CHECK

Making sure your safeguards work

The CHECK phase ensures that the controls you rely on to prevent serious incidents and fatalities actually work as intended.

It’s not enough to have policies, procedures or protective equipment. They must be effective, reliable and resilient.

This step helps organizations identify gaps, strengthen safeguards and confirm that serious risks are truly under control.

What to do

1. Analyze and verify existing controls

Purpose: 

To assess whether existing controls are in place and suitable to prevent or mitigate serious incident and fatality risk.

How to use this tool:

For each prioritized serious incident or fatality hazard, use the controls analysis and verification table to review all existing controls across categories such as:

  • engineering controls
  • administrative controls
  • personal protective equipment
  • management oversight
  • cultural controls

Use the verification considerations provided to determine whether controls are appropriate for the hazard, maintained, used correctly and effective in real work conditions. You will list the controls in the critical controls matrix (tool two).

Why it matters:

Controls can exist without being effective. This tool helps confirm whether safeguards actually reduce exposure to high-energy hazards or whether gaps remain.

Purpose: 

To identify which controls are critical and assess their effectiveness based on control type and purpose.

How to use this tool:

List each control in the critical controls matrix, placing it according to:

  • its position in the hierarchy of controls (elimination through personal protective equipment), and
  • whether it prevents exposures or reduces the impact of exposure.

Indicate whether each control is new or existing and whether it has been verified as suitable and effective. If a control is not effective, document required actions or improvements directly in the matrix.

Why it matters:

Not all controls carry the same level of protection. This tool highlights where your most important safeguards exist—and where stronger or additional controls are needed to prevent serious harm.

Purpose: 

To ensure gaps identified during control verification are addressed and followed through to completion.

How to use this tool:

Use the action planning template to document corrective or preventive actions when controls are missing, weak or need enhancement. For each action, record:

  • the action required
  • the owner
  • start and due dates
  • status
  • additional resources or comments

Track progress regularly and verify effectiveness once actions are completed.

Why it matters:

Identifying weaknesses without fixing them does not reduce risk. This tool ensures control improvements lead to real, measurable reductions in serious incident and fatality risk.



Tips for success

  • Inspect, don’t assume. Verify controls in the field – not just on paper.
  • Engage workers. Ask those who use or maintain the controls how they perform in real conditions.
  • Look for drift. Controls that worked at installation may degrade or be bypassed over time.
  • Test under variation. Verify that controls are still effective under different loads, weather, shifts or operating conditions.
  • Use available tools. WorkSafe Saskatchewan provides templates and tools to help verify and track the effectiveness of controls.

Outcome

By completing this phase, your organization will have:

  • Verified which controls effectively prevent serious harm,
  • Identified gaps or weak controls that need attention,
  • Documented evidence of how serious risks are being managed,
  • A clear, prioritized improvement plan.

This ensures that your most important safeguards, the ones that prevent fatalities and life-altering injuries, are dependable every time work happens.


What comes next

After verifying that your critical controls are effective, move to the Act phase – using what you’ve learned to drive improvement, strengthen systems and build organizational resilience.

ACT: Ensure continuous improvement

Learning through collaboration

WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s serious incident and fatality prevention model was developed with support from the National Safety Council, SaskPower and numerous subject matter experts across industries. It is designed to evolve as your safety system matures.

A model is only effective if it's used. Apply the tools and

adapt the framework to fit your organization and culture.


Download the serious incident and fatality prevention model and guidebook

Need help getting started?

WorkSafe Saskatchewan’s prevention team can walk you through the model and help you get started with using these tools to better understand and manage the complex risks that are present in your workplace.

Phone: 306.787.7248
Toll free: 1.800.667.7590
Email: worksafeinquiry@wcbsask.com