Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS) are one of the most critical, and most time-consuming documents in any WHS compliance workflow. They’re long, they’re detailed, and getting them right matters. But reviewing every SWMS that comes through the door is a grind, with the volume of submissions at a large site or during peak project periods easily becoming overwhelming, pulling safety professionals away from the work that keeps people safe.

That’s why we’ve built RapidCheck SWMS Verification.

What is RapidCheck SWMS Verification?

RapidCheck SWMS Verification is the latest capability added to RapidCheck, Rapid Global’s AI-powered document verification feature. It automatically reads a submitted SWMS and checks it against a configurable checklist of mandatory and recommended items, then delivers a clear, evidence-backed result in seconds.

No more flicking through 20-page documents line by line and no more second-guessing whether a contractor’s SWMS covers all the bases. RapidCheck does the reading. You make the decisions.

How RapidCheck SWMS Verification works

RapidCheck SWMS Verification is available as part of the suite of documents RapidCheck verifies. If you’re already using RapidCheck for insurance or licence verification, SWMS Verification is there alongside it. To enable the feature, please talk to us.

Setup is straightforward:

  1. Choose your checklist. We provide a default SWMS Verification Checklist, pre-loaded with common checklist categories. Each item is then marked as either Mandatory or Recommended, so the system knows how to score the result.
  2. Customise with detection hints. If your organisation has specific requirements (particular hazard categories, site-specific controls or industry-specific compliance criteria), you can create a custom checklist and add detection hints to guide the AI towards what matters for you.
  3. Enable per personnel type. Turn on RapidCheck SWMS Verification for the relevant personnel types in your setup. Once enabled, every time a SWMS is uploaded for that personnel type, the review triggers automatically, once per document.

Then, RapidCheck SWMS Verification runs itself. When a contractor submits their SWMS, the tool reads the document and checks it against your checklist. Results are then surfaced directly in the platform, showing:

  • How many mandatory items passed (e.g. 4 out of 4)
  • How many recommended items were found (e.g. 3 out of 7)
  • Highlighted justification for each finding, so you can see exactly what RapidCheck found, or didn’t find, in the uploaded document

Rather than a bare pass/fail flag, it produces a transparent, auditable review that shows its reasoning, keeps you informed and in control.

The distinction between mandatory and recommended items within the verification checklist is what makes SWMS review genuinely useful, rather than just binary.

Mandatory items are non-negotiable. A SWMS that misses a mandatory item is flagged clearly, regardless of how well it covers everything else.

Recommended items are best-practice criteria. A SWMS might pass all mandatory checks but still be missing important elements such as a specific risk control or emergency procedure. The recommended score gives safety teams a fuller picture, without blocking compliant documents on a technicality.

This two-tier approach mirrors the way an experienced WHS professional actually reviews a SWMS, going beyond box-ticking to assess quality and completeness.

What’s coming next

RapidCheck SWMS Verification currently surfaces results for human review, giving your team the AI-assisted analysis without removing your control over the outcome. Auto-approve and auto-reject functionality is on the roadmap, which will allow organisations to fully automate the most clear-cut cases (e.g. a complete, well-structured SWMS clearing straight through while an obviously non-compliant submission is returned immediately) while keeping your team focused on the edge cases that genuinely need human judgement.

Also coming soon is the ability to tailor verification checklists to the specific type of safety document being reviewed. SWMS is the starting point, with support for Work Health Safety Plans, Job Safety Analysis and Standard Operating Procedures following in the next few weeks. Because each document type carries its own compliance requirements, a tailored checklist means the analysis reflects what matters for that document.

Part of the bigger picture

RapidCheck has now processed over 300,000 documents for more than 1,100 clients, cutting verification time from around two minutes per document down to just 2 to 5 seconds, and reducing inaccuracies by over 90% compared to manual document checks.

RapidCheck SWMS Verification now brings that same power to one of the most complex document types in the WHS world. It won’t replace the expertise of your safety team. It will give them more time to use it.

Ready to see RapidCheck SWMS Verification in action, or want to learn more about pricing? Book a demo with our team today.