January 11, 2012

In most workplaces, as much as 95 percent or more of serious injuries result directly from unsafe acts, rather than unsafe conditions—making it essential to target your employees' behaviors if you want to reduce workplace accidents. An audit of their behaviors is a great place to start.

Seeing something occur on a regular basis (like your employees working) can make it "invisible," so it's important to periodically stop and make a concentrated effort to see what is actually going on. Here are some ways to make your audit worthwhile:

Work behaviors are only one category of safety activity you need to audit. Use our “Safety Audit Checklists” to ensure you don't miss anything! » Learn more

1. Keep the audit small: With each safety audit, focus on one or two processes or small work areas. This will ensure that you can look closely at what's going on.
2. Use a copy of your rules and procedures: Use your safety rules and procedures as a checklist for what your employees are doing. If you audit from memory, it's possible that you won't catch what they're doing wrong.
3. Don't just watch—discuss: Whenever you see a deviation from safe work procedures, especially if more than one employee is doing it, discuss why it is being done that way. It may be that employees are unfamiliar with the rules and procedures (in which case, training would be in order), or it could be that the rules and procedures don't fit the reality of the workplace (in which case, you'll need to revisit—and perhaps rewrite—pthem). And goes without saying that if you observe employees doing something that is likely to result in serious injury, you should stop the audit immediately and correct the situation--don't simply note it for future correction.
4. Keep it short: Audits should be accomplished in under an hour. In fact, if you've kept it small, you can usually complete a safety audit in about 15 to 20 minutes. The reasons for keeping audits short are:
   
   
   1. you're more likely to do them;
   2. it helps ensure that your efforts stay focused; and
   3. you want any necessary follow-up to be a manageable list of effective actions--not an exhaustive list of things that could be done.
5. Don't rest on your laurels: If you have seasoned, well-trained employees, your safety audit may require no follow-up; the employees performed safely and according to your rules and procedures. That's good news--but it doesn't mean you never audit again. Periodic audits are still necessary to verify that safe work habits remain part of your employees' work routines.