A Quick Guide to the Functions and Hows of a Safety Audit

What is a Safety Audit?

A safety audit is a systematic process aimed at identifying the hazards and risks in a workplace and assessing whether existing measures comply with applicable industry standards and regulations. Safety audits collect relevant information about the organization’s safety, reliability, efficiency, and effectiveness. During the audit, auditors observe the work environment, equipment, and different processes to determine the organization’s adherence to safety practices, identify areas for improvement, and ensure that safety protocols are being followed properly.

Safety audits are different from on-the-spot inspections that companies perform regularly. When conducting a safety audit, the auditor needs to comprehensively review the company, find issues, and propose solutions to the issues, along with different ways to enhance the organization.

A safety audit needs to be thorough. Auditors can’t leave any stone unturned as this can result in issues in the future. Through a safety audit, organizations can identify risks that they may not have caught during regular operations and mitigate the risks to keep the employees safe.

Benefits of Performing a Safety Audit

Depending on applicable regulations and industry standards, safety audits may be required for some industries. For others where safety audits are not required, however, they are still a great practice for organizations to help them prevent any incidents. It’s important for organizations to gauge their current safety practices to assess their effectiveness and to identify any other risks that they have yet to address.

When running a business, safety should be a top priority. That said, workplace safety is a dense and, at times, complex undertaking that requires a multi-angle approach. It’s easy to miss certain risks or issues, and a safety audit is designed to thoroughly assess the organization’s safety habits to determine its current state.

The biggest benefit of conducting a safety audit is improving the culture in an organization and establishing good habits in employees. Other reasons organizations may want to conduct a safety audit include:

• Finding risks and hazards early and addressing them right away

• Showing the employees that the company is dedicated to their health and safety

• Ensuring that the organization is complying with relevant safety standards

• Identifying areas wherein the organization can improve their safety habits

• Proposing and facilitating improvements

• Determining whether or not the teams are using safety programs and protocols effectively

What are the Functions of a Safety Audit?

Companies can choose to conduct their safety audits internally and build their auditing team. However, it’s generally more effective when organizations hire an independent third-party organization to conduct the audit for them as it saves them time while also ensuring a non-biased audit.

And when the team conducts an audit, the main goal of these audits is to keep the workers out of immediate danger and unnecessary risk. Regardless of the organization’s industry, there are going to be risks and hazards in the workplace that employees may face during operations.

Some risks can be eliminated, while others can only be mitigated. The goal of a safety audit is to determine whether the organization’s safety protocol is effectively accomplishing this goal, whether it’s covering all the risks, and if the employees are following the protocol while on the job.

Safety audits also exist to aid organizations in designing a proper safety program. Since a comprehensive audit will determine all operational and safety risks within an organization, the auditing team can also propose potential solutions and methods to these risks and hazards, which further improves employee safety.

Additionally, certain industries have their own safety requirements that they need to follow during operations. With a safety audit, companies can determine whether or not they are abiding by the appropriate protocols designed to keep employees safe.

How to Conduct a Safety Audit

Safety audits are integral to the success of any operation, regardless of the business’s nature. The safety of a work environment influences productivity, worker morale, and overall sustainability. While the exact steps and specifics of each safety audit may vary depending on numerous factors, the following principles apply to effective safety audits regardless of industry:

Steps to Conduct a Safety Audit

1. Ensure that your safety audit checklists and templates fit your use case

Different businesses have different processes, workplace layouts, and safety regulations to comply with. As this can be difficult to do on a large scale, going digital can greatly help your operations and use cases. However, while ready-to-use digital safety audit templates can now be downloaded for free in place of using traditional paper-based ones, it is generally considered good practice to customize your safety audit templates to fit your use case in order to maximize their efficiency and effectiveness.

2. Check your safety audit procedure for compliance

A compliant safety audit procedure trumps a good safety audit procedure. Before distributing your safety audit procedure template or checklist to the rest of your auditors, ensure that it covers the necessary checks to comply with safety audit standards relevant to your business. For example, a factory safety audit checklist may have different factors in it compared to a construction company’s safety audit checklist or an office safety audit checklist, so it is important to be aware of the different nuances your industry may have.

There are also legal regulations to be aware of that can differ per state, city, or country. Some of which are the following:

• For businesses based in North America, safety officers need to be aware of applicable OSHA Laws and Regulations so they can customize audit templates to include all of the checks and inspections necessary for compliance.

• For businesses based in the UK, there are regulations in place for safety inspectors and employers for different industries to use health and safety audit forms regularly to ensure their workplaces are safe.

• For businesses based in Canada, regular safety audits are required of all industries, along with safety inspections and risk assessments.

3. Schedule safety audits and set conditions for ad hoc safety checks

Once you have the right tools to conduct effective safety audits, next comes knowing when and how often you should use them. In general, the thoroughness of your safety audits affect the frequency in which you need to perform them. Some companies prefer a comprehensive annual safety audit, while others may opt for a less comprehensive quarterly safety check.

Ad hoc safety audits should also be performed whenever a new process, equipment, or tool is introduced into the existing system. This ensures that safety practices are modified if necessary; preserving the overall safety in the workplace.

4. Be specific when documenting your safety audit findings

Good safety audits and inspections help inform teams so they can create effective control measures against risks and hazards. Safety auditors would do well to be as specific as possible when documenting findings during routine and ad hoc safety audits. Using safety inspection software which allows you to take photos and annotate them mid-audit results in a more comprehensive report that streamlines communication between teams.

5. Keep your safety audit data safe and secure

With the help of modern digital health and safety audit and safety inspection apps, companies can rely less on safety contractors and third-party auditors in favor of doing internal safety compliance checks with their own in-house experts. Internal safety audits also give companies the added benefit of data security via cloud storage; allowing for custom permissions so only authorized personnel can access audit data.