The company Predictive Solutions recently published a White Paper on Safety Inspections, containing four truths of inspections.

Safety truth #1

More inspections predict a safer workplace.

After a detailed analysis of the data, a clear pattern emerged, the higher the volume of inspections, the fewer the number of injuries and incidents. If your site is experiencing high incident rates, get onsite with your checklist and do more inspections.

Safety truth #2

More inspectors coming from outside the safety function predict a safer workplace.

Research show the probability of having an incident decreases as the number of diversity of the people performing inspections increases. If you have increased your number of inspections but are not seeing improvements in injury prevention, get more people, and people outside of safety, involved in your inspection program.

Safety truth #3

Too many “100% safe” inspections predict an unsafe worksite.

If most inspections are returning 100% safe information, your organization may be “flying blind.” This means the worksite is at high risk of have an incident, but the inspectors are either not seeing, or reporting, the leading indicator signs of those incidents.

Safety truth #4

Too many unsafe observations predict an unsafe worksite.

It’s obvious, a persistently high level of unsafe conditions is associated with a high level of incidents. Remember, you can have a strong inspection program, but fall short in making sure hazards are brought to closure.