The Difference Between Safety Audits and Inspections

It’s easy to get confused between a safety audit, and a safety inspection. While they both make sure that operations are carried out as safely as possible, they are not the same thing. Understanding the difference can help provide your business with the type of safety management it needs.

Safety inspections:

• Observe workplace practices and determine whether there is any aspect to operations that is unsafe
• Identify existing and potential hazards
• Establish the procedures to eliminate these hazards, or otherwise guard/protect against them
• Examine equipment and determine whether safeguards are sufficient
• Are conducted by internal personnel or someone who otherwise is familiar with operations; care should be taken to ensure employees don’t inspect their own work area or department

Safety audits:

• Evaluate how effective the inspection process is
• Analyze current safety systems, including the employee training program, that detect hazards and eliminate, circumvent, or control these hazards
• Determine if the safety program meets the company’s goals (ex: reducing the occurrence of injuries)
• Are conducted by external personnel; an outsider’s perspective provides a more objective assessment of an established safety program

Ultimately, inspections focus on identifying and eliminating hazards and audits focus on overall safety management. To determine which needs to be conducted at your workplace, ask yourself: What do you need to focus on? Do you need to evaluate the existing and potential hazards, or do you need to evaluate the process which you’re already using to handle hazards? Both of these practices are crucial to your organization.

There are many ways to improve safety. Workplace inspections and workplace audits both have their place; you just need to understand which one is most appropriate and how to make the most out of your findings.