Hazard report form template for Australian worksites

What a hazard form should capture

Most forms fail the same way. They ask for a lot and get little back. Or they ask for the wrong things, and a supervisor rings three people to find out where it was. A short form with the right fields gets filled in. So does a form that tells the reader why each question is there, which is why the trade pages explain theirs.

• Report number
• Date and time you saw it
• What the hazard is, in your own words
• Exactly where it is
• Immediate control: barrier, tag, isolation or area cleared
• Who you told, and when
• Priority
• Action to fix it

Why the follow-up fields matter

A report that nobody closes is worse than no report, because the worker who raised it now knows it went nowhere. The last block of the form is for the supervisor: a priority, an owner, a due date and a close-out. It turns a note into a job. Keep the dates on it, too. A due date nobody can see is a wish, and a close-out date is how you show the worker that raised it that something happened.

Paper, spreadsheet or voice

Paper works until the clipboard gets wet. A spreadsheet works until the person who reports a hazard is on a roof. Speaking works in both places. In Haznote the worker describes the hazard, takes a photo and sends it, with the location from the phone attached. A manager confirms the category and priority.

Pick your trade

A hazard on a roof isn’t the same as one in a warehouse aisle. Each trade page below lists the hazards that trade actually meets and the extra questions worth asking, with its own template.