Published 9 May 2023
What are Safety Inspection Checklists?
Safety inspection checklists are tools used by safety officers to perform critical safety examinations of a given workplace. They help to identify potential hazards that may cause injury and harm to employees and people onsite.
Safety Inspection Checklist
This safety inspection checklist can be used for general safety inspections of the workplace. It includes items critical to the safety and security of employees:
- Emergency equipment
- Unobstructed pathways (aisles & stairways)
- Adequate lighting in work areas
- Sanitation and cleanliness
- Share reports by exporting as PDF, Word, Excel or Web Link
In this article
- Why Use a Workplace Safety Inspection Checklist?
- Safety Self Inspection Checklist
- Importance of Data in Workplace Safety
- How Using Workplace Safety Software can Improve Your Workplace
- SafetyCulture Marketplace: Your One-Stop Work Gear & Equipment Shop
- Workplace Safety Inspection Checklist Tool
- Workplace Safety Inspection Checklists
Why Use a Workplace Safety Inspection Checklist?
Safety inspections conducted using workplace safety inspection checklists can help thoroughly assess the safety of the site and proactively address hazards that could lead to costly but preventable work-related incidents. With the use of safety inspection checklists, workplace safety inspectors should examine all activities and variables that could pose safety hazards. Each workplace should tailor their safety inspection checklist for the given environment:
- Construction Site: focus on PPE, fall protection, electrical hazards, and communication protocols.
- Office Environment: focus on fire safety, emergency evacuation, and ergonomics.
- Warehouse & Factories: focus on PPE, racks and shelving, manual handling, forklifts, and signage.
Safety Self Inspection Checklist
Employee safety is the responsibility of employers, especially when in the vicinity of the workplace. Employees, however, can also further ensure their own safety by developing safe working practices and consistently following protocols that address safety concerns. Aside from that, workers can also utilize safety self inspection checklists in order to not miss a critical safety assessment from their end.
Importance of Data in Workplace Safety
A well run health, safety, and environment (HSE) program is crucial to building a safe working environment. To support HSE efforts, you need a rich safety database that will help in conducting well informed workplace risk assessments and addressing safety issues before they result in workplace incidents.
An HSE program heavy on paperwork slows down resolution of workplace safety reports and hinders you from making the most of available safety data. It can also cause difficulties in engaging employees to proactively report safety issues, delays in getting the necessary corrective actions done on time, and trouble making sense of all the data you have.
How Using Workplace Safety Software can Improve Your Workplace
Through technology such as the SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) workplace safety software, you can enable workers to easily document safety issues, streamline workplace safety management, and grow an information-rich workplace safety program. With a modernized workplace safety program, this is what your future HSE program can look like with the SafetyCulture workplace safety software:
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More employees get involved in workplace safety.
With an efficient mobile safety inspection software, it is easier to encourage employees to send safety reports, thus helping increase their engagement with your workplace safety management. The workplace safety software enables them to conveniently report workplace safety issues with only their mobile device—no more pens, papers, and cameras. The technology lets them skip paperwork (a common hindrance for them to submit reports), easily complete digital checklists, and generate reports instantly with just a few taps.
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Employees respond to safety reports faster.
Through more organized and scalable workflows, resolution of workplace safety reports is fast-tracked as notifications are automatically sent to responsible personnel. These notification alerts help inform them immediately of the remedial actions needed to be implemented. With this, you are able to implement prompt corrections when they matter the most.
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Managing completion of assigned tasks becomes easier.
The workplace safety software helps you see which actions have been completed, are in process, or overdue through a central dashboard. You’re no longer scrambling to contact people and constantly following up on the status of their tasks.
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You no longer worry about losing critical safety information.
You’re able to save crucial real estate inside the office as you’re able to lessen piles of dusty file binders and shift to more convenient digital storage. With the workplace safety software’s cloud storage auto-sync feature, you can be confident that your data is safe and focus more on further improving employee safety. -
Employees become more proactive in managing workplace incidents.
With the support of the workplace safety software, you’re making better proactive safety decisions as you have the power of data in your hands. You leverage data to have a better pulse of your workplace’s safety performance and easily create strategies for areas that need improvement.
SafetyCulture Marketplace: Your One-Stop Work Gear & Equipment Shop
Improve safety in your workplace with SafetyCulture Marketplace as your one-stop shop for all work gear and equipment needs. Get on-demand access to top quality and specialized work gear from trusted equipment brands in the industry—all in one centralized location. Raise the bar of safety and efficiency by empowering employees to request what they need with just a few taps, anytime and anywhere!
Workplace Safety Inspection Checklist Tool
A Workplace Safety App is a mobile tool that helps streamline the gathering and organization of critical occupational safety data. It enables employees to easily report safety issues and hazards, thus effectively helping them and top management make better and faster safety decisions.
SafetyCulture (iAuditor) is a powerful inspection software and app used across multiple industries to easily create customizable safety inspection checklists that anyone in a safety team can use. Utilizing workplace safety checklists on SafetyCulture can help significantly improve your workplace safety program and ensure healthy environment by simplifying the safety reporting process for your employees:
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Less paperwork & better workflow
Replace workplace safety reporting paper forms with smart, mobile-friendly checklists via a workplace safety app to save time and ensure information consistency of workplace safety inspection data. -
Keep all your data in one place
Automatically store a secure record online of every inspection conducted and every corrective action taken for easy sharing and access. -
See the big picture
Visualize data from workplace safety reports and easily spot and take action on trends that matter the most. Identify common failures so that you can take action and prevent future issues from happening.
With SafetyCulture, workers can capture photo evidence of safety hazards with corresponding notes for corrective action that you can assign and submit comprehensive safety inspection reports on-the-spot. Employers can also schedule recurring safety inspections and use data gathered overtime for the continuous improvement of workplace safety.
We have created a collection of the best workplace safety inspection checklists for different work environments that you can download for free.
Workplace Safety Inspection Checklists
Workplace Safety Checklist
A workplace safety checklist is a tool used by safety officers to inspect the general building and office workplace environments. It helps assess overlooked safety facilities including floors, lighting, stairways, aisle, and emergency equipment. It also checks the sanitation and security of the workplace.
Workplace Safety Inspection Checklist - Construction Site
This workplace safety inspection checklist is used to assess safety hazards within a construction site. Perform a general site safety walk of your construction site and examine hazards across key areas—PPE, scaffolding, emergency evacuation, signage and toolbox talk processes. Include photo evidence of safety hazards identified on site.
Workplace Inspection Checklist Template - Office
An office workplace inspection checklist is used to assess safety risks that office workers are exposed to. It involves the examination of an offices’ emergency evacuation, security, accessibility, fire safety, hygiene facilities, and ergonomics.
Workplace Inspection Checklist - Warehouse
Use this workplace inspection checklist to identify safety hazards in a warehouse and manufacturing facility. Common warehouse safety hazards include racking and shelving, aisle accessibility, emergency procedures, forklift use, etc. Use this workplace inspection checklist to capture photos of hazards and assign corrective actions.
Site Safety Inspection Checklist - Safety Walk
This site safety inspection checklist is used to thoroughly assess possible safety hazards of a workplace. This template includes all the areas of the site starting with the surrounding environment, work areas, and emergency exits and procedures.
Workplace Safety Risk Assessment Form
A workplace risk assessment form is used to identify safety risks found in a workplace and prioritize corrective action. This risk assessment form guides the safety officer to perform the following:
- Observe tasks being performed onsite which may be a risk to workers
- Provide a detailed description of the task and hazard and capture photo evidence of the activity
- Assign an overall risk rating (High, Medium, Low)
- Select appropriate control measures and include recommendations
Safety Observation Form
Safety observation forms are used to identify hazards in the workplace. Provide details of the hazard and the appropriate control measure needed. Use visual aids to help safety officers such as the image of hierarchy of controls included in this safety observation form.