As part of every incident investigation, the employee’s supervisor or manager should provide a statement. This is important for the validity of every claim. When taking the statement, ensure to have the manager to include anything relevant from before the accident, a knowledge of near misses, past incidents with this employee, any behavior by the […]
There are many problems associated with investigating accidents in the workplace. Seven common problems that you may encounter while investigating accidents: Accuracy. Accuracy is a real problem when you are trying to get to the bottom of an incident or an accident. The people that you interview have not been trained to be observant or […]
Any professional in the safety & security industry, is probably familiar with writing reports. Writing reports isn’t just a one and done occurrence. Report writing is absolutely essential to successful investigations and case management. This post will explore the purposes and importance of reports as well as provide tips for beginning report writers to refine […]
When an accident happens in the workplace, it is critical to conduct an accident investigation to determine the root cause of the events that led to the accident or injury. The point of the investigation should never be to assign blame, but rather to uncover the factors that led to accident so you can take […]
In any organization with a system for reporting accidents and incidents, there is always the risk of underreporting or overreporting. This discrepancy can significantly reduce the effectiveness and reliability of the reporting process. Accurate reporting is crucial because you can’t address issues that you aren’t aware of, and often, “near misses” serve as early warnings […]
It is important that action items are tracked and assigned or delegated to responsible parties. Unassigned action items are useless as they will most likely never be completed. This form will help you track, delegate, and follow-up on all corrective actions that result from an investigation. Steps to a quality corrective action plan State the […]
In the course of an investigation, it may be necessary to collect statements from employees that witnessed the accident. These forms are also helpful for any other investigation. This form is a small piece of a total program and proper investigation. The witness statement is a powerful piece of an investigation, as it can reveal […]
One of the key business success factors that I have followed throughout the years is that of always trying to determine the root cause of any business problem. I focus on the root cause because anything less than that will not allow you to solve the problem completely. The reason that this is important is […]
Workplace accidents cost companies approx $1 billion weekly in direct worker’s compensation costs, with an estimated $3 billion weekly in indirect costs! A quality accident investigation program can reduce workplace injuries by properly identifying hazards that have caused an injury, and taking appropriate actions to eliminate those workplace hazards. So what does OSHA […]
Part of a quality incident investigation program is properly training for those tasked with investigating after an accident. This training is geared for beginners, to get a foundation in incident investigation techniques. As skills grow I have more advanced investigation trainings available. This training covers fundamentals of incident investigation such as: the importance of root […]