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Health and safety site walks

Site walks are your best safety tool. Records make them count

A regular walk around your own site finds the hazards no form ever will. SiteKey lets you record what you saw, what you fixed, and what you assigned, from your phone as you walk.

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The walk finds the hazard. The record proves you manage safety

A health and safety site walk is exactly what it sounds like: a manager, supervisor or officer walking the site with their eyes open, talking to the people doing the work, and looking at conditions as they actually are rather than as the paperwork says they should be.

Walks matter twice. First, they find things: the blocked egress, the missing guard, the extension lead through the puddle, the new hire working unsupervised. Second, they demonstrate something the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 cares about a great deal: that the people running the business actually verify what happens on the ground. Officers of a PCBU have a due diligence duty under section 44, which includes verifying that health and safety resources and processes are in place and being used. A pattern of recorded site walks, with findings and completed actions, is close to the best evidence of that duty being met that exists.

An unrecorded walk still finds the hazard, but it proves nothing later, and its follow-up actions live in someone's head. The gap between walking and recording is where most of the value leaks out.

Clipboard notes go nowhere

Notes on paper get transcribed later, or more often do not. The finding from Tuesday's walk is forgotten by Friday, and the hazard is still there.

Actions without owners stall

A walk that ends with a verbal see to that fixes nothing. Every finding needs an owner and a date, or it quietly evaporates.

No pattern ever emerges

When each walk lives on its own sheet of paper, you can never see that the same hazard keeps coming back in the same place.

Record the walk as you do it

SiteKey site walk records live in the same platform as your sign in, inductions and incident reports, so everything about the site is in one place.

Record on the move

Log findings on your phone as you walk: a note, a photo, a location. The record is finished when the walk is, not that evening.

Photos as evidence

A photo of the hazard when found, and another when fixed, tells the whole story without a page of writing.

Assign actions on the spot

Turn any finding into an action with an owner and a due date before you take another step. Follow-up is built in, not bolted on.

A history for every site

Walks accumulate into a site history you can search. The recurring problems and problem areas become obvious.

Evidence for due diligence

Time-stamped walks with findings and close-outs are exactly the verification evidence officers need under the Health and Safety at Work Act.

One platform, whole picture

Walk findings sit beside incident reports, toolbox talks and sign-in records, so you see the site's health and safety story in one place.

One flat price, no matter how many people use it

SiteKey starts from $30/month as a flat rate. There are no per-user fees and no per-scan costs, so the price does not climb every time you take on another crew. Site walk records are part of the SiteKey platform, alongside sign in, incident reporting and toolbox talks. See full pricing on the SiteKey homepage.

Site walks, answered

What is a health and safety site walk? +

A site walk, sometimes called a safety walk, walkaround or site inspection, is a structured walk through a workplace to observe conditions, talk with workers, and identify hazards as they exist right now. It complements paperwork-based systems because it checks reality rather than intention. On most worksites they are done by supervisors or managers on a regular cycle, weekly or fortnightly, plus after significant changes on site.

Are site walk records a legal requirement in NZ? +

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 does not prescribe site walks by name. But officers of a PCBU have a due diligence duty under section 44 that includes verifying health and safety processes are in place and being used, and a PCBU must monitor conditions to manage risks. Recorded site walks with findings and completed actions are among the strongest practical evidence of both. If something goes wrong, an unrecorded walk might as well not have happened.

What should be recorded on a site walk? +

The date, who walked, and what was observed: hazards found, their location, photos where useful, conversations worth noting, and positive observations as well. Critically, every finding that needs fixing should be turned into an action with an owner and a due date, and the record should show when it was closed out. A walk record without follow-up actions is a diary, not a management tool.

How often should site walks be done? +

It depends on the site's risk and pace of change. A busy construction site changes daily and suits at least weekly walks, while a stable warehouse might run fortnightly or monthly, with extra walks after layout changes, new plant, or incidents. Regularity matters more than frequency: a walk that reliably happens every week beats an ambitious daily plan that dies in a month.

How does SiteKey record site walks? +

You do the walk with your phone. Log each finding as you go, with a photo and a note, assign actions to people with due dates, and close them out when done. The walk history for each site builds automatically, alongside your sign-in records, incident reports and toolbox talks. SiteKey is a flat rate from $30 a month per site with no per-user charges.

Make every walk count twice

Find the hazards now, and hold the evidence you managed them. We will show you how it works on your site.

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Related guides

Incident and near miss reporting for NZ worksites
Report from a phone at the scene, follow up from the dashboard.
Toolbox talks: running and recording them
Keeping toolbox talks short, useful, and on the record.
WorkSafe audits and site access records
What WorkSafe looks for in site records and how to be ready before they arrive.