WHAT IS A SAFETY PREPAREDNESS RESPONSE AUDIT?

A safety audit is a process of determining if the processes in place are effective in ensuring that an organization is safe according to applicable industry standards and regulations. Safety audits collect relevant information about the organization’s safety, reliability, efficiency, and effectiveness. During the audit, auditors will observe the work environment, equipment, training, and other areas to assess an organization’s efficiency, safety habits, and preparedness.

Safety audits are different from on-the-spot inspections. When conducting a safety audit, the auditor needs to comprehensively review the organization, find issues, and propose solutions to the issues, along with ways to enhance the organization’s preparedness and response.

A safety audit needs to be thorough. 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.

WHY PERFORM A SAFETY AUDIT?

Safety audits may be not required, however, they are still a great practice for organizations to help them prevent future incidents and save lives. Organizations need to gauge their current safety practices to assess their effectiveness and to identify any other risks they have yet to address.

Workplace safety is at times, a complex undertaking that requires a multidimensional approach. It can be 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.

One of the biggest benefits of conducting a safety audit is around improving the culture in an organization and establishing good safety 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 if 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 helps to ensure a non-biased audit.

When our team conducts an audit the main goal of the audit is to keep the workers out of immediate danger and unnecessary risk. Regardless of the organization’s industry, there will be risks and hazards in the workplace that employees may face. 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 and training are effectively accomplishing this goal.

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

HOW TO CONDUCT A SAFETY AUDIT

PLANNING

The first step in conducting a safety audit involves planning. This includes determining the auditing team, the scope of the audit, and which areas of the organization the audit will target.

EXECUTION

During this phase, the team will assess current safety practices and note any potential risks that may not have been acknowledged before. Executing a safety audit requires the team to strictly follow the plan.

DOCUMENTATION & REPORTING

Utilizing the information from the assessment, the team prepares a report. The safety audit report is comprehensive and contains all details discovered during the audit.

IDENTIFY CORRECTIVE ACTION

In the report, the auditing team identifies potential solutions and corrective actions to the risk and issues outlined in the audit. This success of this part of the process is dependent upon continued involvement of key decision-makers.