This system must be adequate in covering the following elements:
- The health and safety work of the organisation as well as policy in any company.
- The process involved with the planning for prevention of accidents and illnesses.
- Line management responsibilities towards OHS, and
- Practices, procedures and resources for developing and implementing, reviewing as well as maintaining the occupational safety and health policies.
To ensure this is in place and that it is effective, organisations can have an occupational health and safety audit conducted. This can be achieved by doing an internal audit or as per the golden standard, having a SafetyWallet auditor conduct an external audit.
OHS audits evaluate and thoroughly examine a safety system or process. Auditing and performance reviews both form part of the final steps contained in the health and safety management control cycle.
Organisations must develop, enforce and maintain their ability to minimise, mitigate and reduce hazards and risks in the workplace. The final stage in the process is known as a feedback loop; it enables the organisation to ensure consistent effectiveness of the health and safety management system.
Audits may not be required by law, but employers are tasked with the legal responsibility to ensure that the work environment they provide is healthy, safe and free of both hazards and risks. Should hazards and risks exist and they cannot be minimised or eliminated, effective controls and measures should be in place to prevent injury, illness, disease and fatalities.
Audits are the best way through which an organisation’s level of compliance can be measured against the requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. They indicate how effective plans and components of the health and safety systems are and how they function.
Audits also provide an examination of the adequacy and effectiveness of management arrangements and risk control systems. 
How frequently must audits be conducted?
There is no stipulated audit frequency and thus, the frequency will depend on the organisation. It can, however, also be determined by the specific regulatory requirements and other ruling factors. However, best practice is that the frequency of audits can be determined by:
- Substantial changes that take place in the policies, management, technologies or techniques of the organisation that can affect OHS systems.
- Changes to the OHS systems.
- Results of recent or previous audits.
There is also no prescription regarding whether organisations must have an internal or external audit conducted. However, organisations often have more internal audits conducted and have an external audit conducted every year, or every few years.
However, when subscribing to SafetyWallet, you are subjected to an annual OHS compliance grading audit to ensure compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and for the compliance certificate to be issued, proving the subscriber’s compliance.
The annual audit is done as a result of new hazards that may occur due to changing conditions in the workplace, which may need to be addressed with certain control measures indicated in such an audit, as well as the review of these control measures’ effectiveness.
What are the responsibilities of the OHS auditor?
The SafetyWallet auditor has several responsibilities, some of which will include the following:
- Compliance with all applicable audit requirements and SafetyWallet protocols.
- The planning and carrying out of assigned responsibilities in a manner that is both effective and efficient.
- Documenting of any and all observations or findings.
- The reporting and representation of audit results.
- Verification on the effectiveness of corrective actions taken as a result of earlier audits conducted, if requested by the client.
- Retaining and safeguarding of documents that form part of the audit as well as treating privileged information with utmost discretion.
- Cooperation with and support of the lead auditor.
Why must OHS audit performance be reviewed?
Through the OHS audit conducted by SafetyWallet, management can ensure that policies are being adhered to and followed, and that they have the desired effect. Auditing also further serves to complement the monitoring programme.
There are distinct differences between auditing and inspecting, with auditing assessing the organisation’s ability to meet its own standards on a more in-depth front, rather than providing a ‘snapshot’ of a particular site, workplace, or premises’ compliance.
Audits look at the ‘software elements’ contained in health and safety along with:
- Systems of work.
- Management practices.
- Instructions
- Training
- Supervision
It also inspects more ‘hardware elements’ which include:
- Machine guarding.
- The use of PPE, and more.
What recommendations will the SafetyWallet auditor make?
During the audit feedback, when the auditor presents their findings and observations to the subscriber and their management team, they will also suggest improvements to the OHS systems. There are two types of recommendations that the auditor may have:
- For the requirements the organisation has towards their OHS system to be improved and for these to be implemented.
- For the subscriber to determine the extent, ways and means of actions to be implemented to improve their OHS system according to the auditor’s recommendations.
