Control measures should remain effective, be fit-for-purpose, be suitable for the nature and duration of the work and be implemented by workers correctly. Monitoring the performance of control measures will show you if your control measures are working effectively.
You should: – implement the appropriate means for workers to report incidents, near misses, or health and safety concerns – encourage appropriate reporting – avoid processes that may encourage under-reporting.
You must monitor workplace conditions and worker health so far as is reasonably practicable.
Monitoring can show you if your control measures are working effectively to reduce worker exposure: – Exposure monitoring can be used to find out if workers are potentially being exposed to a hazard at harmful levels. – Health monitoring is a way to check if the health of workers is being harmed from exposure to hazards while carrying out work and aims to detect early signs of ill-health or disease.
Seek the views of your workers and their representatives when making decisions about procedures for monitoring.
The findings of the monitoring are used in the following ‘ACT’ step to ensure the control measures in place are continually improved.
Act: Take Action on Lessons Learnt
You must regularly review the effectiveness of your control measures at scheduled times. All policies, processes and systems need a regular review date and review/audit process to check they’re followed and are still fit-for-purpose.
Investigate incidents and near misses to identify causes and what needs to change to prevent them from reoccurring.
Talk to your workers regularly to check if the control measures are effectively eliminating/minimising work risks.
Use the results of your ongoing worker conversations, reviews/audits, investigations and workplace/worker health monitoring to help you to continually improve the effectiveness of the control measures.