SAFETY IS NO ACCIDENT, IT'S A FLOURISHING NEW BUSINESS

The current economy has us readily accustomed to news about employee cut-backs, downsizing, reduction and business closures. However, emerging in the midst of this environment is a flourishing new business by the name of OSCA, aka: Occupational Safety Councils of America.

OSCA recently finished construction on their new facility in Martinez, California to serve the Norther California region. It was complete with a ribbon cutting ceremony performed by Mayor Rob Schroder and attended by refinery owners, contractors, as well as employers representing various industries.

Comments from attendees at the grand opening had a similar buzz of excitement, "We've needed something like this in the area," "the facility is beautifully designed," and "I had a preconception of what a safety council would be, but this blows it away." Carla Mancera Strachan of Tesoro stated, "To have one source capable and responsive to the needs of our contractors is like a dream come true!"

It begs the question, "What is a safety council?" The answer helps uncover the value that OSCA has opened a facility to serve the Bay Area.

Dangerous work environments exist in industries like petrochemical, construction, mechanical service, agricultural and manufacturing, etc, where safety training is a required integral component to keep worksites safe and bring workers home to their families safely each night. A well-trained substance-abuse free workforce is imperative to safety.

During tough economic times, contractors are cutting back throughout their organizations including resources attributed to safety. It's an area where costs can be cut and go somewhat unnoticed because safety is an intangible. Safety programs are generally fragmented and difficult to administer, manage and organize as well as costly to maintain. As safety training and substance-abuse testing are outsourced to different vendors, there's no cohesive standard for quality or efficient means by which to organize, track, verify and audit.

Consider being a contractor with one hundred employees and each employee needs ten to fifteen safety courses. Depending on the position of each employee and the worksite location, the required training varies and every course has a different expiration date. This leads to thousands of training courses from multiple vendors, a daunting number of training expiration dates to track and file cabinets full of paperwork to archive for verification and audit by varying governing entities. This undertaking can be a bewildering process to administer and manage. Until now.... enter OSCA.

The Occupational Safety Councils of America (OSCA) is a full service safety council that provides a one-stop source for safety training, including Cal OSHA training, as well as drug & alcohol testing and other medical compliance services. It also offers state-of-the-art online data management that securely archives and tracks all employee information for easy "real-time" verification and audit. The data management program also sends automatic email alerts at select time intervals to inform of upcoming expirations, offers easy online registration for training courses and makes it a breeze for companies to manage and administer their entire safety program.

In addition, OSCA works with individual companies to tailor programs specific to their needs. This spans from opening weeknights and weekends to meet peak training demands to developing company-specific computer-based training programs to meet the safety training requirements of a particular company.

OSCA also offers a personalized photo ID badge to each student listing the courses they have completed and expiration dates. This provides a verifiable means for a worker to prove they are properly trained for the job they are performing.

Susanne Wilson, Northern California Regional Manager for OSCA explains, "Without quality regulatory compliant safety training, employers are at risk for high injury rates and fines that can cost them considerably - potentially even their businesses. The expectation should be that employees are receiving safety training that will help them evaluate the risks when performing their assigns tasks. Many companies have Safety Managers that are providing safety training, tracking, regulatory compliance and many other duties that are necessary, but time consuming. Safety Managers are most effective in the field, but often are too busy to maintain this focus. OSCA provides a unique solution to them by partnering to provide safety programs that are convenient, cost efficient and easy to manage."

What does OSCA offer? 24-hour live customer support, training courses streamed directly to your home or office, instructor-led courses taught by seasoned professional instructors, five training rooms to teach up to 160 students at a time, instructor led training courses at company sites, up to 100 computer stations that offer over 300 computer-based training courses, drug & alcohol testing with over 3000 collection sites throughout the United States, world class data management to efficiently administer and archive all information in one convenient, secure, online program. And it goes on, but those are the highlights.

OSCA has proven experience in the safety industry that led to a welcomed invitation to the Bay Area by the refinery owners. Harvey Jass, Director of Corporate Development explains, "OSCA and its associative relationships deliver services to more than 10,000 contractors with over a half-million units of safety training provided every year. We are proud of our growth and the timing for opening in Northern California has worked out perfectly. We are excited for the opportunity to be working together collectively for a safe and secure California."

Mr. Jass also explains, "given our unique relationships, OSCA is able to offer reciprocal training as well as drug & alcohol testing in Houston, Baton Rouge, Southern California and now Northern California. This is especially beneficial to the petrochemical industry that moves workers to and from various locations. The reciprocity between locations reduces redundant training for workers who need to satisfy requirements in each location. And the vital link to tie it together is that all data for each worker is tracked and archived in one secure online data management program.

Quality services that bring efficiency to businesses are always welcome, especially in tough economic times. OSCA provides a means for employers to increase the efficiency of their training programs, eliminate the confusion of outsourcing to multiple vendors, and reduce the challenges of organizing and managing it all. The OSCA slogan is "working together for a safe & secure workforce", but describes its core value as "listening and responding to the needs of our customers." OSCA brings a new facility, jobs and contributes a wealth of benefits to the safety and security of workers in Northern California. It is certainly no accident that this company is growing. During these times it is exciting to see companies emerging as the next wave for economic turnaround. Welcome OSCA!

OSCA Address

1805 Arnold Drive
Martinez, CA 94553
(925) 335-5000