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July 23, 2014

Manage Your Outside Inspectors – Excellent Advice From Former ex-OSHA Inspector

Latest posts by Atlantic Research Team (see all)

Every company is subject to many and various outside inspectors who regularly visit their locations. These inspectors are from the: insurance company, fire department, government safety agencies (e.g. OSHA), and even the corporate headquarters.

These many inspectors have great power and can: levy fines, increase insurance premiums or cancel your policy, generate mandatory fix-it recommendations that can cost lots of money to implement, and even impact your performance review. As the safety manager it’s your job to present your location in a favorable light, and to do what you can to reduce any adverse impact the inspection might have on your company.

Most inspectors have a lot of latitude as to how vigorously they apply their standards.  Please remember that these inspectors are people, just like you and I.  And as people, they can be influenced (for good or for bad) based upon how you treat them.

When I was going through the “Initial Compliance Course for Safety Officers” at the OSHA Training Institute I was told that if a company ever gives you a hard time and refuses an inspection, just get a search warrant and return and make “the most thorough inspection that you have ever made”.  Believe me, it does not pay to make an inspector angry.

Having been an “outside inspector” for decades, I found that I would usually “give companies the benefit of the doubt” and “give them a break” if they treated me nice.  It’s just human nature.

Here are a few easy things you can do to influence outside inspectors in a positive way:

This article retrieved from Safetyawakenings.com

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