The Resourceful Reporter, Part 3: Incident Reports

Incident reports are the second of nine descriptive reports appearing in this series. Employees write incident reports when a "reportable" event occurs. What is reportable depends on the industry and business, but the law greatly influences whether an incident report is necessary. For instance, issues of occupational health and safety (e.g., operator exposure to toxic fumes), environmental safety (e.g., a chemical fire outside the enclosed facility), and human misconduct (e.g., sexual harassment) are not only reportable but required by law. 

Incident reports can cover a wide range of issues, but they generally answer these questions:

• What happened?
• When did it end?
• Where did it happen?
• How did it happen?
• Who was involved?
• Was anyone injured?
• Was any equipment or property damaged? 
• What immediate actions were taken to end or mitigate the event?

The question of why the event happened may or may not be a reportable factor. For instance, it would make sense to describe why an electrical fire in the office pantry occurred to prevent its recurrence. On the other hand, if an employee punches another employee in the face during an argument, the why is unnecessary, because a physical assault is immediate grounds for termination, even for represented (union) employees, in many cases. 

Here are some pointers based on the most common questions I get about reporting: 

Rely on the conventions of your field. Incident reports vary by business. Police officers' arrest reports follow a different protocol from, say corporate investigators' case reports documenting employee misconduct, or healthcare counselors' incident reports describing accidents of service recipients. Do not reinvent the wheel; use the organizational incident report template.

Advocate for improvements. Just because your company template is standard throughout the organization does not mean it is etched in stone. If you see an opportunity for improvement, think it over. Once you are convinced you have a useful improvement, recommend it to management. Examples include something as small as allow more space on the form to describe the event, or more weighty items, such as separate contributing causes from the root cause or include a recommendation to management section. 

Maintain objectivity. Do not offer your opinion. If the accident was horrible, do not say so; just describe it precisely. Examples include a 5 mm-wide X 20 mm-long cut, not an awful gash; the operator walked away from the area, not the operator was grossly negligent; he gave contradictory statements and describe them, not he lied one way or another). Remember: this is a descriptive report, not an analytical one.