.
    I’d venture that almost every workplace employing a safety and health professional has had compliance under control for decades. Multinationals, large corporations, high-risk industries and many mid-size companies in dangerous industries have long been “beyond compliance.” Behavior-based safety, safety and health management systems, and the so-called “safety differently” or Safety 2.0 with its focus on human performance, systems thinking and learning cultures — all tools that today’s professionals are using — are not regulated and can’t be enforced.
    Small workplaces and many mid-sized businesses without a safety and health pro on staff are most in need of leaning into this more approachable and friendly iteration of OSHA.
    To be sure, there is an audience for the OSHA Cares initiative. The OSHA website receives approximately 12 million users annually, according to the agency. For many companies, OSHA compliance is the sum total of their safety and health efforts. They prioritize compliance but what should be the “floor” is the “ceiling” for safety and health. OSHA Cares can raise the bar for these workplaces in need of assistance.
    Check out some key phrases in the OSHA Cares summary:
    • “Building a relationship of solutions and trust”
    • “We want to empower employers”
    • “We are strengthening our customer service”
    • “Through open dialogue, responsive support and trusted resources…”

    How many workplaces are going to avail themselves of OSHA’s customer service, open a dialogue and start up a relationship?
    To me it’s the companies mentioned above and then the usual suspects: businesses traumatized by a serious incident or fatality; one where workers are complaining about risks; operations that come under one of the agency’s national emphasis enforcement programs, such as combustible dust, falls and heat. Then there are the fence-sitters — firms trying to decide how much to invest in safety and health, how likely is an OSHA inspection, roll the dice and do the minimum, if that, or explore how the agency might help a DIY safety and health effort.
    OSHA wants businesses to reach out. Relationships take two to make a go of it. The agency can’t be passive if it wants to reach more companies. It must market the new brand to the business community.
    It’s going to take more than posters and a website splash. OSHA can’t wait for employers to come to them. Millions already visit the website. To take it to the next level, to build trust, to improve safety and health programs, the agency needs, in the words of Dr. E. Scott Geller, to “actively care.” It needs to go on the offensive. OSHA personnel in area offices, regional headquarters and national headquarters should flood state and national safety and health conferences and the local chapters of the professional societies to make presentations and give workshops. Stream on social media. Do as many safety podcasts as possible, and there are a lot out there. Participate in webinars, they’re everywhere.
    I seriously question if the time and money exist to do this. And work on standards. And manage enforcement. And write letters of interpretation. And on and on…
    There is an opening here for the agency to take advantage of. The days of big bad OSHA that’s going to bankrupt businesses is long gone — has been for most of the agency’s history, actually. The fervent controversies surrounding OSHA occurred in the agency’s first 10-15 years. You could argue the start-up agency was getting the bugs out.
    A STOP OSHA campaign was underway when I started reporting on OSHA. President Reagan vowed to weed out the “regulatory thicket” and there was talk of abolishing the agency. A bill in the House would have prevented OSHA from assessing penalties exceeding $500 for a serious violation. A senate bill would exempt 90% of workplaces from inspections.
    OSHA was labeled “the most despised federal agency in existence.” It was derided for notorious nitpicking — focusing on "frivolous, irrelevant rules" rather than major safety health issues. In sum it was a burdensome, inefficient drag on business productivity.
    The idea of trusting OSHA, building a relationship with OSHA, having a dialogue with OSHA was unimaginable.
    But those were different days, as the Jason Isbell song goes.
    This certainly isn’t the first time in OSHA’s 55-year history the agency has adopted a friendlier tone. It can be viewed as standard operating procedures when Republicans control the White House. And even in the Democratic Bill Clinton administration a much-hyped attempt was made to “reinvent” OSHA and emphasize customer service.
    From the very start, business and labor have debated OSHA — the pendulum swings and the agency is too ambitious under Democrats or in retreat during Republican regimes. Baby Boomer safety professionals watched those battles, sometimes laughing, sometimes grinding their teeth. There is much less noise about OSHA in 2026, and that’s been the case for years.
    For many, if not most, of today’s pros I don’t think OSHA is near top of mind, and this new OSHA Cares branding is largely irrelevant. In workplaces where it could make a difference, the agency is going to have to do serious outreach. Again, I don’t think it has the wherewithal to pull this off.
    And OSHA Cares will likely be another swing in the pendulum without much impact.