Return to Safety Articles

Click to see how the Victor House SAFE products could help you Click to see which products featuring The Simpsons are right for you

The integrity of safety in work processes is of prime concern to all supervisors and team leaders.

Below is a checklist consisting of twenty statements you might like to ask about your safety program.

Safety is everyone’s business, and most safety audits should involve all team members. For the best results, ask team members for their comments as you compile your answers. They will each have some fresh input and you can all help to improve safety in your department.

Safety Audit Checklist
Look at the following 20 statements. In your opinion, with what regularity are these statements true of your department?
Score 0 for "never", 3 for "usually", and 5 for "always".

1. We follow written procedures for each work process.
2. We discuss our safety rules and procedures in the light of actual jobs, to make sure everyone understands their significance and interprets them correctly.
3. Everyone in our department understands the hazards we face and the methods we employ to protect ourselves from them.
4. Whatever external safety rules are applied within our company or organization, our team is its own safety inspector and employs measurable methods to monitor compliance with safe work procedures.
5. We follow safety rules unfailingly.
6. Our team knows that failure to wear personal protective equipment is never tolerated.
7. Everyone on our team knows that we aim at 100% compliance with safety rules and regulations.
8. Every team member is committed to and understands the team's
   goal of zero incidence of workplace injuries.
9. We have written directives for crisis management (e.g. fires, leaks or spills of hazardous materials, natural disasters).
10. All team members are aware of these directives and the reasons which underlie them.
11. Our team gives new team members precise instructions on safety rules and safe
    work procedures.
12. We test new team members to make certain they understand their safety responsibilities, and can demonstrate safe working habits.
13. Before changing work procedures, we discuss the different hazards that may arise, and ways to protect workers.
14. We also test new work procedures for safety before incorporating them into our work schedules.
15. The whole team is involved in evaluating safety and we regularly discuss the processes and actively seek safety improvements.
16. My team's safety corrective action system assigns responsibility for action and tracks progress.
17. We watch out for each other and discuss apparently unsafe work habits.
18. I know how much we spend on prevention, (engineered safety protection, personal protective equipment, training) and how much we spend on cure (lost time injuries,workers' compensation insurance). Annually these costs amount to $... and $... respectively.
19. I share this information with my team.
20. In appraising the performance of employees they are recognized not only for outstanding production, but also for working safely, and for taking a team approach to monitoring safety.

Well, how did you rate your department?
If you consider the ideal answer to be "always", which scores 5 you can
see that a perfect score is 100.

You may like to see how you compare with these ratings:

A score of 90 or more–your safety record should be excellent. Your team pull together to run an incident free department.
You may wish to take a second look at statements on which you gave yourself a score less than 5.

A score of 60 to 90– Maybe the ship seems to be sailing along smoothly, and you have not experienced any major lost time injuries. But you could wake up with a bump! Are you seeing more incidents and near misses than you would like? Would time spent on areas where you lost points be a good investment of your team's time?

Below 60–Are some aspects of safety being left to chance? Hopefully the checklist has helped you to identify areas to work on.