Cooperative Programs and Partnerships

Whether your company is building its safety and health program from the ground up or has a long track record of workplace safety and health excellence, you can take advantage of a cooperative relationship with MIOSHA to protect your workforce and your bottom line.

MIOSHA's cooperative and recognition programs follow a graduated approach — starting with employers that require the greatest help and scaling up to those that proactively institute safety and health best practices.

Find the program that meets your workplace wherever it stands on work safety.

Michigan Challenge Program

If your workplace is looking to implement a winning strategy that will support your employees’ safety and health and your company’s bottom line, the Michigan Challenge Program can help by offering employers an opportunity to develop an effective safety and health management system during an 18-month cooperative agreement and commitment with MIOSHA, with a six-month deferral from programmed inspections.

ELIGIBILITY: Open to all employers in general industry that need significant help with worker safety or have great opportunity for improvement.

Get the Michigan Challenge Program Advantage

MIOSHA Consultation Education and Training Awards

The MIOSHA Consultation Education and Training (CET) Awards program celebrates Michigan employers who have built a strong foundation in workplace safety and health. By recognizing companies that go above and beyond, the CET Awards program supports a culture of continuous improvement and encourages all employers to create safer, healthier workplaces.

ELIGIBILITY: Open to all employers with an implemented safety and health program (SHP) and below average injury and illness incidence rates for the most recent complete calendar year.

Step Up and Stand Out

Michigan Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program

The Michigan Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (MSHARP) recognizes workplaces that have achieved excellence in their safety and health practices, placing these companies among the elite few who go above and beyond MIOSHA standards. Priority is given to companies on the MIOSHA list of high-hazard industries or those that are part of MIOSHA's strategic plan to help them develop, implement and continuously improve the effectiveness of their workplace safety and health management system.

When you participate in MSHARP, you'll get assistance from MIOSHA's On-Site Consultation Program to become self-sufficient in managing occupational safety and health, plus your workplace will get feedback on best practices and be offered an incentive of 12-month exemption from regular scheduled MIOSHA inspections.

ELIGIBILITY: Open to employers with 250 employees or less and injury and illness rates below the Michigan average in their NAICS code over the last year.

Take Your Workplace Safety from Effective to Exemplary

Michigan Voluntary Protection Program

The Michigan Voluntary Protection Program is MIOSHA's highest recognition for workplace safety, acknowledging the best of the best. This program establishes a cooperative relationship between management, labor and MIOSHA, and assists employers and employees by providing a mechanism and a set of criteria designed to evaluate and recognize outstanding safety and health management systems. As an MVPP participant, you'll implement safety and health management systems that provide protections beyond what is required by MIOSHA standards and enjoy an exemption from programmed inspections for three years.

Two levels of MVPP — the Michigan Star and Rising Star Programs.

Michigan Star: Designed for workplaces that have an exemplary safety and health management system with injury and illness incidence rates below the industry average for the last three years.

Rising Star: Provides a stepping stone for establishments that have the desire and potential to achieve Star Status within one to three years. Rising Star participants have a good safety and health management system and have incidence rates at or below the industry average for two out of the last three years.

To become an elite MVPP site, current Star sites are available to mentor you and help your company improve its safety and health management system.

ELIGIBILITY: Open to small, high-hazard industry employers that meet required injury and illness rates for their respective North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

Start Your Journey to Star Status

MIOSHA Partnership Program

MIOSHA partnerships are an opportunity for individual employers, employees, and/or their representatives and stakeholders to establish a cooperative relationship with MIOSHA to encourage, assist, and recognize their voluntary efforts to focus on and eliminate serious hazards and achieve a high level of safety and health. The goal of all partnerships is a significant and measurable reduction in workplace deaths, injuries and illnesses and are subject to programmed inspections.

ELIGIBILITY: Open to employers in the construction industry.

Discover the Power of Partnership

MIOSHA Alliance Program

MIOSHA alliances are five-year written agreements that formalize the opportunity for organizations and MIOSHA to work together to reach out, educate and lead the state’s employers and their employees in advancing workplace safety and health. But even more than that, an alliance is an opportunity for employers to:

Build trusting, cooperative relationships with MIOSHA
Network with others committed to workplace safety and health
Leverage resources to maximize worker safety and health protection
Gain recognition as a proactive leader in safety and health

An alliance may be renewed every five years.

ELIGIBILITY: Open to all groups, including trade or professional organizations, government agencies, businesses, labor organizations and educational institutions.

Unlock the Alliance Benefits

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