Safety Audits for Unprecedented Growth
A hyperscale data center operator had experienced multiple years of sustained growth whilst building an exceptional culture of safety performance that included conducting annual in-person safety audits at every facility across North America.
The rapid growth of the business had stretched the bandwidth of the internal safety team and visiting all 15 data centers became an impossible task. The alternatives of conducting them virtually or asking local, non-technical employees to take the lead both risked overlooking key findings that would be spotted by an expert and undermining the culture they had worked so hard to build.
Our Approach
Our consultant initially produced a 180-point audit protocol to be completed at a 350,000 sq/ft data center in the Portland Metro area, reviewing with the client to gain alignment with their unique expectations and partnering with the local Critical Operations Manager to tailor questions to the site.
Following completion of the audit, we produced a comprehensive report that included an executive summary of our observations and a breakdown of findings by severity and status. We included a detailed spreadsheet with point-by-point observations, recommendations, and references to relevant Federal and Oregon OSHA regulations.
The Result
This initial audit highlighted 30 observations where requirements were not being met, including 12 findings of high-severity and 1 critical non-conformance issue. The client was able to address the majority of these findings in the moment or soon after audit completion, and immediately expanded the scope of our engagement to execute the same audit protocol at the remaining 14 data centers across the region.