Why Health and Safety Audits Are Essential
A health and safety audit is an essential tool for ensuring workplace safety, regulatory compliance, and contractor safety across multiple suppliers and sites. Without a structured approach, organizations risk inconsistent audits, leading to compliance failures, increased hazards, and potential legal consequences.
Understanding how to conduct a health and safety audit allows businesses to proactively assess risks, verify supplier compliance, and implement corrective actions before workplace incidents occur.
This step-by-step guide will walk you through the process of conducting a health and safety audit for business, helping you standardize your approach with a health and safety audit checklist to ensure compliance across all suppliers.
Step 1: Define the Scope of the Audit
Before conducting an audit, businesses must clearly define what they want to achieve. Ask yourself:
- What suppliers or locations will be audited?
- What regulations and safety standards apply? (e.g., HSE regulations, ISO 45001)
- What are the key compliance benchmarks? (Training records, equipment safety, incident reports)
- Are past audit results available to compare improvements or recurring issues?
Why This Matters:
Many companies struggle with audits because they fail to standardize audit criteria across multiple sites and suppliers.
By answering these questions, businesses can focus their audit on the most important areas. This helps ensure a targeted and effective approach.
For a more detailed look at why supplier safety compliance matters, refer to our article Why Health and Safety Matters.
Step 2: Pre-Audit Preparation and Supplier Engagement
Once the audit scope is defined, preparation is key to ensuring a smooth and efficient process. This step involves gathering relevant documents, notifying key stakeholders, and setting expectations for suppliers and contractors.
Key Preparations:
- Review previous audit reports to identify recurring issues.
- Prepare a health and safety audit checklist based on industry best practices.
- Notify suppliers or contractors about the upcoming audit and provide them with documentation requirements.
- Assign audit responsibilities to internal teams or external assessors.
Pre-audit preparation promotes transparency and accountability, helping suppliers and contractors understand what auditors will assess and how they can demonstrate compliance.
Step 3: Conducting the On-Site or Remote Audit
With the scope defined and preparations complete, the next step is the execution of the health and safety audit. A structured approach ensures consistency, accuracy, and compliance with workplace safety regulations.
Key Areas to Assess During the Audit
- Workplace safety procedures – Are employees and contractors following required safety protocols?
- Training and competency records – Do workers have up-to-date certifications and safety training?
- Equipment safety compliance – Are machines, tools, and vehicles properly maintained and inspected?
- Incident reporting and response systems – Are accidents and near-misses documented and addressed?
- Emergency preparedness – Are fire safety measures, evacuation plans, and first-aid provisions in place and regularly tested?
- Psychological wellbeing- Are workers facing long hours, mental stress, or unfair treatment? These issues can affect their well-being and decisions at work.
On-Site vs. Remote Audits
- On-Site Audits: Allow for physical inspections, employee interviews, and direct observation of safety practices.
- Remote Audits: Use digital tools to review documentation, conduct virtual site walkthroughs, and assess compliance where in-person visits are not feasible.
Regardless of the method, a structured health and safety audit checklist helps ensure that nothing gets overlooked. It supports teams to measure findings consistently across different sites and suppliers.
Step 4: Evaluating Findings and Identifying Risks
Once the health and safety audit is complete, the next step is to analyze the findings, identify risks, and prioritize corrective actions. A well-structured evaluation process ensures that businesses document compliance levels and takes proactive steps to improve workplace safety and supplier performance.
Key Steps in Evaluating Audit Findings
Categorize Suppliers and Sites by Risk Level
- Classify suppliers and contractors as low, medium, or high risk based on audit results.
- Consider previous incidents, non-compliance history, and ongoing safety performance
Compare Findings Against Industry Standards and Best Practices
- Use frameworks such as HSE regulations, ISO 45001, and national safety laws to benchmark performance.
- Assess whether suppliers are meeting the required health and safety audit checklist criteria.
Identify Areas of Non-Compliance and High-Risk Issues
- Highlight any immediate risks that require urgent action, such as unsafe working conditions or outdated safety equipment.
- Address psychological safety concerns such as excessive working hours, stress-related risks, and lack of worker engagement in safety discussions.
Develop a Risk Mitigation Plan
- Assign responsibility for addressing non-compliance issues and set clear deadlines for corrective actions.
- Establish follow-up audits to track progress and ensure long-term improvements.
Communicate Results to Stakeholders
- Share key audit findings with management teams, suppliers, and contractors to ensure accountability.
- Provide clear recommendations on safety improvements and required changes.
A thorough evaluation process helps businesses transition from merely identifying risks to actively mitigating them, ensuring a safer and more compliant supply chain.
Step 5: Implementing Corrective Actions and Continuous Improvement
A health and safety audit is only effective if it leads to meaningful improvements. The final step is to ensure that identified risks are addressed, compliance gaps are closed, and a culture of continuous improvement is established.
Key Steps in Implementing Corrective Actions
Develop an Action Plan
- For each non-compliance issue, define the corrective actions needed, assign responsibilities, and set deadlines.
- Prioritize high-risk issues that pose immediate safety threats.
Provide Additional Training and Support
- If audits reveal gaps in worker competency or contractor safety practices, provide additional training and refreshers.
- Focus on areas like hazard awareness, emergency response, and mental well-being.
Update Policies and Procedures
- Revise health and safety policies to align with audit findings and evolving regulations.
- Ensure suppliers and contractors are aware of updated workplace safety standards.
Schedule Follow-Up Audits
- Conduct follow-up assessments to confirm that corrective actions have been successfully implemented.
- Track supplier progress using a structured health and safety audit checklist.
Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement
- Encourage regular safety discussions and feedback from workers.
- Promote psychological safety, ensuring that employees feel comfortable reporting safety concerns without fear of retaliation.
By treating health and safety audits as a continuous process rather than a one-time event, businesses can build a stronger, safer, and more resilient supply chain.
Why Outsourcing Health and Safety Audits is the Best Option
While internal audits can identify risks, outsourcing health and safety audits to independent specialists ensures a higher level of consistency, objectivity, and expertise. Third-party auditors provide:
- Unbiased assessments that reveal risks an internal team may overlook.
- Industry benchmarking to measure supplier performance against best practices.
- Regulatory expertise to help businesses stay compliant with evolving safety laws.
- Scalability to conduct audits efficiently across multiple locations and suppliers.
For organizations managing complex supply chains, outsourcing audits offers a structured, data-driven approach to workplace safety, contractor safety, and supplier compliance. It ensures that businesses not only meet regulations but also create a proactive safety culture that reduces risks long-term.
