On a recent ProcessMAP EHS Leadership Roundtable, we heard from Lisa Buck, Corporate Safety Manager for Ocean Spray, a cooperative with more than 2,000 employees working at 20 locations to produce more than 1,000 products in over 100 countries. Lisa shared how Ocean Spray elevated its corporate safety program by implementing the OSHA SHARP Program (Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program).

When Lisa arrived at Ocean Spray’s Henderson, Nevada facility in March 2015, the company had experienced some serious injuries and its incident rate had risen, and so one of her first challenges was to improve and strengthen Ocean Spray’s safety program. From a previous experience in implementing the SHARP program at another organization, Lisa understood that this would be one of the best ways to be able to address issues for Ocean Spray.

SHARP is a completely voluntary program. Organizations embark upon it with their local or state OSHA office and the certification process takes approximately 12 to 14 months. One of the benefits to working towards a SHARP certification is that a company is exempt from programmed inspections. The SHARP team visits the facility and conducts floor audits of production areas. They look at a company’s policies and procedures and give a note card that says the organization is exempt from programmed inspection for a period of time, which is typically 30 days.

OSHA works collaboratively with the company by issuing corrective actions. The company must respond in writing by a certain deadline, though extensions may be granted if a company needs more time. The point of the process is to identify hazards and be able to correct them within a timely period. If all corrections are completed, the company is then recommended to be entered into the SHARP program, which then must be approved on either a regional or state level. Once the application is reviewed and approved, the company is awarded the SHARP certification.

For Lisa and her team at Ocean Spray, getting the green light from her management team was extremely important. Talking with employees and management teams, Lisa emphasized that the most important objective in the SHARP process is protecting their people. She believed that if the organization could do a better job of protecting people by obtaining this certification, and working towards identifying risks, removing or eliminating them, that would be the most important accomplishment for Ocean Spray.