A health & safety audit is a complete and effective assessment of an organization’s health & safety policies, systems, procedures etc. It lets you know if the current procedures and systems are delivering expected outcomes or if the organization is up to date in protecting the well-being of its employees/visitors along with complying with relevant regulations.
Every safety audits can be performed by taking into considerations 2 parameters, which is
- Active Auditing
- Reactive Auditing
The above 2 focuses on general workplace inspection which can be elaborated as 4 P’s
1] Plant – machinery, equipment & vehicles
2] Premises – the workplace and the working environment
3] People – behavior and working methods
4] Procedures – safe system of work
Active Auditing
Health & Safety Performance is dependent on active auditing which means to actively ensuring that the current h & s standards are correct in the workplace before accidents, incidents, ill health are caused. It is highly concerned with checking standards before any unwanted event occurs. The intention is to identify
- Conformance with the standards, so that good performance is recognized and maintained
- Non-conformance with standards, so that the reason of non-conformance is identified and corrective actions are in place.
This allows the management to resolve the problems before those problems become critical. This will help reinforce a positive health and safety culture in an organization.
Reactive Auditing
This audits are carried out using the accident, incident, ill health data of an organization. Such data helps to identify the cause and make sure the corrective actions are already in place. Reactive auditing focuses on
- The things that have already gone wrong.
- Measuring the failures effectively
The act as a valuable learning lesson as the information gathered tell you about what your performance was in past. This encourages the corrective actions to be implemented so that it can at least give us a frame on how our performances are gonna be in future.
Every workplace has its own focus points, but the most common and everyday use focus points where audit needs to be performed are –
Fire Safety – Emergency escape routes, posters, signs, fire extinguishers etc.
Housekeeping – General tidiness and cleanliness
Environment Issues – Lighting, temperature, noise, ventilation etc.
Traffic Routes – Safety of both pedestrians and vehicle routes
Chemical Safety –Proper use, storage of hazardous substances awareness.
Machinery Safety – Correct use of machine guidelines, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) etc.
Electrical Safety – Electrical appliances safety and worker’s safety.
Welfare Facilities – Workplace suitability and condition.
What are the benefits of a health and safety audit?
A health and safety audit are widely recognized as best practice for all different types of organisations. Audits are much more than just a box-ticking exercise or defensive measure, they can bring about positive benefits to businesses by implementing what’s necessary.
They enable you to protect employees, customers and visitors from harm. But, ultimately, a professionally conducted audit can also safeguard the existence of the company where other organizations can set you as a benchmark for your efforts on protecting your people. Moreover, it will save you from any government prosecutions, reputational damage and financial penalties.
Why work with Visualmitra?
In Visualmitra ,Our qualified safety auditors can perform wide range of affective audits to organisations of any type or size. Once the assessment has been completed, we produce a prioritized action plan(Report) with detailed recommendations for required improvements.
Also, if you prefer to conduct internal audits, we can help you train your team visually through our tailor made safety poster and sign designed for industry needs, so they have the essential qualifications and skills. For more information on our health and safety audits service, get in touch.