Jump Links
- Template Trouble
- Approaching Your Audit
- Health and Safety Audit Essentials
- Auditing Like a Pro
- Need A Hand?
Carrying out a health and safety audit can seem simple enough- there are plenty of templates and guides about explaining how to do this. But how do you approach one like a real pro?
Let’s find out.
Template Trouble
There are loads of how-to guides and templates out there, guiding you through the health and safety audit process. Even here at Knox Thomas we offer a free PUWER assessment checklist template.
As good as they are, there are two key ways that you can produce an ineffective audit by improperly using a template.
First, you may use a template that is beautifully laid out- but it’s overly basic. It captures the salient information but doesn’t go into the nuts and bolts of the audit. The issue here is that you may miss a vital detail that could prevent an accident or incident. However as the inexperienced user of such an audit, you’re unlikely to notice these omissions from the question set.
Second, you may have a fully detailed health and safety audit template, which asks every single question possible to thoroughly benchmark compliance- however this can feel overwhelming for a novice auditor, and also become a time-suck for the busy auditor- meaning the audit ultimately fails to be completed.
Of the two, the fully-loaded template is the better option, as it ensures a full capture of information for an accurate benchmark- however it still needs to be used properly to be effective.
Approaching Your Audit
The objective of your health and safety audit influences the approach.
If you’re auditing against legal standards or statutory instruments, you’re more likely to find a template that will cover either the key basics or the whole thing (as mentioned above).
If you’re not using a template, guidance from the HSE such as ACOPs are a great way to capture the key requirements of the legislation and produce your own question set.
If you’re auditing against internal procedures and policies, you’ll just need a copy of said document, and then extract the key objectives and requirements which will form your audit checklist.
Health and Safety Audit Essentials
Whatever you’re auditing, there are some essential ingredients that mustn’t be missed.
1. Specific audit scope and initial information
It’s important to detail the scope of the health and safety audit, for example what it does and doesn’t cover. Tied into this, you should also record specifics such as work site, department, equipment, and any other features or specifics that remove ambiguity.
2. Unambiguous questions
On the subject of ambiguity- make sure your question set is firstly referenced with ID numbers- so that you can quickly refer back to questions and responses when discussing with auditees or stakeholders.
Then, make sure the questions are unambiguous- avoid vernacular, and think about the different ways that the question could be interpreted (consider reading your questions aloud when preparing them). If the question could be misinterpreted, reword it.
It’s a good idea to ensure the questions are phrased in a way that ensures that a “yes” response equates to compliance as this helps interpretation of results after the audit (i.e. if you’re counting all the “no’s”, however some of these equate to compliance, you’ll have to sift through each question to determine the actual number of non-compliances).
3. Unambiguous compliance response
It’s useful to have standardised compliance responses, for example Yes, No, or Not Applicable. You could also have extra responses for things like “unsure” however the fewer options, the better.
If using MS Excel, you can ensure standardised responses by using data validation within drop-down lists. This helps collation of results, and also removes ambiguity.
Personally, I prefer to say that something is either compliant, not compliant, or not applicable- rather than have any scope for “grey” areas.
4. Space for comments
It’s essential to have space for adding comments to your response, as this allows you to create a meaningful report and actions. It also helps understand context and relevance of findings at a later date/when reviewing or following up.
Auditing Like a Pro
Now that we’ve covered the basics- how do you do a health and safety audit like a real pro?
There are key elements that will set your audit apart from the rest.
1. Add references to standard specifics
You’re likely to be challenged either when asking questions, or when presenting your findings. Adding a reference to the procedure, standard or guidance (i.e. paragraph number) and even quoting some of the text will give valuable weight to your audit questioning.
2. Add context
Most stipulations within audit criteria come with a caveat or supporting information. Record this information in addition to, but separately from, the question- as this gives a proper understanding of the question, may give an example of things to look for, or exclusion clauses which will prevent unnecessary questioning.
3. Get onto the shop floor
This is key. Don’t simply do a desktop exercise. Get onto the “shop floor”. Observe practices and activities, and talk to the people working too. What people say is often very different to what they actually do.
4. Add descriptive filters
If recording your audit in Microsoft Excel, it’s really handy to take advantage of the filtering options available. Do this by categorising your audit questions and findings, for example you could have a “follow up/verify” column, or categorise the questions into topics such as training, documentation, risk assessment, etc. Allocating severity or priority ratings will also help stakeholders decide which actions to implement first.
Doing this will help you plan your audit (you could choose to look at all questions regarding documentation first) as well as for referencing and follow up later on.
5. Scoring
Add a compliance score, i.e. 1 point for each compliant question. This allows an initial benchmark score, and progress tracking over time when following up annually (or more frequently if the score is low enough).
6. Report
An audit report is a great way to present your findings to stakeholders. Record things like who did the audit, the audit title, good observations/positives, and of course- any non-compliances. You could also record points of improvement (things that aren’t necessarily non-compliances, but things to improve on).
7. Actions
Identify remedial action for any non-compliances. Experience will tell you how to do this pragmatically. It’s important to make sure that the remedial actions are sensible as well as effective, and don’t go overboard to ensure they’re actually implemented.
If possible, try to reduce the number of actions too. This is tricky to achieve if there are blatant non-conformances, however a sea of actions flooding across a maintenance or operations managers desk will be seen as nothing but a hinderance rather than a help- and will probably be ignored.
8. Responsible Persons
When specifying actions, make sure you allocate a responsible person, to avoid passing the buck, or simply inaction due to no-one being specified.
9. Action Tracking
Alongside your audit and report, it’s a good idea to have some sort of action tracking system or database, as this will help you keep on top of remedial action progress, but also give you something to show when defending yourself in court, if you can prove that a hazard was identified and remedied.
Need A Hand?
Carrying out a health and safety audit sounds daunting to some, boring to others, and interesting to the proactive. It can be an insightful and rewarding process, especially when you identify a shortfall or failing which can then be remedied, resulting in either reduced risk, or improved wellbeing.
This being said, (and however you look at it) auditing can be a long, drawn-out process which takes a critical mindset and keen eye for detail; as well as experience in the field to identify shortfalls properly and assign sensible remedial action- particularly if you operate in a complex environment or with complicated risks.
So, if you want to identify any legal compliance shortfalls that may be exposing your workers to unnecessary risk- but don’t have the time, knowledge or experience- let Knox Thomas carry out your health and safety audit for you.
