Ask the Auditor – MHCA advisor Q&A
A WORKSAFELY™ COR audit is a systematic process used to verify the performance of a health and safety management system, compared to an industry standard. The WORKSAFELY™ COR audit records, measures and presents the results of this verification.
Every year, as we at MHCA review internal audits we field a wide variety of questions from companies’ internal auditors. The audit process can be quite confusing. So, to help, below we answer three of the more common questions:
- When can points be split during the audit?
When completing the audit tool, the guidelines on the opposite page give details as to how points can be allocated per question and if they can be split. Partial points CANNOT be awarded unless stated by the guidelines. Once you’ve completed the audit, be sure to note upon final review that there should be NO blank spaces on any of the scoring sheets. All spaces in the scoring sheet must be filled in with a Ö, X, or N/A along with the appropriate score in the points column. Page 16 of the WORKSAFELY™ Audit tool gives further information on awarding points.
- Who has the final signing authority for the audit before it is submitted to MHCA for review?
The audit tool scoring summary, close-out meeting form, and corrective action plan MUST be signed by a SENIOR MANAGER or OWNER. This person must have the authority to spend money on the changes that are part of the corrective action plan, as well as assign workers/supervisors to tasks that need to be completed.
- I’m confused how to award points when tallying interview answers for both managers and workers.
The interview portion of the audit has 2 sets of questions, one for workers and one for supervisors/management. When tallying audit responses, be sure to check both sets of questionnaires for each audit question. If the question only appears in one questionnaire, the majority of answers for that question will indicate if it is a Ö or an X. If the question appears in both questionnaires, the positive and negative answers from workers AND supervisors/management must be tallied to give a Ö or an X. Remember, in the case of a tie for a question a Ö is awarded.
