Health and safety audits are a valuable way to check your level of compliance. Failure to keep your safety systems up to date could directly result in an accident down the line. Take proactive action and keep your team and business safe by arranging a professional safety audit.
We want to share 5 reasons why you should have an annual safety audit.
1 To protect the health and wellbeing of your workforce
Health and safety audits are expert assessments of health and safety policies, procedures, systems, and arrangements. If you are managing safety properly, the chances of having a serious accident are much reduced. An expert health and safety audit reviews your existing arrangements, looking for shortfalls and gaps in your safety arrangements. A safety audit can prevent major accidents and incidents occurring and reduce the likelihood of ending up in court.
2 What gets measured gets done
There is an old saying that ‘what gets measured gets done!’ We find that organisations who have regular safety audits and inspections operate good health and safety management systems. Many companies we work with have an annual health and safety audit. This allows us to measure their level of health and safety compliance. Year on year, we see improvements in safety compliance with many seeing a reduction in accidents, incidents and near misses. If you haven’t had an audit lately, do you know how compliant you are to UK safety regulations?
We offer both health and safety audits and fire safety audits.
3 To keep up to date with changing regulations and standards
Safety regulations and British Standards are often updated, amended, and changed by the relevant authority. New standards are regularly produced also. With this in mind, it is important to make sure documents referred to in your policies are all the latest versions of the rules. A health and safety audit includes reviewing your documentation to check it is up to date. Are you confident your policies and procedures are robust?
4 Due to business changes
Business doesn’t stay the same. Firms move premises, hire new staff, change products, buy new equipment, and take on new contracts. Due to the changing nature of business, it is important to ensure your health and safety systems are suitable and sufficient to the shifting commercial landscape. Arrangements you had in place pre Covid-19 are likely to not be sufficient in this new world. If you buy new warehouses, new vehicles, or equipment the risks change. If you have made significant changes to your business recently, an audit would be beneficial.
5 If staff, management of clients raise safety concerns
From time to time, it becomes obvious that there are potential issues with your health and safety system. It might be that you haven’t had an audit for a long time or even a professional safety inspection. Staff might be raising safety concerns; you may have had a spate of minor incidents or even a serious safety issue. In these situations, it is vital that you arrange a safety audit to find the deep-rooted safety concerns. Your clients may have pointed out concerns with your team or your managers may be saying things aren’t right. In any of these circumstances you would be negligent to ignore these matters. Failures to address safety concerns can lead to increased risks, poor morale and could magnify your culpability if you end up in court.
JCH Safety work across Warwickshire, the West Midlands, Coventry, and Birmingham. If you require any assistance with health and safety matters, please get in touch.
