The system was developed in 1942 by Canadian engineer Neil George, who at the time was an employee of Inco Limited in Sudbury, Ontario.
[1][2] The program is made up of five components, described in one of its iterations as:[3] Points one through three are done by the employee, and verified by the supervisor upon arrival to the workplace.
The fourth step is a safety discussion between the employee and the supervisor, while the fifth is a verification by the employee that they have the correct training, experience, and motivation to continue working safely.
[2] The general system of pre-task risk assessments has been developed independently multiple times, and as such variants on the Neil George Safety System appear under different names in different localities.
[4] A common generic name for the practice is "Take 5 for Safety".