A health and safety audit refers to a proactive approach that ensures whether the health and safety management systems prevail in an organisation and are used effectively. It is a planned audit to examine occupational health and safety compliances and standards. The

importance of safety audits includes -

●  Assessing the health and safety of any organisation

●  Point out areas of improvement

●  Analysing the work conditions

●  Management’s policy for organisational safety

●  Adequacy of audit processes

Benefits of Safety Audit

The safety audit advocates the existence of risk control, and compliance management systems help us know whether the necessary precautions are in place. There are numerous benefits that a safety audit reaps and few of them are enumerated as under:

●  Ensuring compliances related to health and safety

●  Correcting weaknesses and deficiencies in the system

●  The employees become aware of environmental laws and work accordingly

●  Improving operational efficiency

●  Costing and budgeting for the reduction in costs

●  Ensuring best practices in the workplace

Types of Safety Audits

HSE Audit helps to identify the red flags before any major crisis occurs. There are three types of safety audits for evaluating the safety system in any business organisation. They are differentiated based on their scope, which is as follows:

● Compliance audits

This is the most basic type of safety audit. Compliance audits emphasise whether your organisation adheres to the safety standards prescribed by-laws, procedures, rules, and regulations concerning safety and other related requirements. The rules of the country play an essential role in establishing the standards.

The compliance audit considers whether the workplace is free from the risk of any haphazard and is safe. Necessary steps should be undertaken so the organisation can minimise the occurrence of unsafe acts.

● Program audits

The person who conducts such types of audits should be aware of Program audits, which focus on the implementation aspect of the programs for ensuring safe operating procedures. It may include recording any unexpected accidents, the method for investigating the root cause, and then making changes in the existing policies.

Program audit in simple terms means to keep a check on whether the organisation implements its strategy and follows the sops laid down by them. The exposure should be minimised, and the procedure for evaluating any hazard should be standardised and clearly defined.

● Management system audits

Also known as an overall audit, which keeps a check on the program audit and compliance audit. It is considered the final step of the audit process to validate the risk control procedures and ensure that safety compliance is adequate. It is regarded as an integrated audit process that confirms whether the safety programs link with the company’s practices and objectives. It draws the overall picture of the audit program.

Conclusion

Thus, audits play a vital role in ensuring consistency in safety management programs. We can conclude that an efficient EHS system and compliance management software helps in monitoring the audit function. Kiri Align is a custom EHS system that helps conduct hassle-free health and safety audits for various business operations, assets, and sites.

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