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It would be nice if we existed in a wonderful
land of sunshine and rainbows, where no
one ever got hurt and nothing ever went
wrong, but it only takes one look at the
news to know that’s not happening any time
soon.
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Things go wrong. It’s a part of life. Every
single day cars crash, printers malfunction,
roofs collapse and workplace injuries of all
shapes and sizes occur around the globe.
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Since incidents do happen, it’s a good idea
to be prepared for any situation that may
arise. It’s like when it rains—you can’t
control the weather, but you can sure carry
an umbrella.
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Whether you’re battling the weather or
workplace safety, being prepared is half the
battle. In this blog post we’ll outline how to
create an incident report to help ensure
your work environment is safe and you're
prepared when incidents inevitably occur.
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An incident report is a form used to record
the details of any event that caused or might
have caused injury, illness or damage to a
person or piece of company property.
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Incident report forms usually relate to an
accident or injury occurring in the
workplace, but can be used for a variety of
reasons, from near misses and property
damage to health and safety issues, security
breaches and workplace misconduct.
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The best thing about incident reports is that
they’re democratic. Any employee can fill one out
whether something has happened to them, they
have witnessed something happen to a co-worker,
or want to raise awareness about something they
think could be hazardous and lead to an incident
in the future.
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While the idea is simple to get your head around,
there are certain things you have to include if you
want to write an effective incident report. This
way you can ensure the safety, morale
and productivity of your employees.
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There are lots of features that combine to
make a well-written incident report. But the
first and most important is that you take
immediate action. Whether someone stubbed
their toe or a more serious workplace incident
has taken place, you need to write the report as
soon as the event occurs.
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By starting straight away you’ll get a more
accurate depiction of what happened from any
witnesses and victims. Not only that,
depending on where you live, there’s a chance
you’re legally bound to complete the incident
reporting process in a certain period of time.
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Once you start, there’s one word to keep in
mind: details.
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Your main responsibility when writing an
incident report is noting down every minute
detail you can think of. You know that
grandparent you have that takes three
hours to recount a story because they’re
bogged down in every little thing? That
needs to be you.
Here's a quick overview of the kind of details to
include:
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The type of incident
A general description of the incident (written as a
sequence of events)
The date and time of the incident
The full names and details of any witnesses and/or
victims
Witness statements
Any medical treatment required
Photo or video evidence of
evidence/damage/wrongdoing
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Speaking of law enforcement, remember that
you’re not there to hunt for suspects or lead a
witch hunt. It's not a police report. If someone
is at fault you can follow up in the future,
but when you’re writing your report it’s your job
to get an objective description of the incident.
That’s all.
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Plus, if you’re throwing accusations around
and looking for someone to blame, the chances
are your employees won’t want to participate
in the investigation or provide honest witness
statements.
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Concentrate on the facts and try not to get
caught up in feelings and opinions. People have
a right to be angry or upset when something
goes wrong, whether it’s a minor injury or
something more serious, but emotions tend to
obscure the truth.
An easy way to avoid inaccuracy is by sticking
to the essential questions - who, what, when,
why, where and how. These will probably ring
a bell from your childhood English class. Ask
not only the people who were injured or
involved, but also any witnesses that happened
to be at the location of the incident.
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Be sure to include plenty of photos, videos, diagrams
and even illustrations as evidence. Smartphones make
this easy, so there's no excuse. Take photos of the injury,
the damage, the guy standing around sipping his latte—
anything and everything.
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Visual evidence trumps most other forms of recordkeeping because it’s nearly impossible to argue with.
People can rescind statements or fight over the details of
what happened, so it helps to have things on camera. It’s
a safety net for both you and your employees.
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The icing on the cake of a good incident report is
validation. No, not the kind where someone says you
look nice. This is where you get everyone involved in the
incident (e.g. victims, witnesses, managers, human
resources etc.) to sign off on the report. By doing so
they’re validating that, as far as they know, the incident
report is completely accurate.
To sum that all up in easy-to-digest dot
points, when writing your incident
report you should make sure it’s:
 Detailed
 Factual
 Objective
 Supported
 Validated
by visual evidence
Why Is Correct Incident Reporting So
Important?
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When done correctly incident reports
promote, encourage and improve workplace
safety. They help your business stand out
from the pack by creating a safe working
environment and a great culture for your
employees to work and flourish in. This
happens in a few ways.
Discouraging improper actions
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Incident reports encourage or discourage
actions when they happen. Let’s say one of
your employees on a job site forgot to wear
the correct personal protective equipment
(PPE). By documenting and reporting the
details you can figure out what measures
need to be taken and how it can be avoided
next time.
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Through the incident reporting process you
highlight the seriousness of what has taken
place - even if someone hasn’t been hurt. This
acts as a reminder to other employees that
safety is serious, and events need to be
reported no matter the outcome.
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Of course there is also the additional benefit of
making sure that correct medical treatment is
offered as soon as possible. Having staff aware
of incident reporting processes increases the
chance of proper first aid being administered
immediately.
Hazard awareness
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Incident reports also call attention to potential
threats, risks and hazards and put them on the
radar of all employees within your organization.
Doing so allows you to put measures in place to
prevent or mitigate danger as much as possible.
This makes incident reporting a particularly
important tool for high-risk construction,
manufacturing and mining industries.
Even offices, where seemingly the
biggest ‘danger’ is the local café
running out of almond milk, can be full
of potential threats like loose cables,
faulty machines and equipment, poor
employee behaviour and incorrect
PPE.
Making sure your incident reporting
system is correct helps you understand
hazards, put procedures in place to
deal with them and teaches employees
to spot threats and deal with them as
soon as possible.
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A good incident report shows what your organization
needs to focus on fixing. It gives you insights into
processes that need to change, improve or be kicked to
the curb. Maybe you need to implement new policies
and regulations. Maybe you need to train your
employees in certain skills, or provide them with
better equipment.
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Whatever the case, with a proper incident report
you’ll be able to assess your needs and adapt your
processes depending on what findings you make. Once
you’ve done this, you’ll be able to assess how these
changes have contributed positively or negatively to
the safety and quality of the workplace.
As you can imagine there’s a huge
array of incidents that should be
reported. This includes everything
from fatalities and minor injuries
to property damage and things
that didn't actually happen at all.
If you’re serious about workplace
safety (which of course you are) all
employees, managers and safety
supervisors need to be aware of
incidents that have to be reported.
Injury Incident Report
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matter what you do, sometimes
injuries happen that require on-site
treatment or a trip to the hospital.
Most of the time things will be sorted
with a band-aid from the first aid kit
and workers can return to work
immediately, but sometimes more
serious injuries occur.
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Whether it’s a minor injury or major injury,
it’s vital that you create a comprehensive
incident report. If you work in an industry
that’s vulnerable to physical injuries of all
kinds, like construction, you better get used to
filling these in.
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When creating an injury incident report,
concentrate on a description of the incident,
try to include lots of photos and record
whether proper PPE gear and protocols were
followed.