A Guide to Health and Safety Inspections in the Workplace

Maintaining a safe and healthy working environment should be of paramount importance for any organization. One of the tools to help you achieve the right health and safety balance is regular inspections.

Health and safety inspections help identify any potential hazards, ensuring your business stays compliant with relevant regulations and fosters a culture of safe operations. In this guide, we’ll explore the purpose of health and safety inspections, the key players involved with those inspections and cover what’s usually examined during inspections.

What’s the purpose of health and safety inspections?

Health and safety inspections serve multiple purposes. They help identify and assess potential workplace hazards, risks and unsafe practices. By conducting regular, thorough inspections, organizations can proactively address these issues and work towards a preventative, rather than reactive, health and safety culture.

Inspections also serve as an opportunity for organizations to evaluate the effectiveness of their existing health and safety procedures and identify areas that require improvement. Again, this helps shift the role of health and safety from a reactive process, which responds to an incident after it happens, to one which predicts and prevents incidents before they occur.

Lastly, compliance with health and safety regulations is a legal obligation, but it’s also an organization’s moral responsibility towards their employees, contractors,  visitors and anybody else on their site. By engaging in regular health and safety inspections, an organization can ensure that it remains compliant and that every part of the business meets people-first safety standards. By achieving workplace conditions that meet these standards, your workers will be safer and happier, and your organization will avoid penalties, legal liabilities and damaging business reputation.

Who conducts a health and safety inspection?

Health and safety inspections are typically conducted by one trained individual, or a team of safety staff, with specialized expertise in occupational health and safety. This team might include internal personnel, such as an organization’s dedicated safety officer or other employees responsible for safety management.

In some cases, organizations may choose to hire external health and safety consultants or engage with industry-specific regulatory bodies to conduct these inspections. Seeking external assistance in this way ensures unbiased, accredited inspections from dedicated health and safety experts.

The key, whether you choose to engage external consultants or draw from within your organization’s own pool of employees, is to ensure you have access to individuals who possess the knowledge and qualifications needed to effectively identify hazards and assess compliance. If the safety officer’s credentials are outdated or not up to par, additional training may be required to bring their experience in-line with the health and safety inspection standard.

It's important to remember that health and safety inspections shouldn’t just be box-ticking exercises. A well-conducted health and safety inspection will yield results that will make a workplace safer for everyone, not just provide an organization a certificate to stick on the wall.

What’s commonly examined during a workplace inspection?

During a health and safety inspection, the workplace will be extensively examined to ensure a comprehensive evaluation is achieved. Some common areas of focus include:

1.      The physical environment – inspectors will assess the physical condition of the workplace, including the layout, signage, lighting, ventilation and ergonomic factors. They’ll check for potential hazards related to slips, trips and falls (one of the “fatal four” leading causes of construction industry deaths) and examine fire safety protocols and the condition of any machinery and equipment being used.

2.    Safety procedures and practices – inspectors will review the implementation of safety protocols and procedures, such as the proper use of PPE, training programs, emergency response plans and incident reporting systems. They’ll also evaluate whether a randomly chosen sample of employees have a clear understanding of these procedures and practices, and whether they’re being consistently followed.

3.    Hazardous substances and materials – if relevant, inspectors will examine the storage, handling and disposal of hazardous substances and materials. This includes assessing the consistent presence of proper labelling, material safety data sheets (MSDS) and compliance with the relevant regulations.

4.    Workforce engagement – inspectors will interact with a range of employees to gauge their awareness of safety protocols, their active involvement in employee safety committees and programs and their ability to proactively identify potential hazards or concerns as they become apparent.

5.    Documentation and record-keeping – inspectors will review the records related to safety training, incident reports, previous inspection findings and the corrective actions that were taken following an incident. Proper documentation demonstrates an organization’s commitment to safety and provides evidence of cross-company compliance.

Health and safety inspections are an essential component of a robust and stringent health and safety management system. By conducting regular inspections, organizations demonstrate their commitment to employee wellbeing, regulatory compliance and risk prevention.

Through these inspections, potential hazards will be identified and addressed, creating a safer work environment, as well as a positive and lasting culture of safety. The physical, mental and emotional safety of your employees isn’t just a legal obligation – it’s a vital concern when you’re trying to foster a workplace culture your employees will be proud to be a part of.

Want to learn more about how to ensure a safe workplace? Check out our ultimate guide on the importance of incident reporting, next!