24 Jun Staffing Agency Responsibilities and The Importance of Site Evaluations

Worksite evaluations are crucial to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) efforts to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for workers. Worksite evaluations help identify potential safety risks before they cause accidents or illnesses.  Complying with OSHA standards helps organizations avoid legal penalties and promote a culture of safety in the workplace.

In situations where employees are provided by a staffing agency to work at a host employer’s worksite, both the host employer and the staffing agency share responsibility for conducting site evaluations. These responsibilities are typically divided as follows:

1. Host Employer: The host employer has primary control over the work site and therefore typically holds the primary responsibility for providing a safe work environment.
2. Staffing Agency: Although the staffing agency might not control the work site, it still holds a responsibility to ensure that the environment their employees will be working in is safe.
3. Joint Responsibility: Both the host employer and the staffing agency should collaborate on training employees properly for their specific roles, particularly when specialized tasks or hazardous conditions are involved.

OSHA often emphasizes that both the host employer and the staffing agency have roles in complying with workplace health and safety requirements and that their responsibilities should be outlined in their contract.

This three-minute PowerPoint/video by Kevin Kilcoyne of Barrow Group provides an overview of important considerations for staffing agencies when it comes to worksite evaluations.