Near-Miss Reporting

Overview

Near-Miss Reporting should be managed through a planned system of work: identify the task-specific hazards, eliminate exposure where practical, use engineered or collective controls before relying on PPE, verify critical safeguards before starting, and stop the task when controls are missing or conditions change. This guide applies those principles specifically to capturing high-potential near misses before they become injuries or losses.

Main Hazards

• • Weak signals ignored because no injury occurred
• • Blame culture discouraging workers from reporting
• • Uncontrolled changes, unclear responsibilities or missing communication
• • People entering hazards without adequate planning or verification
• • Delayed response to changing conditions, incidents or warning signs

Essential Controls

1. 1Make near-miss reporting simple, timely and focused on learning rather than blame.
2. 2Prioritize events by credible potential severity, not only by actual consequence.
3. 3Define responsibilities, critical controls and stop-work triggers before work begins.
4. 4Communicate the plan in a way workers can understand and verify understanding.
5. 5Use field verification, observations and supervision to confirm controls remain effective.
6. 6Learn from deviations, near misses and incidents and close corrective actions.

Related Guides