EHS Inspections: Focus on OSHA Housekeeping

February 6th, 2025 by Dakota Software Staff

Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) inspections are essential to ensure compliance and create a strong safety culture. In this recurring series, we’re diving into the most common challenges facing EHS professionals—and providing quick inspection tips to help address them.

OSHA Housekeeping - Keeping workspaces organized and equipment in order is just the beginning—effective EHS housekeeping communicates a commitment to safety and serves as an indicator of the strength of your safety culture. When a slip hazard (such as a spill) appears in the course of work, is it observed, communicated, and addressed? Or is it ignored as “someone else’s mess to clean” and normalized until it results in an incident? With housekeeping inspections, you can establish a routine to battle complacency and boost safety engagement.

The What and Why of Housekeeping

What it is: Housekeeping is defined under Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) workplace sanitation regulations at 29 CFR 1910.141 and is outlined as follows:

• All places of employment shall be kept clean to the extent that the nature of the work allows.

• The floor of every workroom shall be maintained, so far as practicable, in a dry condition. Where wet processes are used, drainage shall be maintained and false floors, platforms, mats, or other dry standing places shall be provided, where practicable, or appropriate waterproof footgear shall be provided.

• To facilitate cleaning, every floor, working place, and passageway shall be kept free from protruding nails, splinters, loose boards, and unnecessary holes and openings.

EHS housekeeping may also include efforts to control other slip, trip, and fall hazards (e.g., extension cords not currently in use, tools left on the floor, buildup of particulate matter on floors and other working surfaces, etc.).

Why it matters: Beyond slip, trip, and fall prevention, good sanitation and housekeeping indirectly protects worker health and safety on a variety of fronts, including indoor air quality, waste disposal, vermin control, food safety, and water potability. Housekeeping inspections will help keep you in compliance with sanitation regulations, and will also help meet the obligations of the General Duty Clause, which requires employers to furnish a workplace free from recognized hazards.

Steps for an Effective Housekeeping Inspection

The following items can be organized into a housekeeping inspection checklist, and any “No” response to the following questions should be accompanied by commentary describing the issue and suggested courses for remedy.

• Is there a process in place to keep floors dry and prevent the accumulation of dust or other particulate matter?

• Are preventive measures (e.g., drainage, mats) in place where floors are likely to become wet in the course of work?

• In the event of a spill, are workers trained to take immediate action, whether it be directly cleaning the spill or notifying another who is trained/equipped to do so?

• Is appropriate temporary signage readily available to alert employees to wet floor hazards, and is there a process in place to deploy it when needed?

• Is there adequate ventilation in place to discourage particulate buildup on walking/working surfaces and to prevent dust clouds (especially near ignition sources)?

• Is there a regular schedule in place for thorough cleaning and servicing of all facilities?

• Are there an adequate number of sanitary toilets and handwashing facilities in the workplace given the number of employees on premises?

• Are extension cords and hoses properly managed to mitigate trip hazards (e.g., with signage, crossover planks, conduits, proper storage when not in use)?

• Are all passageways and doorways clear of debris and obstacles to ensure emergency egress, proper cleaning, and general safe mobility throughout the facility?

This is only a start—inspections must be created with the level of detail required by the unique needs of a facility.

EHS Inspection Management Made Easier

EHS housekeeping inspections rely on proper completion and management of checklists—and it can be a complex undertaking. Depending on the size and nature of their organization, EHS leaders need to ensure timeliness, consistency, and accuracy of inspections across departments and facilities.

That’s why EHS software is essential for inspection management. An integrated software solution has the ability to standardize forms and processes, maintain compliance calendars, push reminders, and keep easily searchable records of results. Perhaps most importantly, software can provide insights into the resulting inspection data via comprehensive analytics dashboards. Instead of simply filing away checklists and forgetting about them, software can illuminate where your EHS programs are succeeding, as well as point out areas where additional training or other corrective actions may be necessary.

Better Tools, Safer Workplaces

Inspections help EHS leaders maintain the vigilance necessary for workplace safety—and software solutions provide the power to manage it all effectively. Dakota Inspections allows you to create and share checklists tailor-made to your organization’s needs, plus track progress to guide corrective action.

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