Quick Highlights
- OSHA's newly announced FY2026 Susan Harwood Training Grants fund training and educational materials covering hazards such as falls, heat, lockout/tagout, Hazard Communication, PPE, silica, warehousing, confined spaces, lithium-ion batteries, and more.
- The grant topics do not create new OSHA requirements, but they provide a timely reason for employers to review whether their current safety training matches the hazards their workers actually face.
- OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 provide general hazard awareness but do not replace training required by specific OSHA standards.
- Training requirements and retraining triggers vary by hazard, task, equipment, and applicable OSHA standard.
- A role-based training review can identify workers who need additional training before they are assigned new tasks or sent to a jobsite.
Why Review OSHA Safety Training Now?
As employers begin planning for 2027, OSHA's latest round of safety training grants offers a timely reason to look at workforce training.
OSHA recently announced its FY2026 Susan Harwood Training Grant recipients, funding organizations that will provide training or develop educational materials for employers and workers.
The topics cover a wide range of workplace hazards, including:
- Fall prevention and protection
- Lockout/tagout
- Hazard Communication and chemical hazards
- Personal protective equipment
- Heat and hazardous temperature exposure
- Warehousing hazards
- Lithium-ion battery hazards
- Silica
- Confined spaces
- Machine guarding
- Electrical hazards
- Fire safety
- Excavation and trenching
- Noise and hearing conservation
- Roadway construction and work zones
The grants should not be interpreted as a new list of OSHA requirements or a ranking of the agency's enforcement priorities. Instead, the topics provide a useful look at areas where OSHA is currently investing in worker and employer education.
For employers, they also raise a practical question: Does your current workplace safety training reflect the hazards your employees actually face?
Crews change. Supervisors move into new roles. Equipment gets replaced. New chemicals enter the workplace. Contractors rotate between jobsites. Hiring clients may also require proof of training before workers can mobilize.
A training program that looked complete a year ago may not match today's workforce.
OSHA Safety Training Isn't One Universal Course
OSHA safety training isn't a single class every employee takes.
Training requirements depend on factors including the employee's duties, workplace hazards, equipment, exposures, industry, and the OSHA standards that apply.
A warehouse employee operating a powered industrial truck, for example, has different training needs than a maintenance technician performing lockout/tagout or a construction worker exposed to fall hazards.
That's why safety training in the workplace should start with the work employees actually perform.
Employers should ask:
- What hazards does each employee encounter?
- What equipment does the employee operate?
- Which OSHA standards apply?
- Has the employee's job or work environment changed?
- Are there client or jobsite-specific training requirements?
- Does the applicable standard require retraining under certain circumstances?
- Can we readily determine which workers have completed required training?
OSHA maintains resources covering training requirements and safety training employers can use when reviewing their programs.
OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 Don't Cover Everything
One common misconception is that an OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 card means a worker has completed all of the OSHA safety training needed for the job.
That's not the case.
OSHA describes its Outreach Training Program as a voluntary hazard-awareness program. The 10-hour course is intended primarily for workers, while the 30-hour course provides greater depth and is more appropriate for supervisors and workers with safety responsibilities.
Most importantly, OSHA explicitly states that Outreach Training does not fulfill training requirements contained in OSHA standards.
Some states, municipalities, employers, unions, general contractors, and project owners may require OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 as a condition of employment or work. But those courses still do not replace training tied to specific hazards or tasks.
A construction worker with an OSHA 10 card, for example, may still need additional training based on exposure to fall hazards, silica, equipment, chemicals, or other job-specific conditions.
10 OSHA Safety Training Topics Worth Reviewing
Not every topic applies to every workplace. Employers should focus their review on hazards employees actually encounter and the OSHA standards applicable to their operations.
The FY2026 Susan Harwood awards provide a useful starting point because several training topics appear repeatedly across industries.
1. Hazard Communication and Chemical Safety
Hazard Communication appears throughout OSHA's FY2026 training awards, including projects targeting manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, construction, hospitality, and building-maintenance workers.
Employers with hazardous chemicals in the workplace should review whether affected employees understand chemical hazards, labels, Safety Data Sheets, protective measures, and the company's Hazard Communication program.
This is particularly timely because OSHA's updated Hazard Communication standard includes upcoming transition deadlines. For substances, employers must make necessary workplace labeling and Hazard Communication program updates and provide additional training for newly identified hazards by November 20, 2026. Separate later deadlines apply to mixtures.
2. Lockout/Tagout
OSHA awarded funding for both lockout/tagout training and development of new LOTO training materials for manufacturing workers.
Under OSHA's Control of Hazardous Energy standard, training requirements differ based on an employee's role in the energy-control program.
Employers should review whether authorized, affected, and other employees understand the portions of the program relevant to them.
Retraining is required in circumstances including changes in job assignments, machines, equipment, or processes that present new hazards; changes to energy-control procedures; or when inspections or other information reveal gaps in employee knowledge or use of those procedures.
3. Fall Prevention and Protection
Fall prevention and protection is another recurring topic among the FY2026 grant recipients, particularly for construction.
Employers should look beyond whether workers have previously taken a general fall-safety course. Training should correspond to the hazards, equipment, and requirements applicable to the work employees actually perform.
That can include work involving roofs, ladders, scaffolds, elevated platforms, unprotected edges, holes, or personal fall-protection systems.
4. Personal Protective Equipment
Several FY2026 grants focus on PPE training in industries ranging from construction to agriculture and healthcare.
Employers should review whether employees understand when PPE is required, how to properly use and care for it, its limitations, and the specific protection required for their work.
PPE training should also reflect actual workplace hazards rather than relying solely on a general PPE overview.
5. Heat and Hazardous Temperature Exposure
Heat and hazardous temperature exposure received substantial attention in the FY2026 grants, with projects targeting construction, agriculture, communications infrastructure, warehousing, landscaping, transportation, hospitality, and other industries.
Employers with workers exposed to heat should review their training around heat hazards, symptoms of heat-related illness, emergency response, acclimatization, hydration, and workplace procedures. Our Heat Stress Awareness guide covers the warning signs, prevention strategies, and steps employers and workers can take to reduce heat-related risks.
Training should reflect the conditions employees actually encounter, particularly for outdoor workers and employees working in hot indoor environments.
6. Warehousing and Material Handling
OSHA funded multiple projects specifically focused on warehousing hazards.
Warehouses can expose employees to several overlapping risks, including powered industrial trucks, pedestrian traffic, loading docks, material storage, slips and falls, chemicals, batteries, and other equipment.
Rather than treating "warehouse safety" as one training topic, employers should identify which hazards apply to each employee's role.
7. Lithium-Ion Battery Hazards
Lithium-ion battery safety stands out as an emerging training area in this year's awards.
OSHA funded new educational materials for workers and employers in warehousing, distribution, industrial material handling, construction, recycling, and private-sector emergency response.
Employers using or handling lithium-ion batteries should consider whether workers understand hazards associated with their particular equipment and operations, including damaged batteries, charging, storage, fire hazards, and emergency procedures.
8. Silica
OSHA's FY2026 awards include both silica training and development of new silica-hazard materials for construction and stone-fabrication workers.
Employers whose operations can expose workers to respirable crystalline silica should review whether training matches the tasks and controls used in their workplace.
That can include cutting, grinding, drilling, crushing, or other work involving silica-containing materials.
9. Confined Spaces
OSHA also funded new confined-space training and educational materials for workers in construction, general industry, petrochemical construction, and industrial cleaning.
Employers with confined spaces should verify that workers understand their assigned responsibilities and that training corresponds to whether they are entrants, attendants, entry supervisors, rescue personnel, or employees who may encounter confined spaces without entering them.
10. Machine Guarding, Electrical, Fire, and Other Job-Specific Hazards
The FY2026 grants also include training or materials related to machine guarding and amputation prevention, electrical hazards, fire safety, hearing conservation, excavation, work zones, residential construction, and other hazards.
Match Employee Safety Training to Roles and Hazards
One practical way to review employee safety training is to build or update a role-based training system.
Start by identifying:
- Job roles: Who performs the work?
- Tasks: What does each role actually do?
- Hazards: What could employees encounter while performing those tasks?
- Requirements: Which OSHA standards, state-plan rules, client requirements, or site rules apply?
- Training: What instruction is necessary for that employee?
- Competency requirements: Does the applicable standard or task require demonstration, evaluation, qualification, or authorization?
- Retraining triggers: What changes or events require additional training?
- Documentation: What records are required by the applicable standard, and what additional records does the company need for operational or client purposes?
Employers working across multiple sites should also consider how training responsibilities are coordinated between general contractors, subcontractors, staffing agencies, host employers, and specialty trades. Our guide to OSHA responsibilities on multi-employer jobsites provides a closer look at those responsibilities.
When Does OSHA Safety Training Need to Be Refreshed?
There is no universal OSHA rule requiring every safety course to be repeated annually.
Retraining requirements depend on the applicable standard.
For example, OSHA's Hazard Communication standard requires effective information and training at initial assignment and whenever a new chemical hazard an employee has not previously been trained about is introduced into the work area.
OSHA's powered industrial truck standard requires refresher training when circumstances such as unsafe operation, an accident or near-miss, an evaluation indicating unsafe operation, assignment to a different type of truck, or a workplace change affecting safe operation occurs. Operator performance must also be evaluated at least once every three years.
Lockout/tagout has its own retraining triggers, including certain changes to job assignments, equipment, processes, or energy-control procedures and identified gaps in employees' knowledge or use of those procedures.
Employers should therefore avoid setting one blanket refresher schedule and assuming it covers every requirement.
Instead, review the standard that applies to each hazard and consider whether anything has changed since the employee was originally trained.
Online, In-Person, On-Site, or Blended Training?
The appropriate format depends on the subject and applicable requirements.
Digital safety training can be useful for delivering consistent instruction across distributed workforces, assigning courses, and maintaining completion records.
Other training may need to occur in person or at the worksite because employees need hands-on instruction, practical evaluation, site-specific information, or direct interaction with equipment and procedures.
In some cases, a blended approach makes the most sense: employees can complete relevant instructional content digitally and then receive whatever site-specific instruction, demonstration, or evaluation is required for the task.
Employers should always review the applicable standard rather than assuming a particular delivery format satisfies the requirement.
