Guide
What is a Take 5?
A Take 5 is a short stop-and-think before starting a task: five minutes to look around, spot what could hurt someone, and sort it out before it does.
Updated · General information, not safety or legal advice. Check your state or territory regulator and your own safety system.
Where it comes from
Take 5 is not a form set out in law. It is a habit that many builders, mines and trade businesses use, and most have their own version. What sits behind it is in the law: everyone running a business must manage health and safety risks, and Safe Work Australia's Code of Practice on managing work health and safety risks describes doing that in four steps: identify the hazards, assess the risks, control them, and review the controls.
A Take 5 is that process, done quickly, by the person about to do the work, at the start of each task or whenever things change.
The five steps
Versions differ, but most come down to these:
- Stop. Before you start, step back from the task.
- Look. Walk around the work area. What has changed since yesterday, or since the quote?
- Assess. What could go wrong, and how bad would it be? Think about falls, electricity, moving plant, manual handling, other trades, the public, heat and weather.
- Control. Decide what you will do about each hazard, starting with getting rid of it, then barriers, isolation or a safer method, with PPE last.
- Go, or do not. If it is safe, start. If it is not, fix it first or stop and ask.
Safe Work Australia puts the controls in order, from the most effective to the least: eliminate the hazard, then substitute, isolate or engineer it out, then administrative controls, and personal protective equipment last. A Take 5 that only ever ends in "wear PPE" has skipped the better options.
Take 5 or SWMS?
| Item | Take 5 | SWMS |
|---|---|---|
| Required by law | No, it is a workplace habit | Yes, for high risk construction work |
| Who fills it in | The worker about to start | The business, with the workers |
| When | Each task, and when things change | Before the high risk work starts |
| How long | A few minutes | As long as it takes to plan the work properly |
They work together. A Take 5 does not replace a SWMS for high risk construction work; it is the check that the SWMS still fits the site in front of you. What is a SWMS covers when one is needed.
What to look for
A prompt list helps people see what they have stopped noticing. Change it to suit your trade and the sites you work on.
Hazard prompts for a Take 5
- Working at height: ladders, roofs, voids, edges and fragile surfaces
- Electricity: live parts, overhead lines, underground services, leads and RCDs
- Other trades and plant working nearby, and the public walking past
- Access and exits: the way in and out, and the way out in an emergency
- Manual handling: heavy, awkward or repeated lifts
- Hazardous materials: asbestos in older buildings, chemicals, dust and fumes
- Weather: heat, wind, rain and lightning
- Tools and equipment: guards in place, tested and tagged, the right tool for the task
- Working alone: who knows where you are and when to expect you
If any answer is "I am not sure", that is the one to sort out before starting.
Making it a habit, not a tick box
A Take 5 filled in at the end of the day in the ute is paperwork, not safety. A few things help:
- Keep it short. If it takes ten minutes, people skip it.
- Ask for one real hazard and one real control each time, not ticks in every box.
- Make "not safe to start" an easy answer with a clear next step: who to call.
- Read them. A supervisor who looks at them, and acts on what is written, is why people keep filling them in honestly.
- Have it done on the phone at the start of the job, so it is timed and with the job.
Take 5s on the phone
In Crewzy a Take 5 pre-start check is one of the ready-made forms. Put it on every new job, and the crew fill it in on site from their phone, offline too, with photos and their signature. You can ask a follow-up question only when "Safe to start" is answered No, and make the form required before the job can be finished. The finished form is saved to the job as a PDF. Or start with our free Take 5 checklist to print.
Sources
Official pages this guide relies on, read on 23 October 2026. Rules change; check them before you rely on anything here.