How we list
Last updated 1 September 2026.
This is a shortlist, not a catalogue. Most of what exists in health and safety is not here, and that is the point: anything on this site was put here on purpose.
Who runs this
Safety Shortlist is run by Ryan, who is @RyanMallin on X. It is one person’s project, and “we” everywhere else on this site means me.
I work in health and safety in high hazard industry. I am an Incorporated Engineer, CertIOSH, and hold the NEBOSH Diploma.
That is deliberately as much as this page says about my day job.
Conflicts of interest
This site is not connected to any current or former employer and does not speak for one. Everything on it is my own, done in my own time. Nothing here comes out of my work: no internal documents, no client names, and no incident detail that is not already public.
I work in high hazard industry, so I notice what is useful there sooner than I notice what is useful elsewhere. That is a bias rather than a secret, and it is worth knowing when you read a list. Tell me what is missing and I will look at it.
One thing on this site is mine. Bowtie One, in Bowtie and barrier management, is a tool I built and own. It is listed because it earns its place on the same test as everything else, it gets no better position for being mine, and the order below the paid slot is reshuffled daily like every other list. I take no affiliate commission and no payment for a listing, and Bowtie One is the only thing listed I have any financial interest in. Read its entry knowing I wrote it.
The only thing on this site that money buys is the slot at the top of a list, it is labelled Ad, and it can never carry a Used by us badge.
What gets listed
A resource is listed if a working safety person would be glad to be sent it. That is the whole test. In practice it means:
- It does one job well enough to be worth opening. Official guidance, a usable template, a tool somebody runs on a real site.
- It exists. You can reach the thing itself by clicking the link.
- It is the best known home for what it does, because a link is listed once. The same destination never appears twice under two names.
Every entry sits in exactly one list, the one the resource is best known for.
What gets rejected
- Lead generation dressed as a resource. A “free guide” that is a form, a template you have to be qualified for by a salesperson to download.
- Certification and training mills. Anything selling a card rather than the competence the card is supposed to represent.
- Content written for a search engine rather than a reader, including the endless “top ten safety tools” pages.
- Anything outside the job. Wellbeing apps, ESG dashboards and general HR software are not listed here, and listing them would make every other entry mean less.
What checked means, and what it does not
Every entry has been opened, read and judged before it was listed. The link goes where it claims to, the thing is what it says it is, and the one line description was written here rather than copied from the vendor.
That is not the same as having used it in anger. Some entries carry a Used by us badge, which means exactly what it says: I have tested this in a real scenario and found it to be good enough to list as something that I would vouch for. Most entries do not carry it. I have still reviewed them but have not used them as part of my role, so an entry without the badge was checked enough to list and is not claimed as used.
A bought slot never carries that badge, whatever the product is. Paid placement cannot also claim we use the thing - until they are no longer in a paid placement, that is.
One entry carries a Built by us badge instead. That means what it says too: it is mine, and you are reading a description I wrote of my own tool. It never appears alongside Used by us, because vouching for my own work is not the same claim and should not wear the same mark. Nothing else about the entry changes: it sits in the daily shuffle with everything else and gets no better position for being mine.
How paid placement works
One slot at the top of a list can be bought. It is labelled Ad, it is the only fixed position on the page, and it is the only thing on this site that money can buy.
Everything below it is reshuffled once a day. There is no ranking to climb, no editorial order to be promoted within and no column in the database that records a preferred position, so a free resource is never structurally beneath a paid one. Position on this site carries no signal at all, which is the only arrangement under which the paid slot is honest.
Paying does not get anything listed. Sponsors are drawn from lists they already qualify for, and an advert never becomes an entry. If you submit a link, the decision is editorial and free; if you buy the slot, you have bought the slot and nothing else.
The leaderboard is a separate thing again: a pay what you want board that ranks by amount, kept away from the lists entirely so it cannot affect them.
No affiliate links, and no commission is taken on anything listed. Outbound links go through a counter on this domain so we can see what people click, and it records the click and nothing about you.
Reviews and corrections
There are no star ratings, no user reviews and no score. This is a shortlist, and a shortlist is a judgement rather than an average.
Entries are re-checked as things change rather than on a fixed cycle, and that is the honest position rather than a promised cadence. Links rot, products get bought, free tiers close. The fastest way to fix a wrong entry is to say so: use the contact form and it will be corrected or removed.
To suggest something, use add your tool. Submitting is free and always will be!