The incident report: a key document for your company

Despite all the preventive measures you take in your company, an incident can still happen. It is then crucial to record all the elements concerning this incident (bodily injury and/or property damage). The data will be used by the insurance companies, of course, but it will also be very useful for improving your quality procedures. Therefore, knowing how to write this report in the best and easiest way will be crucial.

Why write an incident report?

When an incident occurs in your company, it is useful to detail precisely the circumstances and quickly after the incident for the reliability of the information.
– What happened? (Was it an error, a malfunction, …?), where and when? (Date, time)
– Who are the people involved? (Names, functions, workstations, …)
– What is the damage? (Did the incident cause injuries, material damage, …)
– How were they treated? (Intervention of medical personnel, maintenance department, …)
– What are the immediate consequences? (Evacuation, interrupted production, …)
The aim is to describe all aspects of the incident as fully as possible.

All data must be recorded in order to be able to :

• analyze the facts,
• understand the cause(s),
• determine responsibilities,
• provide solutions,
• improve the safety of the personnel.

The incident report is truly part of a company’s quality approach.

How to write an incident report?

The people involved and the witnesses of the incident are the most likely to write the report.
In order for the data collected to be exploitable, it is very important to give an objective description of the incident in order to understand its causes.

This exercise can be very difficult for a variety of reasons:

• the stress of the incident,
• do not leave anything out,
• knowing how to define and name the facts or damage,
• knowing how to sort and order the information
• That’s why it’s useful to have templates that will guide writers through this essential task.
  Designed with :
  – fields to fill in (names, functions, …),
  – boxes to be checked when possible (yes, no, …),
  – word suggestions to define :
  – the type of incident (fall, aggression, …)
  – the nature of the injuries (discomfort, burns, …),
  – the location of the injuries (face, abdomen, etc.),
  – the type of tool or equipment involved,
  – the type of protective equipment worn (helmet, glasses, safety shoes, harness, etc.),
  – …
  – drop-down menus in the case of digital reports,
  – frames to insert photographs (or even diagrams).

The incident report will thus be created step by step, with complete and standardized information that will make it possible to rule out emotion, interpretation, judgment or intuition, which are detrimental at this stage.
It will be readable, understandable and usable to deal with the aftermath of the incident.

Manage incident reports for accident prevention

Well written and well analyzed, each incident report is a vital tool for defining :

• good work practices,
• good working conditions,

and to prevent new accidents by modifying and adapting workstations or setting up adequate training, for example.
In some cases, to identify the causes of an incident, a method such as the “5 Whys” method can be effective. It consists of asking the question “Why?” five times in a row in order to find the root cause of a problem.

The use of digital templates to record incident reports makes it much easier to establish a considerable database that is useful for employee safety and the smooth running of the company.
The use of digital tablets will prove to be very practical, especially for inserting photographic documents.

The templates can be enriched according to the suggestions received in order to best correspond to the field of activity of a company.

Don’t overlook near misses

The incident report can also be used to report near misses. Their analysis is just as important in the establishment of security measures in the company. It is then a matter of reporting upstream the potential dangers identified without waiting for an incident to occur.

Incident reports are fundamental documents in a company, whether it is to solve the problems that have occurred or to anticipate the dangers by developing appropriate safety and security policies.

FAQ
How do I write an incident report?
The incident report is written by the people involved and the witnesses of the incident. They fill in the sections on the template proposed by the company or the regulations in force.
What is an incident report?
An incident report is a document written quickly after an incident has occurred. It records precisely and objectively all the information related to this incident (people, physical or material damage, materials or equipment involved, consequences, …). It allows us to analyze the causes of the incident, the responsibilities and to plan the actions to be taken to prevent it from happening again.
How to write a factual report?
A factual report or detailed report of facts allows to alert managers or superiors about potentially risky dysfunctions (anomalies, failures, wear and tear of equipment, health problems, …).
How to write a report on an agent?
If a staff member exhibits inappropriate behavior (violence, harassment, abuse, etc.), a report can be written. The report on this agent must simply indicate objectively the facts (behavior, words, damage, …) and their circumstances (people involved, witnesses, places, date, time, …) without any judgment.

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