Phil Pinnington, Head of Audit and Consultancy at British Safety Council discusses workplace audits and why being open to ongoing review can keep employees safe, healthy and happy overall.
Although not a legal requirement, undertaking a health, safety and wellbeing audit brings multiple benefits to your organisation. Audits – whether on compliance, programme, or management systems – are the most effective way for your organisation to ensure a safe and healthy workplace for its employees, visitors, and others.
We know that a safe working environment, supported by effective health, safety, wellbeing, and environmental practices, can increase employees’ morale and, in turn, their productivity. When employees feel more secure, they are likely to be more engaged in their work.
Audits look at the strengths and weaknesses of an organisation’s health, safety, wellbeing, and environmental management systems, and enable these organisations to make informed decisions about what health, safety and wellbeing measures need to be implemented.
A health, safety and wellbeing audit is generally conducted on-site at the agreed premises, but in some circumstances can be conducted remotely.
Either way, it will include:
Following these checks, the auditor writes and delivers a report to record how things looked at that point in time. It must be remembered that auditing is not designed to judge the past or to foresee pitfalls. Rather, it is incumbent on the auditor to comment on the effectiveness of the Occupational Health and Safety Management System and arrangements as well as offering observations, if necessary, on any opportunities for improvement.
Internal audits will often take place much more frequently and focus on specific areas of risk or processes. These are often where subtle changes have occurred that may have been missed so provide a good level of reassurance for the organisation that practices are aligned with operational activities.
The most common types of audits are compliance audits – focusing on whether an organisation is following the relevant safety standards, regulations, and procedures. Performance audits evaluate the effectiveness of existing safety programmes, and management system audits, which track the compliance of systems.
Organisations may be well-versed in these audits, but they may become more of a checklist of ‘yes / no’ questions. For instance, ‘are your employees trained?’, ‘is their equipment checked regularly?’, ‘do you undergo regular risk assessments?’, ‘what are your fire and safety plans?’, or ‘what are your first aid and accident procedures?’
A fuller, more independent audit can help identify where and how an organisation can improve their safety, wellbeing and environmental management systems and performance.
For instance, in British Safety Council’s Five Star Occupational Health and Safety Audit, the auditor provides an assessment of how the audited organisation is performing against regulation and best practice, and also receive a detailed list of recommendations on which to develop a strategy or action plan to improve Health and Safety, as well as quantified outcome in all the 50 listed elements.
You may arrange an audit because you want an independent party to judge the effectiveness of your systems and culture. Or you think you would like an audit to benchmark a starting point for a health and safety journey you are about to undertake.
While health and safety audits have been a regular feature in systems management, wellbeing is becoming more recognised for its importance in organisational culture.
It is increasingly recognised that poor employee wellbeing not only results directly in higher costs for an organisation, through more working days lost, it also means having a less engaged and therefore a less productive workforce. It can lead to increased levels of presenteeism, and greater risk of accident or injury. The business benefits of implementing wellbeing programmes are clear.
Health and safety risks are in every organisation and can impact wellbeing performance, so introducing a wellbeing element to a health and safety audit examines the key aspects of an organisation’s integration of health, safety, and wellbeing, and offers them a structured path for their continued improvement towards best practice status.
A third-party audit should be viewed as part of an ongoing process. It doesn’t end after the audit has been completed, and areas for improvement have been identified; it should form part of an organisation’s continuous improvement, helping workplaces to evolve and become safer and more compliant over time.
Regardless of a company’s size, it is an employer’s duty to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of their employees. An external audit may not be a legal requirement, but verification that employers are looking out for their employees displays a genuine commitment to employee health, safety, and wellbeing. It is surely worth it to keep employees safe, healthy, and happy.
For more information, visit: https://www.britsafe.org/audit-and-consultancy/all-audits
