Safety Inspections, Safety Walk-Around, Safety Walk-About, GEMBA Walk, Safety Walk… the process goes by many different names. However, the basis and benefit for conducting these routine safety walks are the same.
OSHA recently released a guidance document, , on conducting effective safety walks that improves hazard recognition and communication about identified hazards with employees.
Why conduct a safety walk? Two reasons:
- Demonstrate management’s commitment to improving safety and health in your facility by identifying and mitigating hazards, and
- Allow management the opportunity to see for themselves how the safety and health program is working and it’s effectiveness in identifying and eliminating hazards.
The document provides a brief overview on pre-inspection, inspection, and post-inspection practices that can be applied in virtually every working environment.