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Worksite Safety Inspections: Worksite Safety Inspections: Serious BusinessSerious Business

Barbara Semeniuk

Introduction Introduction

What is an inspection?Types of Inspections?The Role of the Health and Safety Committee, Supervisors,

Workers and Management in Inspections.Planning an inspection.How to conduct Inspections.How to write the inspection report and time-lines.Effective Implementation of Inspections (discussion of case

study on how to be the best at your game).Relevant Experience amongst the participants in inspections:

class discussion.Cutting edge strategies.

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What is an Inspection?What is an Inspection?

An inspection is part of workplace monitoringIt checks for substandard acts and conditionsIt checks the PEPME: people, environment,

physical conditions, machinery/materials and equipment.

It is not an audit although inspections and audits are often used interchangeably

An audit is an examination of the whole Health and Safety System, and inspection is a portion thereof.

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Types of InspectionsTypes of Inspections

Informalformal

– Regular– Intermittent– Surprise

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Informal Inspections Informal Inspections

Performed everyday: checking the worksites for hazards prior to beginning work

Walking around by Management, Supervisors, Workers to check/monitor conditions informally (not written down, but noted).

Formal InspectionsFormal Inspections

May be legislated ie. Health and Safety Committee conduct monthly inspections and/or weekly depending on the scope of work and the degree of hazards and the timelines to conduct the work.

This is an example of regular inspections.Intermittent inspections can be conducted periodically with

no defined timelines so people cannot prepare also known as surprise inspections

Always inform someone higher up that you will be conducting the inspections so you do not create a hazard for yourself or the inspection teamCan be onsite or in the field ie. Checking for PPE use at a remote site.

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Planning an InspectionPlanning an Inspection

Determine what you wish to inspect with your teamWho will be on the teamWhy you wish to inspectWhen you wish to inspect How you will go about it ie. How to rate/rank hazards, what

checklist to use and/or if you have to create oneHow it fits into the big pictureAllocate enough time so you can be effectiveEnsure enough resources are provided so the corrective actions

can occur in a timely mannerAssemble the checklist, pen and paper, materials, and the team

and begin

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Conducting the InspectionConducting the Inspection

Barb to give relaxation exercise to get in the moodWear the necessary PPE: set a good exampleDo not operate equipment you are not competent to do soInform the Supervisor of the area if this is a regular inspection,

keep management informed if this is a surprise inspection and be sure you are aware of the Health and Safety hazards in the area and someone knows you will be there

Get off the beaten path, look on, under, up and around, check for hazards and prioritize them either high, medium, low…”A, B, C or numerically from 1-3 or whatever matrix you are using

High hazards (A, 3) dealt with immediately, medium (B, 2) hazards 24 hours, (C, 1) low hazards 48 to 72 hours

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Writing the Inspection reportWriting the Inspection report

Keep it simple the KISS principleRank the worst hazards firstCreate an action planAssign people responsible for corrective actions and do not always use

the maintenance person: spread the loveRecord the implementation date of the corrective actionsAssign a follow up person to check that these have been donePost the inspection reportDo not refer to people by name if they had an unsafe actPreserve the privacy of individuals this is the lawComplete within 72 hours after the inspection (s)Explain why some corrective actions have not been done i.e. Large

budget/resource items and what is being done to mitigate this

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Effective Implementation Of Effective Implementation Of InspectionsInspectionsAlways be thinking: lean manufacturings

the 5 WHY’sWhy are employees doing unsafe actsWhy do unsafe conditions existWhy, why, why? What are the underlying

conditions behind the behaviour?

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Case StudiesCase Studies

Think of the roles you play as a Health and Safety Practitioner in an Inspection. Are you one of the following?

Pair of hands: you readily do the work, management is hands off its in your job description, you do it

Expert: You are the go to person the person who knows all. You conduct the inspection and do not involve many people because they slow down the process

Kaizaner: you seek opportunities to continuously improve and continuously build on previous success. This like, the strategist is a collaborative and sometimes frustrating process

Strategist: you strategize how this all fits together, how to involve and engage people

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Case Study: See Where you fit Case Study: See Where you fit and what you would doand what you would do

You are a Health and Safety Coordinator for a Company that operates in BC and Alberta. Like me you live in the province where there are no rats unlike BC. (probably because no self respecting rat would want to live in Alberta) (I’m from BC originally, how can you guess eh?)

In Alberta. there is an office building that is 30 stories high. You have been asked to coordinate the inspection.

If you inspect the program yourself following an inspection schedule/ form you set up yourself you are both an:

In these roles this is what you would do: you develop an inspection form from other forms already created with other companies as well as using outdated forms used previously by the company….sound familiar? After all, why reinvent the wheel?

You ask the management if they have any other information they would like to add to the form you created. They say, no but would be happy to assist in the process. Have you involved the staff? You develop the schedule for yourself, a staff person and a management person to share responsibility for walking the floors to inspect for office Health and Safety hazards and agree that management would correct any building or structural hazards and any type of hazards that

were individual or behavioral in nature would be given to the Floor wardens to take care of. You implement your schedule of inspections: the office inspections are now completed, and corrective actions forwarded to both the building management team and the Floor wardens. You complete the scenario within the allotted timeframe of 1 month and to budget. You rest

on your laurels as a “hands on” person and “expert”. What could possibly be wrong with this scenario?

I repeat: what is wrong with this scenario?

As a kaizaner and strategist you approach this same situation differently because, for some reason, this approach did not work…it failed to produce results. According to management, the hazards from the first inspection had never been corrected and a second inspection, that was to occur quarterly, failed to occur. What could possibly go wrong? As a strategist/kaizaner you ask the safety department support staff what happened. They tell you that they do not want to participate in another inspection because they had been yelled at, felt insulted and were made to be the bad guy when telling people to correct their unsafe acts and they felt overworked and underappreciated. They had questions about the form because it did not really fit what they needed to do but were given no training on it…just told to look for the items on the form. If they had a concern they were to inform management in writing and this was such a hassle and they had so much to do they did not do it.

You decide to talk to the Management support staff: they felt that they did not really understand the form but that was ok because it was the Safety Managers job he/she was the expert. Why should they be involved? They were busy people and this was a waste of their time…….

To recap: in the initial scenario: no communication with the workers occurred, no planning for the inspection, and no training either. In the first scenario…the Safety Manager was the expert who was best able to handle this task. Why should the employees care about the inspection results or the process to get the inspections completed? They were just the hands on people…let the experts handle the job.

In the second scenario you, the Health and Safety Manager, practices continuous improvement and plans/strategizes. You ask: What is the bigger purpose for conducting office inspections? How does my inspection process fit into the Company’s strategic goal of integrating Health and Safety practices into the overall business? How does one engage and involve people to realize that even simple office inspections are within their “sphere of control” and that they are accountable for the results? To answer these questions I decide to have a safety meeting with senior leaders to engage and involve them because they are responsible for the employees working in the building. What would you do as an kaizaner and strategist?

1. Step One 2. Step Two 3. Step Three 4 Step Four 5 Step Five etc.

Answers: Step One: Develop a form with worker, supervisor and management input. The form would be based on the previous one incorporating lessons learned from the support staff and the management team. Step Two: Once the form was completed a meeting would be held with a representative from each of the major departments within the highrise. Some were Floor Wardens some were not. These people are selected by senior management to participate in the inspection process.

Their training consisted of walking thorough the form, asking for input, and the form was updated to include their comments and insights. Step Three: During the meeting a process for conducing inspections was presented which was revised, updated and improved upon based on their comments.

Step Four Conduct the inspections with a management representative, department representative and yourself as the health and safety manager with a safety staff support member assisting in conducting the inspections because there are several departments occupying the same floor. This makes it easier for inter departmental hazards to be addressed.

Step 5: since this is a regular inspection the time and date would be communicated to all the employees by each department representative. There would be no surprises and the inspection form was e-mailed to all. Step 6: The department representatives during the inspection would be responsible for documenting the inspections as well as any corrections. You tell them to hold a meeting with their managers and discuss the results and follow up actions. The managers, on a digital

dashboard approach, are held responsible for submitting their corrective actions and the dates these were done. Step 7: Following the inspections, according to a plan worked out in advance: managers are awarded for no corrective actions in their department and/or submitting their corrective actions within a two week time frame. You tell them of this criteria before the inspections began

and they now know that they would be accountable for results. Additional maintenance staff are contracted to assist with any corrections being asked by the managers and you tell them that this process will happen. They know what to Expect, what behavior to Exhibit and what to emphasize: the three E’s of safety.

Your scenario was not quick: it took twice as long as the first to complete. It was a sometimes time consuming and frustrating process with additional costs in labour and time. However, the inspection process occurred without a hitch and has been self sustaining for the past two years and continuously improving. You as a safety manager coordinate the process but more from a communication standpoint to initiate the activities. Senior management takes it from there, ensuring they support your efforts as a kaizaner and strategist. They know how it fits into the overall business strategy of their corporation as does everyone. Even simple office inspections impact the bottom line and health and safety.

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Effective Implementation of Effective Implementation of InspectionsInspections The three E’s of Safety: Expect, Exhibit and EmphasizeAssign someone responsible for inspection planning and implementation (clear

expectations)Keep management and the workers informed Involve all levels of employees so management and workers buy into the program

(exhibit)Do not always have one person responsible: rotate the duties to avoid burnout and to

involve everyone, employees will do what their supervisor feels is important (emphasize)

Assign frequency of inspections to the various positions and write into job descriptions (clear expectations, what gets measured, gets done)

Hold people responsible and measure the implementation by the various people of the process (key performance indicators)

Inspections are a leading indicator that can prevent incidentsDigital dashboard approachProactively prevent incidents before they happen by effective monitoring of workplace

conditions

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Effective InspectionsEffective Inspections

These are collaborativeInvolve all levels of employeesAre planned out: Stephen Covey “sharpen

the saw”People are held accountableAre measured and trackedPrevent incidents before they happen

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Purcell Enterprises Ltd.Purcell Enterprises Ltd.

firstbesafe@shaw.caQuestions: 780-951-0867Safety matters….because you matter.

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