The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration can,
and will, audit the facilities and work environments of any company where there is a real or
perceived danger to employees or the general public. To help employers understand their
responsibility in safety and health management, OSHA has created a series of standards which
cover everything relating to health and wellness. This includes things like lockout tagout
procedures, evacuation plans, safety signage, etc. And if your company does not follow these
standards, you are exposed to citations and fines, and will be given a period of time to correct
these issues.
Some standards require third party audits on a regular basis. But most do not. In theory, a
company could manage and maintain all of their policies and procedures relating to occupational
safety and health in-house if they wanted to. Most, however, opt for help from third party
occupational safety and health auditing firms. And the most common way these companies
utilize these firms is with third party safety audits.
A good third party safety audit will provide a complete, wall-to-wall review of your operations.
With the information gathered by the auditor, an action plan will be created, highlighting areas of
opportunity or hazards overlooked, and ways to correct them. This will help ensure a facility is
always up to code based upon then current OSHA standards. This action plan can also be used as
a tool to rewrite and rebuild plans, and coach employees on proper workplace safety.
If you have any questions about third party safety audits or how to schedule a third party safety
audit, please contact us. If you have anything to add about the importance of regular third party
safety audits, please leave a comment.
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