Your workplace has been given notice you’ll be having a visit from Occupational Health and Safety, WorkSafeBC, Minister Of Labour, etc!
What next?
They may be coming as a result of a safety blitz, random checks, an anonymous complaint, or following up from a serious incident/near miss.
Regardless of why they are coming, preparedness is the key. Based on our experience with hundreds of official site visits we’ve compiled the six most common items they’ll be looking for and our three top tips to get through a safety enforcement officer visit to your workplace with ease.
Preparing for your visit
Below are the top six consistently requested items from safety enforcement, but remember this list is by no means exhaustive.
- Signage – Identifiers are required: who’s in charge? contact info, physical address of the workplace, Emergency Response Plans, and First Aid location.
- Knowledge - They’ll ask questions and expect you to know the answers right away – how many workers do you have on-site today? Would you be able to produce documentation of how many people to evacuate in the event of an emergency? A digital system such as our Work Site Sign-In Digital Safety Module will have you covered
- Inspections – prove a pattern of formal safety inspections exists. Bonus points if your workplace inspections have been posted in a high traffic area for staff to see.
- Safety documents: You will be asked to provide several forms of safety documentation. One of which will be hazard assessments. Construction: records of daily assessments Hospitality: be able to provide proof of formal hazard assessments for each department.
- Orientations – Common question safety enforcement will ask “have all workers been given a safety orientation”? Each Province will have slightly different elements that this needs to contain but the fact each worker/visitor/contractor needs one will not.
- Legislation – Have a copy of your relevant Legislation available for workers to reference. This is not Province specific; this applies to every jurisdiction.
There are many other items and documents an officer can ask for confirmation on, especially if they are there as a follow-up to something specific.
Be cooperative, honest, and be willing to take their advice.
After all, they have the same end goal in mind, which is to help businesses make their workplaces safer for every worker.
Knowledge is POWER. Give your supervisors and managers the training to understand what is required and the confidence to provide the safety officer with all the evidence they need. Our Safety for Supervisors Online safety training is a quick and economic way to be prepared.
Top Tips
- Ensure a person is selected to meet them who is knowledgeable on the safety program and can answer their questions. They could be there anywhere from 1-3 hours.
- Do not try to make up or create documents at this time. This will never end well.
- Finally, relax. A large volume of their workplace visits are educational and serve in helping employers with compliance.