Report It, Do Not Ignore It: Incident Reporting in the Workplace

Incident reporting applies to every person in the workplace, from employers, to employees, contractors, customers or visitors, and even the general public within the premises. These reports may vary if these incidents revolve around potentially dangerous fixtures, illness/fatalities, near misses, IT security breaches, and facility flaws in the work environment, to name a few. Everyone has an obligation to notify if a person/s in the workplace is exposed to an immediate risk. Filing a report does not only help alleviate, avoid risks and potential hazards, but it also helps in updating emergency procedures or protocol as to how to handle a specific incident and prevent it from happening again. Whether being a part of a small business or a large enterprise, it is best to stay ahead of any occupational injuries.

In the continuous effort to raise awareness in developing a safety culture in the work environment in our blogs, we would like to highlight that incident reporting is one of the elements that should come naturally, if not, a reflex almost.  Incidents and observations act as a reminder of possible hazards. Reporting them leads to monitor potential problems and root causes as they occur and hopefully, not recur. Managing directors, CEO’s and WHS coordinators are expected to address these in consultation with their staff. Data collected in these reports help improve the quality of safety and security to identify where additional support is required.

Any (and every) company should encourage employees to report and notify anything potentially harmful, now matter how little or how much it may affect people in the workplace. Especially for incidents that require further investigation, and/or resulted to severe damage or harm to the involved party, should be dutifully reported. It should also be imperative that any employee that is discovered to have been aware of a serious accident and failed to report or under report such incident will face disciplinary consequences.

But what should be reported? Listed below is some key information that can be gathered and recorded to report an incident:

• Location, date, and time (approximate).
• Details about the incident as to what transpired (details of injury or illness, description of series of events).
• The conditions at the time of the incident according to the involved party and/or witnesses and any control measures implemented.
• Information and conditions about the equipment or assets involved.
• Any photographic or video evidence collected.
• Actions taken before, during, and after the incident such as first aid, calling and/or correspondence of emergency services and other authorities onsite or offsite that may be involved, and records acquired.

The number of resources and templates to develop these reports are widely available online. Some even have guides and walkthroughs. We would also like to stress the importance of having staff that are consistently trained in emergencies specific to the facility and that the facility has a regularly updated emergency plan that includes not only the emergency procedures but also a detailed process of reporting and escalating an incident.

Our team of Safety Advisors at Workplace Emergency Management can manage your staff training and emergency plan needs. A wide range of training for emergency response, fire safety, and Nationally Recognised Courses can be offered to suit your staff training needs. We have been providing Emergency Management Services from small to large scale industries o various types. Our team will lay out all the recommended arrangements, procedures, personnel, strategies, and systems relating to emergencies in the workplace.

We will work with your team so that compliance and competence is achieved.

Do not hesitate to use our webform or call us at 02-8883-1694 to get in touch with us.