Documentation is a critical part of running any good business, and safety documents are at the top of the record-keeping priority list. From safety policies and timesheets to sick leave requests and health forms, maintaining proper records of the well-being and safety of employees is essential.
Top 5 Important Workplace Safety Documents
Maintaining all of the necessary paperwork and records regarding safety for your business is crucial for keeping employees safe and healthy and for remaining in compliance with proper reporting and safety codes.
Here are five essential safety documents every company needs in 2022:
1. Job Safety Analysis
Keeping records of the protocols, regulations, methods, and reports regarding safety in the workplace is legally required. A Job Safety Analysis reflects risk assessment evaluations, which clearly identify all safety and health risks associated with specific jobs.
These types of records are essential tools when you’re planning for and responding to various workplace threats and hazards. They also create and maintain an awareness of risks and the specific people who could be affected by those hazards.
2. Method Statement
Method statements are designed to outline the procedures with which specific work-related tasks should be carried out. These documents are very common within the construction industry, but any line of work that requires detailed, actionable protocols should make use of them.
Most method statements include information like start dates and end dates of a project, a description of the project, and all potential hazards associated with the project. Emergency procedures and monitoring guidelines should also be included.
Although a mission statement may sound much like a risk assessment evaluation, the difference is that a method statement takes the information compiled in a risk evaluation and uses it to put together a guide for how to complete work safely.
3. Near-Miss Reports (Incident Investigation Reports)
Issues or problems that happen in the workplace that have the potential to cause harm to someone are documented in near-miss reports. Near-miss incidents can be identified as occurrences during which the interruption of a chain of events prevented injury or damage from taking place.
Near-miss reports are similar to incident reports, identifying circumstances in which an accident didn’t happen but where one very well could have.
Collecting near-miss reports helps everyone in the workplace identify weaknesses in the protocols that allow for incidents to occur. In addition, they’re necessary documents for ensuring that unsafe scenarios don’t play out again.
4. Equipment and Machinery Inspection Reports
One of the best ways to promote employee safety is by regularly inspecting machinery and equipment. You’ll want (and need) to prove these inspections happened by logging machinery inspection reports that describe what was inspected, who did the inspection, and what was found.
This type of safety documentation needs to include the items checked, the date of inspection, the results of the inspection, and the signature of the person who performed the inspection. These reports, when created regularly, will help make sure that employees are working with safe, updated machinery.
5. Emergency Action Plan
These plans give clear, detailed instructions on how people within a building should act in the event of specific disasters. Emergency action plans must provide an overview of all potential disasters, whether they be fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, explosions, or anything else.
Your employees must know that life is always the company’s most important asset, so your emergency action plan must cover a wide variety of topics.
Things like how an emergency will be reported, procedures for evacuations, how you will account for employees post-evacuation, procedures for performing rescue or medical tasks, and the names of employees who can be contacted for further information regarding the plan are all important constituents.
Develop an Effective Workplace Safety Program with Safety By Design
Safety By Design offers custom-designed safety solutions for real-world needs in any industry. For more than a decade, we’ve been helping businesses stay compliant with OSHA regulations and maintaining safety as the #1 priority.
You can develop an effective program, maintain vital safety documentation, and stay compliant with safety documentation requirements with the help of Safety By Design. Contact us today.
Tags: incident report, near miss, safety documents, safety inspection, safety program, workplace safety
