Preparing for a WorkSafe or SafeWork Visit: A Practical Checklist

The inspector is at the gate. Your induction folder is in the other ute. The last toolbox talk in the book is fourteen weeks old. Someone asks where the asbestos register lives and three people point in different directions. You are not being “targeted”. You are being seen on an ordinary day, and the ordinary day is thin.

WorkSafe in New Zealand and WorkSafe or SafeWork regulators in Australia do not need a drama to visit. They can arrive after a complaint, an incident, a campaign, or because the site looks like it needs a look. Small workshops and reno teams get this wrong. They treat a visit as a clean-up week. Inspectors treat it as a picture of how you actually work.

HSWA 2015 and the model WHS Act give regulators powers to enter workplaces and ask for evidence that you are managing risk. This reflects that general intent. It is not legal advice. What follows is a practical checklist so a visit does not turn into a scavenger hunt.

What they are usually looking for

They are not looking for a perfect binder. They are looking for a system that matches the work. Can you name the serious risks? Can you show the control that is meant to manage each one? Can you show it is used? Can workers tell the same story without looking at you?

On a small site that usually means a short list: the work, the people, the plant, the substances, the emergency plan, and the conversation you have with the team. If those are real, the paperwork can be simple. If the paperwork is thick and the bay is a mess, the paperwork will not save you.

Expect questions in plain language. “Who is in charge today?” “What can hurt someone on this job?” “Show me the last time you talked about it.” “What happened when that guard failed?” “How do you know this person is trained for that saw?” You should be able to answer without a hunt through three USB sticks.

The 30-day tidy that is not a tidy

Do not wait for a letter. Run this once a month if you have changing sites, or once a quarter if the workshop is stable. It is cheaper than a week of panic.

1. Name the serious risks. Height, plant, electricity, vehicles, isolated work, hazardous substances, asbestos on older buildings. Write them in site words, not brochure words.
2. Match each risk to a control you can see. Edge, isolation, spotter, permit, register, rescue plan. If you cannot photograph it, it is not the control you think it is.
3. Find the live records. Inductions, toolbox talks, plant checks, licences, SDS, incident and near-miss notes, contractor details. Date of last entry matters more than the cover sheet.
4. Walk the workplace as a stranger. First-aid kit, fire extinguisher, exits, exclusion zones, chemical storage, the hole you have been stepping over.
5. Ask one worker three questions. What can hurt you today? What do we do about it? Who do you tell if it is wrong? If they shrug, the system is in the office only.
6. Close two open items. Not twenty. Two. A damaged lead, a missing SDS, an overdue hoist check. Leave the list visible.

That is preparation. It is also just running the place. If you only do it when you hear a rumour of a visit, you will always be late.

A pack you can put in one folder or one drive

Keep one current pack per workplace. Not a archive of 2019. Current. Label it so someone else can find it if you are on leave.

• Who the PCBU is, and who is in charge on site today, with a phone number.
• A one-page description of the work and the serious risks.
• The method or SSSP that matches this job, not last year’s job.
• The hazard register or risk assessments that are still true.
• Inductions for everyone on site this week, including labour hire and subbies.
• Recent toolbox or pre-start records, with actions closed or still open.
• Plant and equipment: register, last checks, licences, remaining life on gear that has one.
• Hazardous substances: inventory, current SDS, storage that matches the sheet.
• Asbestos or other hidden services information if the building or site needs it.
• Incident, near-miss, and notifiable event records, and what you changed after the last one.
• Licences and training for the tasks you actually run: height, forklift, electrical, confined space.
• Emergency plan: exits, assembly, first aiders, nearest hospital, rescue for the high-risk task.
• Worker participation: who the HSR is if you have one, and how people raise issues.
• Contractor details and the agreement about who controls what on a shared site.

If a document is out of date, mark it. Do not hide it under a new cover. Inspectors read dates.

If you already pull packs from Reports Builder, generate the current numbers the week before you need them, not the morning someone arrives. A live list is useful. A screenshot from last quarter is not.

What good looks like, and what fails

Good is slightly boring. The supervisor can walk the inspector to the edge, the SDS folder, and the last pre-start without a phone call. The apprentice can name the stop point for the hoist. The cracked lead from last month is gone. The open item board has two things on it, both with names. The story in the folder matches the story in the bay.

Fail is a performance. A folder built on Sunday night. Signatures for people who were not there. A risk register that still lists a site you left in March. A first-aid kit with dry tape and a 2018 dressing. A worker who looks at the owner before answering a simple question. A “we’re just about to update that” for every gap.

• Good: last toolbox talk was this week and it names today’s exposure.
• Fail: a stack of talks, all generic, none from this job.
• Good: plant check is on the machine or in the book, dated, and the fault was fixed.
• Fail: a laminated weekly check with every box ticked in the same pen.
• Good: you say “we don’t have that, here’s what we do instead.”
• Fail: you stall, guess, or hand over a document you have not read.

A two-bay workshop, Monday morning

Hypothetical. Two mechanics, one apprentice, a hoist, a parts washer, a half-empty SDS folder. Nobody has written to say a visit is coming. The owner runs the 30-day list on a Monday because the last incident was a near-miss with a prop that slipped.

He writes the serious risks in six lines: hoist failure, grinding without a guard, solvents, vehicles in the doorway, lone open-up, a customer walking into the bay. He photographs the hoist check, the guard, the solvent cabinet, the taped doorway line. He asks the apprentice the three questions. The apprentice knows the hoist stop. He does not know who the first aider is. That goes on the board. They replace two SDS sheets that expired. They find last Thursday’s labour-hire induction is missing a signature and fix it. The folder is thinner than it was. The bay matches it. If an inspector walks in on Wednesday, the owner is not hunting. He is showing the work.

How to behave if they arrive today

Be polite. Be direct. Do not guess. You can ask why they are there. You can ask to see identification. You can have a person sit with them. You should not hide people, hide gear, or start a sudden clean-up that looks like a cover-up.

Take them to the person who runs the work. Walk the job. If they want a document, get the current one. If you do not have it, say so, and say when you will produce it. Write down what they asked and what you showed. If they give a direction or a notice, read it before they leave. Ask what they expect by when. Then do that thing, or get advice if you are unsure. Do not argue about tone in the bay. Argue later, in writing, if you have a real point.

Talk to the team after. Tell them what was asked. Close the gaps you already knew about. A visit is information. Waste it and you will see the same gap next time, with less patience.

The checklist you can run this week

1. One page: work, serious risks, who is in charge today.
2. This week’s inductions and pre-starts, names real, actions owned.
3. Plant and licences for the kit that is on site now.
4. SDS and inventory that match the bottles on the shelf.
5. Emergency plan that a new person could follow at 7am.
6. Last incident or near miss, and the change you made.
7. Two workers asked the three questions without you in the room.
8. Two open items closed, the rest visible.
9. One folder or drive, labelled, that someone else can open.
10. A date for the next walk, in the diary, not in your head.

If you cannot tick half of those, you are unprepared for an ordinary visit. Start at 1 and 7.

Be ready on a normal day

An inspection is just a stranger asking you to prove the story you already tell the team. If the story is true, you can show it in half an hour. If it is not, no amount of Sunday printing will fix the bay. Keep one current pack. Walk the work. Ask the apprentice. Close two items. Do that on a quiet Monday and a visit becomes a conversation, not a raid.