So how often should you carry out in house checks?

In short, this will need to be decided following the completion of a risk assessment. Now, don’t be put off already. We all carry out risk assessments in our daily lives, we are just not aware of it. After all, how long ago did you put something out of harms way for instance? You identified the hazard as a potential risk and did something about it.

The main difference is you now need to analyse and identify potential risks occurring in the time between your safety checks and write them down on paper. Remember, you do not have to be a health and safety expert. If you are a forklift operative or warehouse supervisor, then you have already proven yourself to have a good understanding and observational skills to carry out your own daily duties.

Still confused?

First of all, lets define the word ‘risk assessment’.

This is a process to identify potential hazards and analyse what could happen if the hazard occurred.

There may be numerous hazards to consider. For each hazard, you will need to consider a risk factor. To identity the frequency of the in house checks you will need to consider a number of key factors, for example:

Do you have a procedure in place for reporting and documenting damage by warehouse operatives?
Just remember, once you have completed your risk assessment and have decided on the frequency of the checks, you can then decide to lengthen the frequency should you need to.

Depending on the key factors above, you may wish to air on the side of caution and commence daily / weekly checks to begin with.

Now all you require to determine the frequency of in house checks are those good observation skills and a little common sense.