Tips for the safety walk through

There are many different types of inspections you might do as a safety manager.  Scheduled and random formal inspections are important and have their place in a safety program.  Equally important are random, unscheduled, partial, informal, and social facility walk-throughs.  Casual conversations, getting to know employees and how they work when they aren't being watched by someone who they consider to be an adversary can help ensure that the organization has a positive and pervasive safety culture.

For all types of inspections, here are some things that have helped me make mine more effective.

1.  When taking notes, make sure you note the location, the item and the problem with it.  Half written notes and short hand are likely to be forgotten later.  Here's an example:  "hallway by MR. smith’s office: junction box and light".  What's wrong with them?  I can't remember.  Now I have to go back and look again. 

2.  Take pictures.  A picture can help you remember what you saw, where it is, and can help with training worksite supervisors and employees to look for and correct discrepancies on their own.

3.  Whenever possible, try to identify who would be the best person to effect a solution.  When considering this, consider who is responsible for the space, and what processes are involved.  The idea here is to make an easy and sustainable solution that empowers the workers to conduct their work more safely.  A cumbersome solution without justification only dooms the problem to re-occur.  If the only solution is a cumbersome solution, then make sure you explain very clearly what hazard the employees will avoid if they follow the new procedure.

4.  When listing and prioritizing discrepancies, it helps to use a risk assessment matrix to sort the discrepancies.   Your company may already have one to use; here is my favorite:

Judge the severity and likelihood of the hazards associated with each discrepancy, and assign a number value to each one.  Then I like to assign a number value, 1-5, of difficulty to fix the discrepancy.  A score of 1 would be difficult, for instance wiring out of code requiring a major renovation to fix.  5 would be an easy fix such as replacing an expired fire extinguisher.  Then add the two values and rank the list in order.  The result is that high risk and easy fixes end up near the top, bringing you quickly to the high risk difficult fixes.  This process can help give a methodical approach to an otherwise chaotic list of doom and gloom.  It also helps you quantify to management and executives exactly what the safety office is doing for the company.