Posted By Nigel Hammond
Any tips on making health & safety audits a pleasant experience?

I have put together a long list of questions based around each part of our health & safety manual. It takes about a day to go through them with line managers. By the end of the audit session the managers end-up tired and demoralised!

I hope it's not me! I can motivate people during training sessions and less-structured visits. I just need to find a way of making audits more palatable - without compromising the detail and evidence required.

Posted By Geoff Burt
Step back and have a look at your audit or ask another safety professional to have a look at it for you.

Is everything you ask essential - does it addd to the audit. Should you be looking at specific topics rather than them all. How deep or how high do you need to go. Quite a few years ago my boss and I tried out separate RoSPA QSA audit on two business units. Sure, you get lots of information, but the majority was of no use to us.

How about splitting the audit - to ask anybody to take a whole day out seems unreasonable. I would think both you and the auditee would be reeling by the end of the day. It's not something I would inflict on myself let alone others.

Posted By Nigel Hammond
Thanks for your advice guys, this is all very useful.

Health & Safety is so often seen as a dull subject that is all about bureaucracy and stopping people having fun. I'm convinced that these misconceptions can be broken down. I feel I've managed this in my training sessions, newsletters and procedures.

If I can just make audits a pleasant and helpful experience, I'll be happy and so will my victims!! So thanks for your views and ideas. Any more comments would also be very welcome

Regards

Nigel

Posted By Stuart Nagle
Nigel.

I have just conducted out first round OHSAS 18001 audits. Getting to grips with auditing can be a strain, not only on those being audited but on the auditor too.

I took the primary questions from the 18001 document and used this as the audit base, and asked for all H&S files to be available on the day (the audit took approximately 3 days at each site).

I went through the paperwork without bothering anyone, and raised questions in note form and whilst carry out inspections to further verify what what shown in documents, asked questions from the notes made.

In addition further inspections of the workplace were carried out for compliance with various H&S requirements and notes made of both good and poor practice.

I did need to bother managers, supervisors and shift managers ect on occassions to ask questions and take brief notes in respect of matter for which little information was available, however this was good as I was also able to provide feed back to them right then and there as well.

In the final analysis, I drew up a report based on the 18001 main questions, and now also employing the sub questions as well, and an action plan which included proposed actions required, proposed 'completion by' dates (subject to negotiated agreement). I then sent copies of the report and action plan to all senior mangers responsible and arranged to have a meeting with them 1 week following the audit.

The meeting directly discussed what was in the action plan - as reference by the audit report, and as the managers had time to read the audit report and the action plan, they had time to decide on responses, what they agreed/disagreed with and how progress was to be made. generally a non-confrontational meeting with positive aspects and leaving everyone in no doubt as to what was required, by whom and by when.

I found this a beneficial way of conveying the audit findings and managers appreciated having the time to read and digest the report and action plan, and also think about how they could move things on/progress, based on the proposed action to be taken.

All in all, everyone was happy (with the process if not the findings) and agreed that it was far less onerous than they had envisaged than before the audit started...

Posted By Phil Atkinson
Whilst auditing can be draining as it is an intensive process, part of the skill of an auditor is to put the auditee at ease. This is essential, as it will make your life easier - you really want them to open up, and volunteer information, rather than having to dig for it all the time. The opening meeting is the most important time of an audit, as the scene is set for the rest of the process. Make sure everyone who will be affected by the audit is invited, and ensure they all understand why the audit is being carried out. I personally find using phrases like "Brownie Points" etc counter productive - keep it professional but informal. Audits are not about looking for breaches - in fact the opposite is true - an audit is a tool to verify that an organisations safety management system is working, and to identify where opportunities for improvement exist. Once people understand this (and the auditor demonstrates it through their behaviour) they usually relax. One final point - with the best will in the world simply reading out questions and ticking boxes is boring for Auditor and Auditee alike - try to really understand the question set, and plan structured conversations that cover the necessary issues - I am sure you will find the process much more rewarding.

Happy New Year