How to Conduct a Workplace Safety Audit: A Guide
What is a Health and Safety Audit
Workplace safety audits are the ultimate assessment of your health and safety performance. A health and safety audit analyses an organization’s health and safety policies, procedures, and practices. Audits examine the effectiveness of the occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. There are several types of health and safety audits, including compliance audits, project-focused audits, internal audits, and external audits. Each type serves a specific purpose, from ensuring legal compliance to evaluating specific areas of the safety management system.
Consider the purpose of your audit. Do you want to understand the effectiveness of your occupational health and safety management system? Are you interested in assessing and improving one aspect of your management system? Do you need to pass an audit in order to bid on work? Audits can be conducted by internal auditors within the organization or by external auditors. Internal audits are typically performed by trained employees, while external audits are conducted by independent experts to provide an objective assessment. HSPI has over a quarter of a century’s experience in health and safety audit services. Reach out now to learn more about how we can improve your health and safety systems.
The Benefits of a Health and Safety Audit
Conducting regular health and safety audits enhances organizations’ overall safety performance which has far-reaching benefits. Audits improve performance by identifying hazards, evaluating systems, and ensuring compliance with rules and regulations. Our experienced auditors can identify gaps in your safety system, allowing you to make changes before an incident occurs. By investing in safety audits, organizations can identify potential hazards, ensure compliance with safety regulations, improve overall safety performance, and promote a culture of continual improvement within the organization.
How to Conduct a Workplace Safety Audit
HSPI has extensive experience in various types of health and safety audits, ensuring thorough evaluations tailored to your organization’s needs. At the beginning of the process, auditors will meet with your team to gather the information required to make an objective assessment. After careful analysis, our health and safety auditors will provide a detailed report that outlines areas of strength and areas that could be enhanced to improve health and safety performance.
Safety Audit Best Practices
Audits are not meant to be punitive. The goal of a health and safety audit is to assess the current function of part or all of your management system. Sometimes we believe that we have all the necessary components in place for a robust health and safety system. A fresh perspective that is focused on the interdependent parts, and includes input from workers, managers, and your joint health and safety committee, may show a different picture. An audit can confirm that your organization is on track with their safety objectives. We want to celebrate the wins. We do audits on a recurring basis to ensure that our systems continue to improve and evolve.
Safety audits are a vital tool for organizations to assess health and safety performance. Should you choose HSPI for your auditing needs, an experienced Health and Safety Consultant will guide you through the entire audit process. We will work with you to understand your health and safety system and your objectives for the audit, whether it’s ensuring legal compliance, evaluating new programs, or identifying gaps in current systems. Reach out at info@hspinc.ca to book a consultation now.
