Giving Teeth to Health and Safety Audits and Inspections

In my time I have been privileged to visit some great workplaces, whose H&S culture and standards I could only hope to aspire to. Equally, I have also visited workplaces at the opposite end of the spectrum. When I asked H&S advisers why standards in these workplaces were so poor, I would often be met with an indifferent shrug, and the old chestnut about health and safety being a line management responsibility - it being “their” problem if “they” chose to ignore the advice of the H&S team.

Not on my watch!

I was determined early in my career that I was not paid to sit in an office waiting for the phone to ring, and I was determined to improve standards.  I began a series of what turned out to be euphemistically-termed “health and safety audits”. In truth they were little more in those days than workplace inspections of hardware - guarding, fire precautions, extractions systems, forklift trucks and the like – but which failed to get to grips with how a Plan-Do-Check-Act management system should properly work. I soon realised that, whereas an Inspection merely looks at hardware, an Audit looks at the whole management system including the behavioural culture.  I used to duly hand the manager what I thought was a well-argued, skilfully laid-out report, listing all the relevant standards and regulations that were not being met.

Polite as ever, managers thanked me for my reports which they filed away – seldom to see the light of day again.

Imagine my frustration during the follow-up audit to discover that not only had my recommendations not been heeded, but that standards had sometimes deteriorated further.

So how to give teeth to H&S audits in an environment where staff are rewarded on hitting output targets, and where health and safety is seen as someone else’s problem?

• First, simplify the output so that the manager, director, and the Main Board receive an overall rating that everyone understands – it might be red-amber-green or a star-rating or a mark out of 5 copied from Finance Team’s internal auditing department, or a percentage score.
• Which begs the next question – a percentage of what?  The answer has to be that you are measuring a department’s percentage compliance with the Company’s H&S manual and procedures.
• Turn the Health and Safety Manual and its statements into questions with available marks.  For example, if the manual states that all staff will receive H&S training, the audit will ask how many staff have done so?

50% of staff having completed the agreed health and safety training should result in the department receiving 50% of the marks available for that question.

• Everything must be verifiable: like a detective, you are gathering evidence and won’t award marks without the proper document trail.
• Obviously, some questions will be weighted to carry more marks, depending on the strategic nature.
• Publish the blank audit template to everyone upfront (e.g. on the Company intranet) so that everyone has visibility well in advance, and knows what questions to expect – after all, it’s not a school exam paper.  Unless you are using bespoke auditing software, the audit could be published as a spreadsheet which aggregates marks as you go along.  The spreadsheet could, for example, use a different tab for each chapter of the H&S Manual. Each question can even include a link to the relevant paragraph of the H&S manual if managers want to understand why they are being asked a particular question.
• Encourage departments – especially management H&S Champions - to perform their own desk-top audit in advance so they have a good idea what score they can expect – and have the opportunity of brushing up the department’s act beforehand.  It’s in your interests for every department to perform well during internal H&S audits, as it means less hand-holding afterwards.
• Ensure the manager understands that the Board of Directors will have visibility of the overall audit score – perhaps feeding into the Company’s dashboard of key H&S performance indicators, if one exists.
• A good audit will contain recommendations for improvement.  Encourage the manager to roll any such H&S recommendations into the department’s health and safety plan.  This will ensure that the department’s leadership team keeps a focus during monthly meetings – even if the manager moves on and a new one takes over.

One other recollection is that managers are often happy to look over the fence and compare notes with other departments. It’s entirely to be encouraged for them to start sharing personal experiences of H&S audits and helping each other along the way. Who knows, one day you may be able to save yourself the need to audit a department altogether by nominating them for an external H&S audit such as ISO 45001 or an industry/trade association trophy?

Contact us

Arinite clients appreciate we provide practical, no-nonsense advice about what you need to do to establish and maintain a safe and healthy working environment. Our team of health and safety consultants take pride in keeping health and safety simple. If you need to call upon our expert assistance, or just for an informal chat, please call our office 0207 947 9581, or type an enquiry to on our contact page. Jan Mirkowski