A screenshot from http://www.doli.virginia.gov/ media_room/annual_reports/2008/ annualreport_08.pdf

I don’t like checklists, especially when used to guide a safety professional’s hazard audit or inspection.  If you just look for what is on the paper, you will miss what is right in front of you. One of the best inspection tools is the “What If?” analysis – but I’ll save that for a later blog.

Nonetheless, check-lists do have their place. At Circle Safety, we sometimes use them during our OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 hour training sessions as handouts to be taken away and reviewed later. We also sometimes use them when Safety Mentoring, but only as “training wheels.”  And, they are helpful as a reminder for a step-by-step series of tasks, such as those I’ve created for our construction clients at “Setting up Site Safety.”

Oh, speaking of checklists.  The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry has just published their 2008 Annual Report.  In it you will find VOSH’s General Industry and Construction lists for their “25 Most Frequently Cited Standards” – follow the link just below the screenshot.  We recommend that you use these as a check-list!