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Safety
Audit can be defined as verifying the existence and implementation of elements
of occupational safety and health system and for verifying the system’s ability
to achieve defined safety objectives.
Safety audits also help companies identify
potential hazards before they cause incidents.
This can include identifying issues with equipment or
machinery, identifying potential fall hazards, or identifying issues with
ergonomics that could lead to employee injuries.
There
are three significant categories of safety audits, segregated based on the
information they contain. Following are the three types:
Compliance Audit
Program Audit
Management System Audit
1. Compliance Audit
Compliance
audit falls under the field of the basic
safety audit procedures. A safety auditor reviews a company’s safety rules and
related systems and practices to ensure its adherence to the OSHA safety
standards or other safety regulations and policies.
A
compliance safety audit plays a crucial role in facilitating strict compliance
to the OSHA standards and rules by employing many programs, regulations,
training modules, and record-keeping practices to ensure workplace
safety.
Failure
to comply with the rules can result in hefty fines and reparations being
levied, which can also severely affect the reputation of the goodwill of an
organization.
This
lump sum penalties are one of the primary reasons companies strictly adhere to
the norms of the compliance audits and recheck the various steps and procedures
involved.
Program
Audits involve evaluating various safety practices after heavy dissection of
all the input by the employees and every individual component to determine
positive safety outcomes of the program.
Safety
program audits are the only feasible way of putting HSE to the test in
rigorously evaluating the program design and efficacy of the plan by diving
deep into the rules and foundations of practice.
3.
Management System Audit
Management
System Audit is a combination of both a Compliance Audit and Program
Audit.
This
audit aims to evaluate the existing performance of the entire safety procedure
and determine its alignment with the company policy and regulatory norms.
A
management system audit helps integrate the standard auditing procedure and
worker interviews, compliance reviews, and workplace observation.
It
is an intertwined system whose collaboration helps project an overall image of
the organization’s safety program.
Safety
Audits are an integral part of a safety management system; they are incredibly
relevant to examining and identifying the various gaps and issues in the safety
procedures.
Therefore,
this program acts as a drill to touch upon multiple things, which
include:
Routine Inspections to ensure compliance to norms:
Regular check-ups ensure that in the case of any
structural or onsite issue, enough safety measures are adopted in compliance
with the legal guidelines for the proper functioning of the organization.
Identifying, drafting, and communicating safety violations:
The Routine check-ups help identify the cavities in
the given system, which is prepared and sent as a report displaying the
procedures’ discrepancies, which is then taken care of by the
organization.
Dealing with the management and safety adherence by staff:
The organization has to ensure compliance to safety
procedures to ensure worker safety and basic health standards of the employees.
The implementation involves dealing with the
management and ensuring strict adherence to the safety standards done with the
help of the coordination of the management and staff.
The machines and equipment are regularly checked,
and its performance is assessed and monitored in compliance with the OSHA
safety norms.
The analysis helps identify the various underlying
threats and hazards at a workplace.
Ensuring compliance to the OSHA Safety Audits and other
regulations:
TheOSHA Safety Audits provide a better comprehensive data marker to
attain workplace safety. Along with different laws and regulations, the
implementation of OSHA has resulted in increased worker safety.
Recommendations for improving company safety:
The audit process helps improve the current working
conditions and helps develop better recommendations that directly engage in the
effective implementation of safety procedures in any organization.
For every severe accident
(with serious injury/fatality), there were 29 minor accidents and 300 near
misses.
This “300-29-1” ratio is known
as Heinrich's Law, often depicted in the form of a triangle, which serves as a
visual representation of the relative frequency of different accident types.
Heinrich is most famous for
originating the concept of the “safety pyramid”.
This idea proposes that if the
number of minor accidents is reduced then there will be a corresponding fall in
the number of serious accidents.
The triangle was first
proposed by Herbert William Heinrich in 1931 and has since been updated and
expanded upon by other writers, notably Frank E. Bird.
It further showed 30 damage-causing accidents to 600
accidents as near misses.
Significant workplace
injury has ties to the Heinrich pyramid in safety management. Since 1931 when Heinrich created
the pyramid, it infiltrated health and safety procedures.
Human factors
contribute directly to safety incidents, and safety managers should influence
their employees to make better choices.
Safety professionals
must emphasize the near misses proportion to prevent severe harm and the
potential of significant injury fatalities.
The
ultimate aim of the Heinrich Triangle is to widen the bottom of the triangle to
identify while analysing the risk behaviours, unsafe acts, unsafe conditions,
and near misses avoiding significant injuries.
The
critical factor is that all identified risk behaviours are analysed using the
root cause analysis method.
You
can use any other problem-solving methodology to identify the root cause and
devise ways of terminating it permanently.
