Workplace safety inspection checklist
A ten-category walkaround checklist with three response states, and an owner and a target date against every finding — because a finding without either is a note, not an action.
Regulatory status General practice. No single checklist is required by OSHA, and no single checklist is sufficient for any workplace.
This is a starting point for a routine walkaround, not a complete workplace inspection. It covers the conditions a general facility walkaround can reasonably see. It does not cover inspections that specific standards require on their own terms — periodic energy-control inspections, fall-protection equipment, cranes and hoists, respirator fit — and it cannot know what is particular about your site. Customize it before anyone walks with it.
Type into the form below, then print — what you enter prints with it. Or print it blank and fill it in by hand. Nothing you type is saved, sent to EHSTEC, or stored on this device; refresh the page and it is gone.
Safety walkaround checklist
Inspection details
Walkaround
| Item | OK | Needs action | N/A | Observation — what, and where | Owner and target date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Housekeeping and walking surfaces | |||||
| Aisles and walkways clear and unobstructed | |||||
| Floors free of spills, debris and standing water | |||||
| No trip hazards from cords, hoses or stored material | |||||
| Waste removed; containers not overflowing | |||||
| Emergency egress, exits and lighting | |||||
| Exit routes unobstructed and openable from the inside without a key | |||||
| Exit signs present, legible and illuminated | |||||
| Emergency lighting functions when tested | |||||
| Route to the assembly point clear and known | |||||
| Fire protection | |||||
| Extinguishers present, accessible and unobstructed | |||||
| Extinguisher inspection records current | |||||
| Clearance maintained below sprinkler heads as the system was designed | |||||
| Alarm pull stations and call points accessible | |||||
| Electrical | |||||
| Panel covers closed, secured and labelled | |||||
| Working space in front of panels kept clear | |||||
| No damaged cords, exposed conductors or missing cover plates | |||||
| GFCI protection present where required, and tested | |||||
| No temporary wiring or daisy-chained power strips in permanent use | |||||
| Machine guarding | |||||
| Guards in place and secure at every point of operation | |||||
| Interlocks functional and not bypassed | |||||
| Emergency stops accessible and operable | |||||
| No makeshift or improvised guarding | |||||
| PPE availability and condition | |||||
| Required PPE available in the sizes people need | |||||
| PPE in serviceable condition; damaged items removed | |||||
| Storage clean, dry and close to where it is used | |||||
| People observed wearing what the task requires | |||||
| Chemical storage and labelling | |||||
| Containers labelled, including secondary containers | |||||
| Safety data sheets accessible to workers on shift | |||||
| Incompatible materials separated | |||||
| Secondary containment present where needed | |||||
| Material storage and racking | |||||
| Loads within the posted rack capacity | |||||
| Stacks stable and within height limits | |||||
| Nothing stored blocking exits, panels or equipment | |||||
| Racking undamaged; no bent or struck uprights | |||||
| Tools and equipment | |||||
| Hand and power tools in serviceable condition with guards fitted | |||||
| Damaged tools tagged and removed from service | |||||
| Cords, plugs and switches intact | |||||
| Equipment inspection records current | |||||
| Signage and communication | |||||
| Required warning signs posted and legible | |||||
| Safety notices current, not superseded | |||||
| Emergency contact information posted | |||||
| Information in a form the whole workforce can read | |||||
Close-out
Workplace safety inspection checklist — ehstec.com/resources/workplace-safety-inspection-checklist · Published 23 September 2026. A starting point, not a complete inspection. Customize before use. Completing it does not establish compliance.
How to use it
- Customize it first. Delete what does not apply to your site and add what this list has never heard of — your processes, your equipment, the thing that went wrong last year.
- Walk the area, do not sit with the sheet. The checklist is a prompt for looking, not a substitute for it.
- Mark every row. One of the three states, every time.
- Write the observation where you saw it. "Cord damaged" is not actionable; "extension cord to bench grinder, outer jacket split near plug, bay 3" is.
- Give every finding an owner and a date before you leave. Assigning it later means assigning it never.
- Record where the actions went. The close-out box asks this because a finding that leaves the sheet and lands nowhere is the most common failure of the whole exercise.
Why three response states and not five
A repeated walkaround is only worth anything if this month can be compared with last month. Wide scales — good / fair / poor / marginal / unacceptable — get applied differently by different inspectors, and differently by the same inspector on a Friday, so the comparison quietly stops meaning anything. Three states force the only decision that drives what happens next: does something need to be done about this, or not?
N/A gets its own column for the same reason. A blank row is ambiguous between compliant, not looked at, and not applicable. Those are three different facts, and only one of them is reassuring.
A finding without an owner is a note
The observation, owner and target date sit on the same line as the failed item deliberately. Once those three fields are separated from the finding — onto a summary page, into an email, into someone's memory — the link between what was seen and who is fixing it starts decaying immediately. Keeping them together is the difference between an inspection programme and a filing habit.
What this checklist does not do
- It is generic and must be customized. It does not know your equipment, your processes or your hazards.
- It does not cover standard-specific inspections. Periodic energy-control inspections, fall-protection equipment, cranes and hoists, and respirator fit testing each carry their own requirements, frequencies and records. None of them are on this sheet.
- Where a frequency is set, it is set elsewhere. Powered industrial trucks must be examined at least daily under 1910.178(q)(7), and portable fire extinguishers inspected monthly under 1910.157(e)(2). A walkaround does not replace either.
- A completed checklist does not prove a workplace is safe. It records what one person saw in one area at one time.
- Items absent from this list may still be hazards. Nothing here is exhaustive, and treating it as exhaustive is the failure mode this page most wants to avoid.
Sources
This is a checklist, not legal advice
Nothing here is endorsed, approved or reviewed by OSHA, and completing a walkaround does not make an employer compliant with any standard. Which inspections your workplace requires, how often, and what records they need are determined by the standards that apply to you. See our editorial standards for how this content is written and reviewed.
Running walkarounds in EHSTEC
EHSTEC's form designer builds checklists like this one, schedules them so the walkaround happens without anyone remembering to ask, and turns a failed item into a corrective action with an owner and a due date attached to the finding that produced it. The close-out question on the sheet — where did the actions go — stops being a question. See how inspections work in EHSTEC.