The importance of a facility walkthrough is often regarded as something businesses, and employees should do on an optional basis, making it seem far less significant than it is. It’s important to understand the difference between a walkthrough, an inspection and an audit. Although the definition varies slightly by company, here are some general explanations of the terms:

  • Audit - a structured process whereby information is collected relating to the efficiency, effectiveness, and reliability of a company's total health and safety management system
  • Inspection - a formalized and properly documented process of identifying hazards in the workplace.
  • Walkthrough/walkaround - a worker or supervisor observing work taking place, inspecting the workplace, and discussing the safe performance of work with staff. The focus of a walkthrough should be positive, building team work and safety awareness rather than simply pointing out problems.

A walkthrough, also known as a walkaround or walkaround observation, allows businesses and their employees to understand better the work environment, its surroundings and the risks they are exposed to if not carefully instructed about how the work areas should be handled.

With The Checker Software, you can easily document everything from your walkthrough using our Observation Reporter feature. It’s simple, quick and will help you retain all of the information gathered during your walkthrough.

In most situations, when starting a walkthrough, you should always take into account the following steps:

Do a Pre-Inspection

While sometimes a pre-inspection may seem like going a little too far, it is necessary to make everybody understand what they should do when they find themselves in a particular area of the working facility.

This step is similar to a training exercise where the worker is taught what the focus should be on what, how and why the walkthrough is held. It's the step where everybody learns the concept and gets familiar with the working environment.

People get the chance to talk with one another and to listen to safety specialists on what the best practices of the specific field are and how they can better acknowledge them.

The Walkthrough Tour

When starting the walkthrough of the facility, be sure to limit the size of walkthrough groups. A limited number of people is more efficient when it comes to taking the tour. More often than not a single person may conduct the walkthrough on their own depending on the size of the facility.

In larger groups, people tend to lose their focus and get bored faster, due to the long waiting periods and the slow movement flow throughout the entire facility. Remember, less is more!

Point Out the Importance of the Facility

After finishing the walkthrough, be sure to emphasize the role this tour plays for the safety of each employee while entering the facility. Make oral bullet points (you can even ask people to write them down) about the key findings and elements that people have learned during the walkthrough.

Be sure to answer all the questions and offer all the necessary details required by each walkthrough participant. Information is King!

Draw Conclusions 

As the last step of a successful walkthrough, you will need to draw crystal clear conclusions that everyone will understand and remember. Ask the right questions and try to help everybody in finding the correct answers if they can't come up with it straight away.

Make the most important elements of the walkthrough stand out by starting short scrum sessions about them so they will stick in people's minds. 

Takeaway

By following these guidelines regarding the importance of the walkthrough, you will easily help people understand where the focus should be placed and what information is most important when conducting a walkthrough

If you're interested in learning more about using The Checker Software for walkthroughs, be sure to contact us, right here, or drop us a line with your questions on our official website.

Tags: why inspect?, safety management, safety awareness, workplace safety, audit software

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