If you've been told your company needs to get registered with ISNetworld, you've almost certainly encountered the acronym RAVS. It shows up in your dashboard, in emails from hiring clients, and in conversations with safety consultants who are very willing to charge you several thousand dollars to handle it.
This guide explains exactly what RAVS is, how it works, who reviews your answers, what gets scored, and what you can do to perform well — without needing a consultant to decode it for you.
40
Questions total
200+
Words per answer
Annual
Renewal required
Human
Reviewers grade it
What Does RAVS Stand For?
RAVS stands for Review and Verification Services. It's ISNetworld's system for collecting, reviewing, and grading your company's written safety documentation.
When a hiring client (a general contractor, an owner, or an operator) requires ISNetworld registration, they're typically asking you to complete RAVS as part of that process. Your RAVS score becomes a permanent part of your ISNetworld profile, visible to every client connected to your account.
What Is RAVS, Exactly?
RAVS is a structured questionnaire — currently 40 questions — that asks about your company's safety policies, programs, and procedures. Each question corresponds to a specific area of occupational safety: fall protection, lockout/tagout, hazard communication, PPE, incident reporting, drug and alcohol policy, and more.
For each question, you write a response (typically one to several paragraphs) explaining what your company does in that area. Then ISNetworld's team of safety reviewers reads your answers and evaluates them against a defined set of criteria.
Key distinction
RAVS is not asking whether your workers follow safe practices in the field. It's asking whether your company has documented safety programs that describe how safe practices are structured, maintained, and enforced. A company with a spotless safety record can still score poorly on RAVS if they haven't committed their practices to writing.
How Does the RAVS Process Work?
Here's the process from start to finish:
Answer the questions
Log into ISNetworld, navigate to RAVS, and write answers to each applicable question. Some questions may not apply to your trade — those can be marked not applicable, though reviewers scrutinize N/A answers closely.
ISN reviews your answers
Responses go into a review queue. ISNetworld employs safety professionals who evaluate submissions against criteria defined for each question. This is not an automated process — human reviewers read what you write.
Reviewers score each answer
Answers receive: Acceptable (meets requirements), Conditional (partially meets; further docs needed), or Not acceptable (needs revision). Reviewers leave comments explaining what's missing.
Update and resubmit as needed
RAVS is not a one-time submission. Revise answers, upload supporting documentation, and resubmit for re-review until answers are accepted or you reach your review limit.
RAVS rolls into your ISN grade
Your RAVS performance contributes to your overall ISNetworld grade alongside injury statistics (EMR, TRIR, DART) and your MSQ results.
Who Reviews Your RAVS Answers?
ISNetworld employs a staff of safety reviewers — sometimes called RAVS reviewers or safety evaluators. Most have professional backgrounds in occupational safety, environmental health and safety (EHS), or related fields. Some hold certifications like CSP (Certified Safety Professional) or CHST (Construction Health and Safety Technician).
Reviewers are assigned submissions from a queue. The same reviewer may not handle all of your questions — it's common for different reviewers to evaluate different sections.
Practical note on consistency
Two reviewers can sometimes score the same answer differently. If an answer comes back as not acceptable and you disagree with the reasoning, a well-worded resubmission — addressing the reviewer's specific comments — often succeeds on the second pass.
What Do the 40 RAVS Questions Cover?
The 40 questions span the full landscape of contractor safety. Here's a summary of the major topic areas:
Management & Administration
- • Written safety program overview
- • Management commitment & accountability
- • Employee participation
- • Safety goal-setting & performance review
Hazard Recognition
- • Job hazard analysis (JHA) process
- • Hazard reporting and correction
- • Site inspection procedures
- • Hierarchy of controls application
High-Priority Safety Topics
- • Fall protection (heavily weighted for construction)
- • Lockout/tagout (LOTO)
- • Confined space entry
- • Electrical safety & hot work permits
- • Hazard communication (HazCom/GHS)
Workforce & Compliance
- • New hire orientation & training records
- • Subcontractor management
- • OSHA compliance tracking
- • Drug & alcohol policy
- • Emergency action plan
The mix of applicable questions varies by industry. A specialty electrical contractor will have a different question set than a demolition firm or a janitorial service.
How Are RAVS Answers Scored?
Reviewers evaluate each answer against predefined criteria. While ISNetworld doesn't publish exact criteria publicly, the pattern across acceptable answers is consistent:
Specificity beats generality
"We comply with all applicable OSHA regulations" does not pass. "Our fall protection program requires 100% tie-off for any work at heights above six feet, using a combination of personal fall arrest systems and guardrail systems" has a chance.
Active language matters
Answers should describe what your company does, not what OSHA requires. Restating the regulation is not a RAVS answer — describing your policy and procedure is.
Word count is a signal
ISNetworld publishes a 200-word target for most RAVS answers. Short answers — even if technically accurate — are frequently returned for revision. Aim for 200–300 words per answer.
N/A answers get scrutinized
Marking a question "not applicable" is allowed when your work genuinely doesn't involve that hazard. But reviewers verify N/A claims against your NAICS code and scope of work. A roofing contractor marking fall protection as N/A will get pushback.
What Gets You a Good RAVS Score?
Here is the honest version, distilled from what consistently works:
What works
Have actual written programs. RAVS answers that reference a documented, titled safety program score better than answers that describe verbal practices. If you don't have a written fall protection program, write one.
Answer the question being asked. RAVS questions sometimes ask about your process for something, not your policy. Answering the wrong dimension is a common reason answers come back for revision.
Be specific about your trade. Generic answers that could apply to any industry score worse than answers that name the specific hazards, equipment, and environments relevant to your work.
Address all components. Many RAVS questions have multiple parts — they ask about policy and training and documentation. An answer that covers the policy but ignores training will come back as conditional.
Revise rather than resubmit the same answer. When an answer is rejected, read the reviewer comments carefully and address each comment specifically in your revision.
How Does RAVS Fit Into Your ISN Grade?
Your ISNetworld grade is a composite. The exact weighting varies by hiring client, but in general:
RAVS
Quality of your written safety programs
Statistical data (EMR, TRIR, DART)
Your injury history over the past 3 years
MSQ (Management System Questionnaire)
How your safety program is managed and governed
Insurance documentation
Certificate of insurance currency and coverage adequacy
Important threshold
Most hiring clients require RAVS to be "substantially complete" — a threshold usually set at 70–80% of applicable questions answered acceptably — before they'll approve a contractor for work. A clean EMR won't save you if RAVS is incomplete.
How Often Do RAVS Answers Need to Be Updated?
ISNetworld requires annual renewal of your RAVS answers. Each answer has an expiration date one year from the date it was accepted. As answers approach expiration, you'll receive renewal notices from ISNetworld.
Don't treat renewal as a rubber stamp
Many contractors resubmit the same text from the prior year. This is a missed opportunity. RAVS criteria evolve, reviewer expectations shift, and your actual programs may have changed. Take renewal as a chance to strengthen borderline answers and update anything that no longer reflects your current practices.
The Bottom Line
RAVS is the backbone of your ISNetworld profile. It's the part that demonstrates whether your company takes safety seriously enough to have documented it. Getting RAVS right requires clear writing, specific procedures, and the patience to iterate through reviewer feedback.
The contractors who handle RAVS well aren't necessarily those with the largest safety departments or the most elaborate programs. They're the ones who understand what reviewers are looking for and write answers that speak directly to those criteria.
PrequalPilot helps specialty contractors manage the full ISNetworld documentation stack — RAVS answers, COIs, safety programs, and expiry tracking — in one place. See how it works →