Regular site inspections play an important role in protecting your employees, by allowing your organization to identify and remove hazards in the workplace. The inspection process also shows employees that your organization cares about their safety and wellbeing.
VRSA safety consultants, including two who previously worked for VOSH, can assist your organization in conducting a site inspection. Senior Safety Consultant Edward Shelton recently conducted an inspection for the City of Fairfax, providing a second set of eyes as they walked through their facilities.
“It shows our employees that we are vested in safety, and we’re making sure that we are following the rules – including OSHA and other guidelines,” said Kim Burgess, benefits and risk manager with the City of Fairfax.
“We can work with members on scheduling planned or unplanned inspections,” said VRSA Safety Specialist Edward Shelton. “With planned, we notify the departments of the date and time of the inspection – with unplanned, I work with the risk manager to inspect the workplace on a normal day without notice – much like how a VOSH inspection is conducted.”
Throughout the inspection, VRSA staff will walk through the workplace and ask questions about operations, employee exposure, activities taking place, and other pertinent information which can help in identifying hazards.
Following the inspection, the member will receive a report detailing the findings, along with a risk register, which allows members to track the abatement of hazards by assigning a “hazard owner” and an abatement date.
To prepare for the inspection, members need only contact their VRSA safety consultant. The consultant will take all the notes, photos, and conduct research for each specific hazard. The only thing that the member will need to do is to simply be present to help in answering questions regarding activities within the workplace.
“The most important thing – for us – at the end of the day, no matter what job the person is doing, is that they go home to their family,” said Burgess. “As always, working with VRSA is a joy, and we rely on them to help keep us safe.”
For more information on VRSA’s site inspections, contact your safety consultant.