When the word audit is mentioned, people tend to think of a negative experience, such as an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax audit. However, audits can be positive.
An audit is defined as a systematic or methodical review—to examine with intent to verify. Audits can apply to your job. From a safety standpoint, the only way to do your job is safely. Safety needs to be the first consideration in everything we do. We may not always be focused on safety first, so our continuing efforts to review or think about our jobs are auditing.
Our job audit should evaluate whether we’ve thought out the steps that we go through to perform a task safely. Before completing a task, consider these questions:
- Do we have the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) such as eye protection, gloves, and footwear?
- Do we need any special PPE such as a chemical apron or a harness?
- Is our PPE in good condition?
- Do we have the correct tools and are they in good shape?
- Do we know how to operate the tools or equipment?
- Do we know how to accomplish the task safely?
- Do we know the harmful energy sources around the area and have we isolated them?
These are just a few of the questions we should ask. Ensure you do a quick audit before beginning a task. A more thorough audit should be done if you’re doing something for the first time or haven’t performed the task for a while.
Provided courtesy of Safety Toolbox Topics.