Most safety programs fail an audit not because the documents are missing but because the documents stopped describing the work years ago. This self-assessment measures that gap directly: twenty questions about what is written, answered against what actually happens.
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Score each question: 0 no · 1 partly, or only sometimes · 2 yes, and I could prove it today. Maximum 40.
| # | Question | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Could you produce your written safety program right now, in under five minutes, in its current version? | ||
| 2 | Has anyone other than the person who wrote it read it in the past twelve months? | ||
| 3 | Do the procedures describe how the work is actually done, rather than how it was done when they were written? | ||
| 4 | Can a front-line worker find the procedure for their task without asking a manager? | ||
| 5 | If you asked three workers how a high-risk task is done, would you get the same answer? | ||
| 6 | Are there known workarounds that everyone uses and no procedure mentions? | ||
| 7 | Are your hazard assessments specific to your site, rather than a template with your name inserted? | ||
| 8 | Has a hazard assessment been updated because the work changed, in the past year? | ||
| 9 | Do your inspection findings get assigned to a named person with a date? | ||
| 10 | Do those findings actually close, and does someone verify they closed? | ||
| 11 | Are near misses reported by workers without a manager having to chase them? | ||
| 12 | When something is reported, does the person who reported it hear what happened next? | ||
| 13 | Do investigations reach a system cause, rather than stopping at “worker did not follow procedure”? | ||
| 14 | Could you produce any individual worker’s training record within five minutes? | ||
| 15 | Do you know which certifications expire in the next ninety days without going to look? | ||
| 16 | Has a worker stopped a job on safety grounds in the past year, and was that person supported afterwards? | ||
| 17 | Do supervisors have time in their day to do the safety duties their job description lists? | ||
| 18 | Does your joint committee change anything, or does it record that nothing changed? | ||
| 19 | Do contractors on your site work under your safety expectations in practice, not just in the contract? | ||
| 20 | Did last year’s management review change a single thing about how work is done? | ||
| Total (out of 40) |
| Total | What you have | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 13 | A binder | The program exists as a document and not much else. An inspector will find the gap in the first hour. |
| 14 – 25 | A program with drift | Real in places. The written and the actual have diverged and nobody has reconciled them. |
| 26 – 34 | A working program | It runs. The remaining gaps are usually verification and closing the loop with workers. |
| 35 – 40 | A managed program | Documented, practised and improving. Ready for external audit. |
Have a supervisor and a front-line worker complete the same twenty questions independently. Record the questions where your answers differ most.
| Q# | Manager score | Supervisor score | Worker score | What the gap tells us |
|---|---|---|---|---|
This resource is general guidance, not legal advice. Confirm every requirement against the current regulation in your jurisdiction before relying on it.