Personnel Concepts, according to those I’ve spoken with there recently, is making a big push to create interactive tools for companies to create documents and posters to comply with OSHA and other regulations.
First to come out was the Fire Prevention Program CD-ROM. OSHA requires that every place of business create, print and distribute to every employee a fire prevention plan. This CD lets you do that by answering a series of on-screen questions on your computer monitor. It then creates a file to print out everything you need.
Ditto with Personnel Concepts’ second interactive software tool, the Emergency Action Plan CD-ROM. OSHA requires that employers create, print and distribute exit-route instructions for emergencies, along with emergency action procedures and reporting steps. This clever little tool does that all for you with keystroked input about your workplace.
Other companies offer similar products, but Personnel Concepts seems to be both thorough and authoritative, even offering to pay your fines should these programs not produce the documents you need.
Worth a look, especially since both programs run on Macs and PCs.
Two George Mason University researchers looking into the cost of government regulations on American business conclude that the total burden amounts to a 1.6 percent excise tax on the “typical manufacturer.” Another way of framing the cost is in terms of dollars, which they say amounts to $1,700 per employee.
The researchers, W. Mark Crain and Joseph M. Johnson, concentrated their study solely on American manufaturing and used data from the year 2000, so we’re almost ten years removed from their benchmark. Still, it’s interesting to see that government regulations do carry a price tag, though many would argue that most regulations are virtually cost neutral and, if not, result in an overall gain for the company, the employees and the American workplace in general.
I’m not here to argue for or against government regulations in general, but I’m not of the mindset of “the more, the merrier.” I think there comes a point for each business when it says, “Enough is enough,” and decides to do things differently. You know, outsource, ship manufacturing overseas, lay people off to save costs, and all those nasty little things that somehow get blamed on NAFTA by certain sectors of the body politic.
Keep this in mind as the new administration and heavily Democratic Congress contemplate a wide expansion of labor law rights and protections.
Give me a couple of days and I’ll be back in here to start discussing all the government mandates we employers face.
