---
title: Work on a safety observation
description: Work on a safety observation assigned to you to resolve it.
locale: en-US
canonical_url: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/employee-service-management/health-and-safety-incident-management/work-hs-safety-observation.html
release: australia
product: Health and Safety Incident Management
classification: health-and-safety-incident-management
topic_type: task
last_updated: "2026-03-12"
reading_time_minutes: 2
breadcrumb: [Manage incidents and observations, Manage, Health and Safety Incident Management, Health and Safety, Employee Service Management]
---

# Work on a safety observation

Work on a safety observation assigned to you to resolve it.

## Before you begin

Role required: sn\_ohs\_im.manager, sn\_ohs\_im.agent, or sn\_ohs\_im.operations\_manager

## Procedure

1.  Navigate to **All** > **Health and Safety** > **Health and Safety Workspace**.

2.  Select the incident management icon \(\[Omitted image "list-icon-hs.png"\] Alt text: Incident Management icon.\).

3.  In the **Lists** tab, select **Safety Observations** and then **All**.

4.  Open the safety observation to work on and change the state to Work in Progress.

5.  Record the following information related to the observation.

    You can record this information in any order as needed.

    1.  In the **Assets** tab, select **New** to associate an asset to the observation.

        **Note:** The assets field appears only when Expanded Model and Asset Classes \[sn\_ent\] application is installed. For more information, see [Additional features in Health and Safety](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/employee-service-management/health-and-safety-incident-management/install-hs-incident-mgmt.md)

        The fields related to the selected asset are auto-populated from the asset record.

    2.  In the **People involved** tab, select **New** to add people involved in the observation such as witnesses and collaborators.

        -   For a description of the field values, see [People Involved form](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/employee-service-management/health-and-safety-incident-management/hs-people-involved-form.md).
        -   If an observation involves more than one person, add a record for each.
        -   To modify the record of an existing person involved, select it in the list to open it and update.
    3.  In the **Root cause analysis** tab, select **New** to perform the root cause analysis for the observation.

        The application includes the Five whys technique of root cause analysis. You can add as many root cause analyses as you need to an observation.

6.  Add an action based on your root cause analysis.

    For more information, see [Add an action for a safety incident or observation](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/employee-service-management/health-and-safety-incident-management/add-hs-action.md).

7.  Record your findings that you gathered about the observation.

    You can use these sections to add your findings:

    -   **Attachments** section to attach findings in the form of image, video, and documentation such as a signed witness statement.
    -   **Activity** section to add findings in the form of free text. You can also use this section to add links to related knowledge base articles.
8.  Research content related to the observation by selecting the Agent assist icon \(\[Omitted image "Form\_AgentAssistIcon.png"\] Alt text: agent assist icon\).

    Agent assist searches the knowledge base using the text from the observation's **Short description** field and shows relevant articles.

9.  Generate a report for the safety observation, if needed.

    For more information, see [Generate a report for a safety incident, observation, or injury](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/employee-service-management/health-and-safety-incident-management/generate-report-safety-incident-obsv-injury.md).

10. [Close the safety observation](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/employee-service-management/health-and-safety-incident-management/close-hs-incident-observation.md) after all activities are complete.


## Result

The observation moves to the Closed Complete state.

**Parent Topic:**[Managing Health and Safety incidents and observations](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ServiceNow/ServiceNowDocs/australia/markdown/australia/employee-service-management/health-and-safety-incident-management/managing-hs-incidents-obs.md)