HR & Staffing Office Administration Social Responsibility

The Significance of the Health and Safety Audit for the Workplace

Written by Alyssa Moylan

As times change, the requirements of all kinds of companies tend to evolve. So, to make sure that everything is done on point, it is important to undertake a health and safety audit on a regular basis. This process of regular auditing helps in keeping pace with the changing requirements of companies. It also helps to ensure a continued welfare for the betterment of the health and safety conditions of the employees of a business.

The Idea of a Health and Safety Audit

It is important to understand what the term health and safety audit actually means. Auditing is a process through which the business procedures and systems are managed in a well-planned, independent, and methodical manner with the help of proper documents. It is undertaken to aid in maintaining and managing the dynamic aspects of health and safety issues in a business. The prime focus of a health and safety audit is to ensure fair distribution of benefits of health and safety related backup to the employees of the business.

Reasons Why an Audit is Undertaken

The act of regular auditing is done in order to fulfil a series of targets. These targets are formed in order to fulfil the requirements, which tend to arise due to the business and it’s set goals and objectives. However, the amount of pressure and targets heavily depends upon the size and the area of work of the business is in. Here are the most basic factors, which are kept into consideration while going in for a health and safety audit.

  • To identify and bring out the strengths and the weaknesses in the current system of working of the business.
  • To check and understand how the system of the business is working.
  • For clarifying if the working suits the motive of attaining the targets set for the business or not.
  • To check if the business is well-equipped to sustain in the industry by fitting in all the odds of legal obligations.
  • To review if the changes made are able to bring in better results to the business or not.

Why is a Health and Safety Audit so Important for your Small Business?

The question that arises in most minds once the business is all set and is operating smoothly, why is a regular audit is so important? There are several reasons for it. Regular health and safety audits help in keeping pace with the dynamic factors, which run the business indirectly. Apart from that, these audits serve the business by highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. It also helps by ensuring the best possible working environment for it’s employees. Here are the prime reasons for which audits are important:

  • Aims to reduce the risk of personal trauma and injury to employees
  • For prevention of loss of miscellaneous materials from the business
  • For the promotion of the morale of the employees
  • For ensuring and bringing in the confidence of the customers

Further Benefits of Auditing:

  • It helps by providing the benefit of easy analysis why a particular mishap took place at the business. Strategy can be put in place to prevent future incidents.
  • It helps you to generate credentials.
  • The process of regular auditing saves money in the long run.
  • It helps by streamlining business processes so that they are regulation compliant.

A regular update of health and safety audit procedure actually helps in proper evaluation with the help of systematic appraisals of all the on-site processes. Timely audits help to recognise the areas, which require improvements. These regular updates and improvements, will in turn, help the business to deal with any legal hurdles and ensures the promotion of well-being and prosperity among the employees in the business.

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About the author

Alyssa Moylan

Alyssa Moylan is an ordinary woman from Australia, a writer by day and a reader by night. She writes on various topics like home and finance, business, lifestyle, health, travel and fashion. She likes to think of ways on how to solve daily life problems of people. Follow her on Google+ and Twitter.