Take 5

The name comes from taking five minutes, or five steps, to think before you start. Every company's card is slightly different, but most follow a version of these steps:

• Stop. Pause before starting the task, or when something changes.

• Look. Walk around the work area and identify hazards: people, plant, height, services, weather, housekeeping.

• Assess. Decide how likely each hazard is to hurt someone and how badly.

• Control. Put controls in place, such as barricades, isolations, PPE or getting help.

• Monitor. Keep watching for changes while you work, and start again if conditions change.

The card usually includes a short checklist of questions, a space to write hazards and controls, and a sign-off. Many sites now use digital Take 5s so supervisors can see them in real time.

No. A Take 5 is not named in the model Work Health and Safety Act 2011, the WHS Regulations or Victoria's Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004. It is a company or site-level tool.

It supports legal duties, though. Workers must take reasonable care for their own health and safety, and PCBUs (persons conducting a business or undertaking) must manage risks so far as is reasonably practicable. A Take 5 is a practical way for workers to apply that on the day, and it is often a site rule set by the principal contractor.

These three tools are often confused, but they work at different levels.

• SWMS. A Safe Work Method Statement is a legally required document for high risk construction work. It is prepared in advance by the business doing the work and covers the whole task.

• JSA. A job safety analysis breaks a task into steps and identifies the hazards and controls for each one. It is usually prepared before the job by the crew and supervisor.

• Take 5. A Take 5 is a personal check done by each worker at the work face, right before starting, to catch hazards that the SWMS or JSA could not foresee on the day.

A Take 5 never replaces a SWMS. If the Take 5 finds a hazard that the SWMS doesn't cover, stop and get the SWMS reviewed. Supervisors should also review completed Take 5s regularly, because they show what workers are seeing at the work face.

• Tick and flick. Cards filled in at the smoko table without looking at the work area.

• Completing them in bulk. One Take 5 for the whole week, or for a whole crew, defeats the purpose.

• No action on what's found. If a Take 5 identifies a hazard and nothing changes, workers stop taking it seriously.

• Using it instead of a SWMS. A Take 5 on its own doesn't meet the legal duty for high risk construction work.