MAINTAINING A SAFE workplace is one of many burdens that falls on the shoulders of small-business owners. Most owners like to complain about the onerous rules of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, the federal agency that levies penalties if you fail to protect workers from calamites that range from the most common (slips and falls) to the most serious (severed fingers and blindness) to the more arcane (psittacocis or "parrot disease," an infection passed to humans from birds).

While fixing hazards can prevent costly fines, it can also improve operations and reduce overall expenses. When an employee is seriously injured, the impact on a company's bottom line is steep. Employers pay nearly $49 billion a year, or close to $1 billion a week, in medical costs, wage payments and insurance-claims management as a result of workplace injuries, according to the 2006 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index. The top causes of injury? Excessive lifting, falling and slipping or tripping — pitfalls so common that almost every industry is vulnerable.

Despite the risks, most small-business owners don't put workplace safety high on their list of concerns. "Until you get hit either by an OSHA inspection or you have an accident, it's like everything else — you think you've got a really safe workplace," says Susan FitzHenry, marketing manager in Nashville with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), a small-business advocacy group. "Once you become conscious of it, you worry about it a lot more."

The NFIB researched the topic of workplace safety in 2002 and found that 26% of all small employers and 53% of those employing 20 or more people had been subject to an OSHA inspection within the previous five years. The NFIB's research found that many small employers underestimated risks in the workplace — particularly employers in statistically more dangerous industries, such as construction, manufacturing, transportation and agriculture.

Workplace safety may get overlooked simply because small-business owners have too many other things to worry about, the NFIB theorizes. Larger companies typically have managers or departments in charge of safety. But in three out of four small businesses, the owner is primarily the person responsible, according to the group's research. "It's just one of the hats that a small-business owner has to wear," FitzHenry says.

Attention to workplace safety can reduce the chance of fines, lower insurance premiums, increase productivity and encourage chipper employee morale. Here are a few tips on how to create a good safety program for your business: 

Know the Dangers

In a perfect world, this is the point in the story where we'd direct you to OSHA's web site, which would helpfully explain in an exceedingly simple way exactly what you need to do to protect your employees and avoid fines. It's not a perfect world. Like many government agencies, OSHA is formidable, and discerning how its rules and regulations apply to your business is tricky. The agency does marshal its small-business information into one central place. Its eTools section provides downloadable files with useful information on protecting your workplace from specific threats, such as anthrax, lead and even Legionnaires' disease. The NFIB, which has an alliance with OSHA, further attempts to whittle down the volumes of information, providing a page with its vote for best OSHA links.

Consult Your Insurance Company

Insurers know a lot about workplace safety, chiefly because they sell workers' compensation insurance. They like it when small-business clients report fewer accidents, as that means they don't have to pay as much in claims. Texas Mutual Life Insurance has a useful Small Business Center on its web site, while Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services has developed a workplace safety CD available at a reduced rate for NFIB members. Small-business owners overwhelmed by OSHA rules should just boil everything down to the basics, advises Greg Langan, loss-control director at Gallagher. "Train your employees on how to do their job well, and make sure their tools and equipment are adequate to do it," he says.

A word about workers' comp: Any small business that has employees needs to comply with workers' compensation laws, which vary from state to state. The programs are designed to compensate workers who are injured on the job, and protect employers from potentially devastating litigation. Most states (with a few notable exceptions, such as Texas) require businesses to buy workers' compensation insurance. Generally, sole proprietors and partnerships (unless they have employees who aren't owners) are exempt. A good resource for workers' compensation is NCCI Holdings. 

Inspect for Safety

Do your provide employees with carts for moving heavy objects? Do you keep floors free of holes, water and grease? Do you remove snow and ice from the parking lot? Do you make sure exterior walk-ways are well-lit? Do all your stairways have adequate handrails? These are some of the many questions you should be asking as you inspect your workplace for safety. Liberty Mutual publishes helpful guidelines for addressing the leading causes of workplace injuries, which can be a good place to start.

Another place to turn is OSHA itself. The agency provides safety and health training at education centers across the country; to find a site near you click here. You can also request a free consultation at your workplace with an OSHA-trained professional through the agency's Consultation Program. The service is free, but you need to commit to correcting any serious job safety and health hazards that are found. And finally, to read about how other small businesses are keeping their workplaces safe, read about OSHA's "Small Business Successes." Examples include a Vermont coffee roaster that installed special lifting devices to reduce back injuries and a family-owned microbrewery that informs employees about safety procedures at paid-for, after-hours meetings with catered meals.