OSHA Safety Champions

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s new Safety Champions Program is an important voluntary initiative for employers seeking to strengthen their safety and health programs before an inspection, incident or enforcement action.

For roofing contractors, who operate in one of the highest-risk sectors in construction, the program offers a structured, practical roadmap to build a stronger safety culture, improve regulatory alignment, and reduce preventable injuries and fatalities. Unlike some regulatory initiatives, the program is designed to support the development and implementation of effective safety and health practices rather than offering enforcement exemptions or formal certifications.

Launched this year, the Safety Champions Program is built directly on OSHA’s Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs and organizes them into a three-step, self-guided progression: introductory, intermediate and advanced. Contractors can move at their own pace and may request a Special Government Employee to assess their progress at any time. This flexibility makes the program especially useful for small- and mid-sized roofing companies that may not have a full-time safety director but still want a structured way to elevate their safety systems.

Seven elements

The Safety Champions Program emphasizes seven core elements OSHA considers essential for a successful safety and health program. The elements are not new, but the program packages them in a way that is accessible, measurable and aligned with real-world job-site needs; they are:

• Management leadership: Roofing companies must demonstrate visible commitment, allocate resources and set clear expectations for safety performance. This includes everything from budgeting for fall-protection equipment to ensuring supervisors model safe behavior.
• Worker participation: Companies must be involved in hazard identification, reporting and solution-building. This is especially important in roofing because workers often spot risks, such as unstable decking or hidden skylights, before management sees them.
• Hazard identification and assessment: Systematic inspections, job-hazard analyses and task-specific assessments are central to prevention.
• Hazard prevention and control: Roofing companies establishing effective safety and health programs are part of this element, which includes hazard elimination and control methods.
• Education and training: Workers must understand hazards and the safety program itself. This aligns with OSHA’s longstanding training requirements for topics such as fall protection, ladders, scaffolds, hazard communication and more.
• Program evaluation and im-provement: Contractors must periodically review incident trends, near misses and inspection findings to strengthen controls.
• Communication and coordination: Roofing contractors frequently work on multi-employer sites. This element involves coordinating host employers, subcontractors and staffing agencies to share safety responsibilities and ensure consistent protection for all workers.

New OSHA resources

OSHA also released new communication tools this year that align with and support the Safety Champions Program initiative, including the “OSHA Cares” poster, which is designed to reinforce the message that safety is a shared re-sponsibility and OSHA’s mission is prevention not punishment. The poster emphasizes worker rights and the importance of reporting hazards without fear of retaliation. It is intended for breakrooms, job trailers and training spaces and pairs well with the Safety Champions Program’s focus on communication and worker participation.

The Safety Champions Program emphasizes seven core elements OSHA considers essential for a successful safety and health program

OSHA also aligned its communication tools, Safe + Sound Week challenges and program-building materials with the seven core elements of the Safety Champions Program. For roofing contractors, these resources offer practical, ready-to-use ways to strengthen safety culture; reinforce compliance; and engage crews in meaningful, hands-on activities.

Safe + Sound week, scheduled for Aug. 10-16, continues to be one of OSHA’s most robust campaigns. OSHA’s challenge library encourages employers to take on short, focused activities such as hazard scavenger hunts, emergency simulations and communication exercises designed to improve safety conversations. These challenges are intentionally simple, low-cost and highly adaptable to roofing environments.

OSHA’s Wall of Fame Activities Guide helps companies document and showcase their participation in Safe + Sound Week. The guide includes templates for posting achievements, photos and worker-led initiatives, reinforcing the Safety Champions’ emphasis on worker participation and continuous improvement. It also provides examples of how other contractors have implemented the seven core elements, giving roofing companies a benchmark for progress.

In addition, OSHA has expanded its library of resource kits, each aligned with a specific pillar of the Safety Champions Program.

Together, these 2026 resources give roofing contractors a comprehensive set of tools to operationalize the Safety Champions Program framework. They transform the seven core elements from abstract concepts to daily practices.

How to use it

You can download OSHA’s Recommended Practices and review the Safety Champions Program’s three steps. From there:

• Conduct a gap analysis using the seven core elements.
• Prioritize the areas with the highest risks, such as fall protection and prevention. Incorporate worker feedback into toolbox talks and pre-task planning.
• Document improvements and track progress.
• Use the other 2026 OSHA-provided communication tools to help reinforce safety culture.

Although voluntary, the Safety Champions Program offers roofing contractors a practical, proactive path to safer job sites and stronger compliance.

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