Free Employee Incident Report Template

Incident reports are used to document when an accident or near-miss happens at work. Instead of using paper forms, many organizations choose to file incident reports digitally as PDF files that can be sent via email. Templates are commonly used to give employees a standard form to file when an incident occurs. Proper reporting is required by OSHA and it helps companies address safety issues by bringing to light any problems or potential areas for concern. 

What is an employee incident report?

OSHA requires employers to file timely incident reports. The employee incident report from OSHA is designed to encourage employees to fill out the document and share it with their supervisor when injuries, illnesses, or near-miss events occur. No matter how minor the event may seem, it’s important to file employee incident reports to have an accurate understanding of events in the workplace. The employee incident report gives the employee’s account of the incident, and then the supervisor also gives a separate account when investigating an accident. All of these forms are designed to capture the details of the incident and document what happened for reporting purposes.

Why do you need an employee incident report?

It’s important to encourage employees to self-report incidents. You don’t want a culture where safety issues go unnoticed, as this can lead to further issues and impact employee satisfaction. Employees should feel empowered to voice concerns and share when incidents or near-miss events happen. Providing a digital incident form for employees gives them the ability to submit information on their mobile devices instantly. 

What should you include on the form?

Incident report forms follow a standard template that is used to capture all of the pertinent details of the event. Here are some examples of what to include on the form:

• Type of incident. Injury, incident, near-miss.
• Personal details. Name of employee, name of workplace, job title, supervisor, and the date.
• Details of incident. A detailed account of where it happened, what happened, and names of witnesses.
• About the incident. Note if this has happened before, could have been prevented, or required medical care.

Why Go Digital with Incident Reports?

Going digital can simplify and standardize your company’s safety management programs. Here are the top three reasons to go digital:

Central, cloud-based platform for safety management

Providing a central location for employees to access and manage safety information can simplify workflows for your employees. If an incident happens, they know to open the safety app and find the appropriate form. If they need to access inspection forms, toolbox talks, and any other safety program documentation — everything is stored in a central location. This helps to increase compliance by making it easier for employees to follow safety program best practices.

 

Greater visibility into safety program results

Incident reports are one part of a safety program that you would want to analyze the data to understand patterns and trends. Are certain job sites or teams having higher than average incidents? Which teams are participating in required toolbox talks? With a digital safety management solution, you can easily view summarized data in real-time. Leveraging dashboards and analytics, your organization can use data to inform safety programs and minimize risk.

 

Avoid lost paperwork and manual workflows

Paper forms can be easily lost or misplaced over time. This ultimately creates more challenges if important documents can’t be found. Likewise, paper forms create manual work for employees to fill out paperwork, drive to an office, enter the data into a computer, or rely on mailed documents. All of these workflow challenges create extra work when performing a safety inspection, submitting an incident report, or filling out any number of other safety forms your teams use. Going digital can help automate how work gets done and streamline work for employees. Simply fill out forms using a mobile device or tablet and instantly sync information to the cloud.

Try the Employee Incident Report Template

GoCanvas offers a free trial where you can try out the employee incident report template. Our no-code form builder allows you to digitize paperwork, so employees can submit information from the field on a mobile device. Employees fill out the digital forms and a PDF report is automatically generated and shared with the office. GoCanvas customers have found that by digitizing their safety programs, they’re able to lower risk and liability by 18%.

Access the incident report template here on the GoCanvas App Store.