Auditing has always been an important part of business success, but the recent and ongoing surge in regulations is making it a necessity that is more easily recognised. When auditing is internal and strictly used for company integrity, there can be more of a propensity for slacking. But when outside pressures are brought to bear, which carry the possibility of very steep fines and penalties, there is all the more reason to make sure that you’re compliant.
In this article we look at how companies can improve business and protect employees by auditing for work health and safety.
Safe, Not Sorry
There are a variety of benefits derived from running a tighter ship through better auditing, but one of them deserves to be at the top of the list: Work Health and Safety. Maintaining a healthy and safe work environment means healthier and safer employees, which means less sick days, better productivity, and a better employment experience overall.
Beyond those common-sense benefits, creating and maintaining a healthy and safe workplace serves the same purposes as any other kind of compliance – one of which is avoiding lawsuits. Litigation over health and safety issues is out of hand. We’ve all seen news stories about some customer that purposely slips and falls inside a business in order to sue them. There are also plenty of similar lawsuits that are valid.
The potential for harm or injury is everywhere if we look hard enough. A sharp corner, a loose rug, or an assembly line action that’s taken for granted. It’s every business’ responsibility to do their due diligence, in discovering and rectifying any potential causes of harm or injury that their employees might be subjected to during their work day.
More Than Money
So in the age of regulation in which we live, it’s only right and fitting that a block of regulations are made for the protection of the humans involved in a business, and not just the accounts of the business and shareholders. After all, without a healthy group of people to perform the jobs involved in making the business run, there is no business.
Staying out of trouble and avoiding expensive lawsuits shouldn’t be our only motivators in auditing for health and safety concerns. We’re all people, and we should all do our best to help other people when and where we can. It’s just being neighbourly. But for any of you Scrooge types out there that don’t care about being neighbourly, there’s still the fines and lawsuits to motivate you in making sure your people are safe at work.
Audit Protection
Auditing protects your business in several ways. First and foremost, it aids in avoiding incidents in the first place. If a rug is found to be loose and is made secure and checked going forward, the guy from purchasing will never have the misadventure of tripping over it. Which means he won’t get hurt and he won’t sue the company for safety negligence.
Secondly, your audits provide protection from unsubstantiated claims. When you have a record that the rug was checked twice daily and never reported as loose, the guy who claims he tripped over it when no one was around to see loses some credibility. But that kind of strict auditing and record keeping only comes from the right compliance solutions and auditing software, like Compliance Checkpoint.
Compliance Experts provide clients with access to the Compliance Checkpoint Software Technology, which is complimented by our Professional Auditing and Consulting services. This is our unique point of difference. To learn more, visit our website or download the 30 Day Free Trial of Compliance Checkpoint.
