The induction,
before they
go past the gate.
A free site induction checklist: 17 points in plain English, each with the regulation behind it. What a site-specific induction has to cover, and what makes one worthless.
Published · Last reviewed
What a site induction
has to cover.
CDM 2015 requires the principal contractor to ensure a suitable site induction is given to every worker. The word doing the work is suitable. A corporate video about a different site, watched in a portakabin, satisfies nobody: an induction is site-specific or it is theatre, and the person most likely to be waved through is the subcontractor who arrives at four on a Friday.
Who needs one, how long it lasts, and what makes one worthless+
- Who needs one
- Every worker, under Reg 13(4)(a), regardless of who employs them: direct, agency, labour-only, subcontract. Visitors and delivery drivers need one proportionate to what they will be exposed to, which is usually shorter but not nothing.
- Site-specific or nothing
- The test is whether somebody could walk out of it and work safely on this site. Generic content about ladders in the abstract does not tell anybody where the live services, the fragile roof or the one-way system are.
- It expires
- Not by law, but in practice. A site changes: new phases, new hazards, new traffic routes. Most contractors re-induct after an extended absence and brief everyone on significant changes, which is the sensible reading of the duty to manage.
- The record is the proof
- An induction that is not recorded did not happen, as far as an investigation is concerned. Name, date, signature, and the version of the content delivered.
- What this checklist covers
- 17 points across three sections: 6 on the site and its hazards, 6 on what to do when it goes wrong, 5 on rules and the record.
This site, specifically.
Six things that are true of your site and no other. If the induction skips these it is a video, not an induction.
When it goes wrong.
Six points that only matter once, and matter completely.
The rules and the record.
Five points that turn an induction into evidence.
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A starting point for your own review, not legal advice. Always check against the current regulations and HSE guidance. Put your own company in the field above and the PDF carries your name instead of ours. Ticks, notes and site details stay in your browser. Nothing is sent to us.
Or use it as a printable template.
Download the blank site induction checklist as a PDF, or work through the list above on screen and save that instead, dated and carrying the site, the person who prepared it and the score out of 17. Nothing is gated: no email address to hand over, no account to create, no trial to start.
- A blank template
- The PDF above carries all 17 checks, each with the regulation it comes from and a ruled line for the evidence, the owner and the date. Print it and fill it in on site.
- Or a completed record
- Work through it on screen first and Save as PDF produces a dated record of what was in place and what was not, with your evidence notes typed against each check.
- Your ticks stay in your browser
- Ticks, notes and site details are held on this device only. Nothing is sent to us, so you can close the tab and pick it up tomorrow on the same machine.
- Your name on it, not ours
- Put your company in the field above and the downloaded PDF carries your letterhead instead of Unibuild's. It is free: a sheet you hand to a client should be able to have your name on it.
Worth knowing. A checklist filled in once, the week of an audit, is a snapshot. The evidence behind it is either generated as the work runs or reconstructed under pressure, and that is the difference between a template and a record. It is also what the health and safety module is for.
The same induction,
read by role.
These are the same points above, grouped by whoever normally answers for them.
Principal contractor
The duty is explicit in Reg 13(4)(a) and it covers everybody on your site, not just the people you pay.
Site manager
Delivering it, and delivering it properly at four on a Friday to the person who has come a long way and wants to start.
Subcontractors
Making sure your people arrive in time to be inducted, and that a new face on Monday does not get walked past the gate by a colleague.
Visitors and delivery drivers
A shorter version proportionate to exposure, covering the alarm, the route, the PPE and where not to go. Not nothing.
Health and safety
Content review as the site changes, and the re-induction trigger. An induction written at week one describes a site that no longer exists at week thirty.
The worker
Saying so when something was not understood. An induction nodded through is the one that fails when it matters.
You shouldn't need
this checklist.
On the platform the induction is recorded against the person and the project, so the fire roll call and the authorisation list are the same record rather than three.
What people ask before
they use the checklist.
The questions that come up most often around a site induction checklist, answered against the regulations rather than around them.
Who has to be inducted on a construction site?+
How long should a site induction take?+
Does an induction expire?+
Is a video induction acceptable?+
What if a worker does not speak English well?+
What record should we keep of an induction?+
Is this checklist free, and do I have to sign up?+
Can I put my own company name on the PDF?+
Does Unibuild do this for me?+
On tomorrow
morning's arrival.
Run your current induction against this and count how much of it is about your site rather than construction in general.