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Onsite or Remote – Finding The Right Kind of Health and Safety Audit

What’s The Right Health and Safety Audit For Your Business

A health and safety audit can be a key tool in keeping your business compliant with the latest legal requirements. A health and safety audit can help you identify any areas of concern before they become big issues. However. they can also highlight areas where your business excels. That’s why it’s important to regularly conduct a health and safety audit. But what kind of audit is the best for your business?

Like many businesses, you’ll likely have had a more traditional health and safety audit. One where an auditor attends your premises. However, you may not be familiar with a remote health and safety audit. In fact, you may not even know that different kinds of audits are available. Let alone being aware of the difference between them.

Both types of audits have their own strengths and weaknesses. Both can be used at any point, however one may be more viable than the other for your business. To understand which is the best fit for your, it’s important to know how each health and safety audit is delivered. You also need to be aware of the various benefits and requirements of each type of audit. This ensures that you choose the type of audit that’s right for your business.

So, for those unsure of the difference between an onsite or remote health and safety audit, we asked our health and safety consultants to run down the benefits of each.

Onsite Audits

As mentioned, you’ll likely have already had an onsite health and safety audit in the past. The format and delivery is pretty straight forward. One of our health and safety auditors will attend your premises on a pre-agreed time and date and will conduct your audit. During the audit they’ll need access to all of your health and safety records and open access to your premises. Ideally, you’ll also have someone available to assist and guide them around your business.

This allows our health and safety auditor to ensure you have the right documents in place. It also gives them the opportunity to ensure that your health and safety policies, procedures and risk assessments are actually being adhered to.

Once completed, you’ll receive a detailed audit report. This will detail areas of non compliance, areas of excellence and areas where you can improve. The report will also grade any improvements so you can tell how urgent they are. Our team will even work with you and advise you fix any issues.

Remote Audits

A remote health and safety audit is very similar to an onsite one. In fact, for all intents and purposes, it’s looking to establish the same things. However, the big difference is in the delivery method. Unlike an onsite audit, in a remote audit one of our auditors won’t actually visit your premises. Instead, the remote audit is conducted using modern technology to access your premises without stepping foot on them.

Our consultants will then contact you on the date and time as agreed. Given the nature of a remote audit, you’ll be best taking the video call on a tablet or lightweight laptop that you can easily maneuver around your premises. You’ll also need constant access to a secure internet signal. We’d also recommend that you have all health and safety records, processes and procedures available. You may need to send these via email.

Just like with the onsite audit, you’ll then receive a detailed report.

Choosing The Right Audit

So which audit is the right one for you? Given the current COVID pandemic, many businesses are opting to use remote audits, however in some industries that just isn’t possible. The right audit is a matter of opinion and availability. However, it’s worth remembering that here at the ELAS Group, we’re experts at delivering both!

Discuss your auditing requirements with a health and safety expert today. Call our team on 08450 50 40 60 or complete the contact form and we’ll be in touch soon!