Health and safety reports are an integral part of every company consisting of various kinds of activities which have potential hazards and could be a source of accidents. Developing a safety report is a legal requirement and international standards recommend the same to be maintained promptly. The report could be monthly, quarterly, half yearly or yearly. The report consists of the details of recorded incidents that happened due to floors, roofs, falling objects, vehicles, unguarded machinery, equipment, overhead power cables, power tools, heat and other different activities. The report also consists of the employee information as how many average employees are present daily and the total number of work hours.
Further the report will have to be written about the project safety activities like inspection conducted, risk assessment conducted and the outcome of the same. It is the ultimate responsibility of the employer to develop a proper standard procedure for maintaining the health and safety report department wise or the project or activity wise. This is done at the different levels like supervisor will develop a report of the area under his purview and this leverages to the manager till director for health and safety.
Define the Objective of the safety report first
- The report starts with an introduction on the issue to be reported. It summarizes the whole report on the particular issue.
- The maintenance of the equipment or explanation of the accidents at the workplace and standard procedures that need to be followed.
- A safety report covers almost every aspect that a person needs to know about the workplace. The report also includes about the interviews and discussions he had with the employees during the inspection.
Any safety report must follow a proper format which should be in a proper presentation with simple and precise language with easily understandable terminologies without less or no jargon. One of the drawbacks of the safety reports is filling up the content which is not required much. While writing a report we need to consider the background of the employees and their understanding of the language. The report need not necessarily be in English rather the language which the majority of the employees understand. Report writing is a team work explaining the scope of the report along with the interviews, surveys, inspections and questionnaires used if any.
Even a small mistake sometimes could lead to an accident major or minor depending on the instructions given and even legal procedures be initiated if a report is not maintained properly. Goals of the writing a health and Safety Report is to demonstrate:
- A clear accident prevention policy maintaining a health and safety management system
- That a proper procedure is followed in writing about the possible accidents and their preventive measures so that consequences could be minimized.
- That a proper inspection has been done in the workplace including the equipment, machinery, hazardous areas and the operations that happen in the workplace.
- To elaborate the emergency measures that are intact and as per the emergency evacuation measures plan and procedures.
To maintain the report very precise, neat and clear for the Health and safety officials as and when inspection happens.
