Good catch reporting for workplace safety

No one knows as much about your company’s safety issues as your frontline workers. You need to teach and promote proactive safety if you want to reduce incident rates and foster safe working conditions. And implementing a good catch reporting system is a great way to do just that.

What is a good catch?

A good catch is any issue that you notice before it has the chance to cause a safety incident or operational failure. And good catch reporting is the process of communicating these issues to the leadership team.

Documenting good catches is important for improving hazard control measures and preventing incidents. With everything written down, you can more easily identify patterns and root causes of recurring issues.

Components of a good catch reporting system

You’ll likely have some trial and error to figure out the best way to collect reports. Once you find the right approach, it’s important to communicate the proper format to submit reports and where to submit them.

A good reporting system should include:

• Clear guidelines for reporting good catches to management
• Regular hazard awareness training
• Options for submitting anonymous reports
• Formal review and follow-up process for all reports
• Training on how to write an effective good catch report
• Corrective and preventive action plan or strategy
• Positive recognition and reinforcement for reporting good catches

Essentially, you want to teach workers about recognizing issues and giving them the tools to report what they see.

Although pen and paper systems work just fine, I’d recommend having a digital form option available. You can use your EHS software platform or a simple Google Forms link to collect reports. I find this is the easiest way to keep track of all the good catches received and makes it easier to document everything effectively.

Benefits of good catch reporting

The biggest benefit of good catch reporting is that it prevents safety incidents by allowing for the proactive elimination of hazardous work conditions.

Additionally, reporting good catches can benefit your company by:

• Allowing for a focus on continuous improvement strategies
• Empowering workers to speak up when they feel unsafe
• Encouraging a proactive hazard identification approach
• Engaging employees in the EHS department’s safety initiatives
• Making it easier to identify patterns and trends

Celebrating good catches is an easy way to improve your site’s safety culture. Putting resources into addressing these issues communicates to employees that you care about improving work conditions within your facility.

But it also is a valuable source of information for the EHS department to reduce and eliminate recurring issues. With proper documentation, you’ll be able to benefit from these reports long after you’ve closed them out.