What you are effectively doing is encouraging anyone to be able to an on the spot audit/inspection of the workplace and report defects/problems/issues etc. I have the same system and to save on extra introduction of forms I use the 'Near-miss' form I have put in place but when it comes to logging on the database before feeding back I categorise them slightly differently for my reporting purposes - (Discussions elsewhere on here on what is/is not a true 'near-miss'). This works for me, here, - anyone feels they are now empowered to report anything at any time and not rely on pointing out to an 'official' auditor/Rep for follow up.

In my workplace we operate a system called "Spot It Report It" whereby any employee who spots, witnesses or perceives any condition or act that they believe may be (or become) a hazard can be reported to me using a "Spot It Report It" form. The form is available on the companies intranet site by clicking on an icon that mimics the form, this opens up an electronic editable copy of the form that can be filled in online and emailed to me directly. It works quite well because I've made the process as easy as it can be for operators on the shop floor to use. If you don't have a company intranet site you can distribute the forms around the various business areas and position drop boxes where operators can "Post" them, if you go for the latter option make sure that the drop boxes are discreet and not covered by CCTV as that tends to put some people off "Getting involved"

We have just started a similar scheme here, we encourage people to forget about the company and what they will save and get them to focus on each others safety, we have poster campaigns, it's part of training and also tool box talks, basically it's a near miss hazard spotting exercise whilst getting people to focus on how 'if they walk past something with the potential to cause harm' it could change the lives. This could be seeing someone working in an unsafe manner or not wearing PPE challenging them, not always reporting to management. Putting things right or highlighting them until it can be put right.

We call ours a Safety Flag. Corny but catchy I guess - "wave a flag to make management aware of an issue in your workplace". It covers near misses and any form of safety or environmental concern that hasn't yet hurt anyone or caused property damage. It's a very simple one page form with a tear off reciept (the unions like that part!). We also ask the guys to write on the form what action they want us to take. We don't promise to always do it their way of course :-) but it is a very good tool for employee engagement in safety. Stu