Audits: aiding improvement
July 1st 2008 A health and safety audit can help to highlight
things that work well and that should be maintained,
and identify areas that require increased attention.
John Allen, managing consultant at RoSPA,
comments
Acompany's attitude to the health
and safety of its workforce and
others speaks volumes about its
overall values and professionalism. In
addition to the clear legal and moral
prompts for action, effectively managing
health and safety makes sound business
sense. Good performance in this sphere is
increasingly seen as a competitive
advantage that is attractive to
shareholders, potential business partners
and customers.
The underlying principles of health and
safety management essentially require
employers to ensure the absence of risk to
the safety and health of employees and
others 'so far as is reasonably practicable'.
Meeting this requirement cannot be
achieved by one-off interventions; firms
need to establish a robust system for
managing health and safety (policies,
people and procedures), before trying to
find solutions.
It is extremely important to periodically
check that this system for managing health
and safety is up to scratch. This can be
done through an audit. At this point, it is
worth stating that an audit differs from a
safety inspection. Inspections primarily
assess physical workplace conditions and
activities and, through observation,
compliance with legal and best practice
requirements can be checked.
Audits are the next level of actively
monitoring performance. They look at the
adequacy of the health and safety
management system itself, identifying the
quality of the system, as well as how it is
implemented.
Most companies that are committed to
effectively managing health and safety
carry out workplace inspections, whereas
auditing is often neglected or carried out in
a superficial manner. But there are strong
justifications for carrying out audits.
Significant reassurance can come through
an audit of the system that should be
working to keep things healthy and safe.
The process can help to highlight things
that work well and that should be
maintained, and identify areas that might
require increased attention.
The time spent on the process will also
pay dividends in long-term savings,
including through the allocation of valuable
resources to the issues that are identified
by an audit to be important, rather than the
issues that are merely thought to be
important. Organisations that devote this
level of attention to their management of
health and safety also invariably see
reduced accident rates, with consequent
cost savings.
For an audit to be effective, a number of
requirements should be met:
An audit should seek to compare a
firm's management system against a
suitable 'standard'. There are currently a
number of best practice guidance
documents on the subject that could be
covered by an audit. Primarily, these are:
HSG65 – the HSE's 'Successful Health
and Safety Management'; the British
Standard guidance document BS8800;
and the standard BS EN OHSAS 18001.
Flexibility in auditing is crucial if
organisational requirements and objectives
are to be met and reflected. Some key
topics need to be addressed by all
organisations, such as the management of
fire and emergency situations, but others
are more sector-specific, for example
process change and plant modifications.
Tailoring an audit to suit the specific 'risk
profile' of a particular firm, therefore, is
crucial.
A bespoke approach should
continue into the reporting stage, such as
through the production of quantitative
results that allow benchmarking across
different sites operated by the company in
question and also against industry
averages. Honest and pragmatic
recommendations help a firm get to where
it needs to be.
Audits should be carried out by
trained and competent auditors. The
practice requires certain knowledge and
skills related to the 'standard' against
which the audit is being conducted and
the actual techniques involved in auditing.
Many companies prefer to use an
experienced external consultant for
auditing work, but there are options for
those wanting to train their own competent
auditor. In considering this, it is important
to research how course delegates are
trained, how their competence is assessed
and whether they will be supported in
auditing their own firm.
When considering a health and safety
audit, the focus should be on the
motivation for carrying it out. An audit
should be seen in a positive light, not as a
nit-picking exercise with a primary purpose
to find fault. Look for ways to publicise and
celebrate any achievements that an audit
identifies.
Continuous improvement is the key to
achieving real success in health and safety
management and the ultimate aim of the
auditing process is to enable this to
happen.
Further information on health and safety audits
can be found at www.rospa.com/audit More articles from RoSPA: | 
