Assessments

The Safety Manager creates an assessment for a named organization and operating unit. Its subject, period and scope statement tell the team which risks and controls are being checked. The owner holds responsibility for the assessment as testing and investigation work arrives. Planned tests provide an expected work volume; actual test records show what has been done.

An assessment should make its boundaries understandable to a new reviewer. A plant assessment covering the current quarter is a different record from an organization-wide annual review. The operating unit, period start and period end help a tester choose the right parent for a control test. An incident investigation can then be linked to the same assessment without losing its separate event date.

• Scope. The Safety Manager records the organization, operating unit, owner and period.
• Testing. Control Tester adds test records against controls within the assessment.
• Review. The owner checks findings, decisions and remediation before closure.

Draft, Planned, Testing, Review, Approved, Remediation and Closed describe the assessment’s progression. Move the status when the underlying work has reached that point. For example, a failed test should lead to a finding and a named action owner, rather than moving straight from Testing to Closed. The approval date records when the assessment was accepted; the review decision record carries the independent decision detail.

Define the assessment period and who owns scope changes. Decide how the team chooses the operating unit when several sites share an organization. Set a consistent approach to planned tests, control codes and evidence references. Agree when a finding can move to retest and who checks the final assessment after remediation.

Create an assessment for one operating unit with a period that includes a recent incident. Link a control test, a finding and an investigation to it. Check that the Control Tester can see the right scope and that the Safety Manager can trace the failed result into corrective work. At review, compare planned tests with recorded results and read the decision reason before accepting the period outcome. Check that every finding cited in the review belongs to this assessment and that its owner can explain the next action.

• My assessments — Period work assigned to the current owner.
• Active assessments — Work in planning, testing, review or remediation.
• Assessment schedule — Start and end dates for planned work.

Start with assessment and testing, then follow finding to action.