At the core of every effective safety and health program is a systematic process for identifying and controlling workplace hazards. OSHA’s Safe & Sound framework refers to this as “find-and-fix hazards,” an ongoing approach that helps organizations identify sources of potential injury or illness, evaluate risks, and implement controls before harm occurs.

Why Find-and-Fix Matters

Traditional safety efforts are often reactive; corrective action begins after a worker is injured, a regulatory requirement changes, or an outside inspection identifies a problem. A robust safety and health program takes a more proactive approach. It uses available information, worker input, routine inspections, incident investigations, and the hierarchy of controls to find hazards early and fix them effectively.

Workplaces are constantly changing. New equipment, materials, technologies, processes, schedules, contractors, and workers can introduce new or emerging hazards. A systematic find-and-fix process helps organizations stay ahead of those changes instead of relying on luck, memory, or post-incident response.

Inspect for New and Emerging Hazards

Routine inspections (vs. reactive) are key to finding hazards before they cause harm. Inspections should look beyond obvious physical conditions and consider how work is performed, how equipment is used, whether controls are intact, and whether workers face risks during setup, maintenance, cleaning, troubleshooting, emergency response, or other nonroutine activities.

Practical activities such as safety walkarounds, checklist challenges, hazard hunts, and job swaps can help workers and managers look at tasks from a fresh perspective, identify hazards that may have become normalized, and improve understanding across teams. Encouraging worker participation, including helping conduct safety walkarounds, developing checklists, reviewing job tasks, evaluating equipment, identifying nonroutine hazards, testing controls, and verifying whether corrective actions actually solve the problem, can significantly strengthen hazard identification.

Use Available Information

Information is important if it’s effectively used. The value comes from looking for patterns, prioritizing risks, and turning findings into corrective actions. For example, recurring minor injury, repeated equipment issue, frequent near miss, or worker concern may indicate a larger hazard that needs attention.

As such, organizations need to review all available information about hazards that may be present in the workplace, including injury and illness records, near-miss reports, worker concerns, safety data sheets (SDS), equipment manuals, inspection findings, maintenance records, job hazard analyses (JHAs), audit results, emergency response information, and lessons learned from similar operations.

Investigate Root Causes

Incidents, injuries, illnesses, near misses, and close calls provide important information about where controls may be missing, weak, or ineffective. Investigations should focus on root causes and contributing factors, not blame. The goal is to understand what happened, why it happened, and what system improvements are needed to prevent recurrence.

Root cause analysis may point to gaps in training, communication, equipment design, maintenance, staffing, supervision, procedures, contractor coordination, procurement, or change management. Addressing these underlying issues improves the program more than correcting only the immediate condition.

Prioritize Controls Using the Hierarchy of Controls

Once hazards are identified, organizations need to evaluate control options using the hierarchy of controls as a framework for prioritizing solutions. The most effective controls eliminate the hazard or substitute a safer process, material, or equipment. Engineering controls, administrative controls, safe work practices, and personal protective equipment (PPE) may also be needed, but they should not be the only line of defense when stronger controls are feasible.

A strong find-and-fix process also considers urgency and feasibility. Serious hazards that could cause severe injury, illness, or exposure should be addressed promptly. Interim controls may be needed while permanent solutions are designed, funded, and implemented. Corrective actions should have owners, deadlines, verification steps, and follow-up to ensure controls remain effective.

Controls need to be checked to confirm they remain intact, effective, and appropriate for current conditions. This verification should be built into the safety and health program. Supervisors and workers should confirm that controls are working, corrective actions are closed, and any unintended consequences are addressed to close the loop and keep hazard control from becoming a one-time activity.

Practical Actions to Find and Fix Hazards

• Review injury and illness records, near-miss reports, worker concerns, inspection findings, safety data sheets, equipment manuals, and maintenance data.
• Conduct routine safety walkarounds with managers, supervisors, and workers.
• Involve workers in identifying hazards, evaluating controls, and confirming whether fixes work.
• Investigate incidents and near misses to identify root causes and system improvements.
• Prioritize controls using the hierarchy of controls, emphasizing elimination, substitution, and engineering controls where feasible.
• Assign corrective action owners, deadlines, resources, and verification steps.
• Review completed corrective actions and existing controls to confirm they remain effective over time.

Hazard Control Is Continuous Improvement

Finding and fixing hazards is what turns a safety and health program into daily prevention. It brings leadership commitment and worker participation together around a clear purpose: identifying what could harm people and taking action before it does. When organizations use a systematic process to collect information, inspect work areas, involve workers, investigate root causes, apply effective controls, and verify results, they create a safer workplace and a stronger foundation for long-term business performance.