Safety is important not just for workers’ well-being but for a company’s bottom line. A 2016 National Safety Council (NSC) report showed the average cost of a minor workplace injury to be 16 times higher than the cost of prevention and as much as 48 times greater for serious injuries or fatalities. Shockingly, 78 percent of safety professionals still are using outdated methods to manage safety tasks, and as a result, only 19 percent are being notified of safety hazards in real time.
A study published in the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Journal of Professional Safety found that investment in safety software and cloud technology yield between $2 and $6 in return for every $1 invested, with an average safety ROI of $4.14. Furthermore, a strong injury and illness prevention program has shown to achieve a 15-35 percent reduction in workplace injuries.
As companies look to digitize their paper-based safety audit programs, inspections, observations, work permit procedures or other operational processes, there are seven key steps:
Step 1 – Define Goals
The first step is to define your goals for success and also the sub-steps required to achieve those goals. Plan it out on a white board first if you need to, then operationalize the plan by sharing it with all stakeholders. Remember that forms, checklists or outputs that were defined on paper do not need to be so rigid on mobile devices, and in going digital your contractors and employees gain the ability to assess work metrics.
Step 2 – Engage Field Operators Early in the Process
Involve your key field employees earlier in the vetting of new mobile safety technology so you can get their support and feedback. As a safety manager, it’s understood that your “employees” ultimately are your “customers,” but the ideal is to involve them from the beginning so that there aren’t waves or conflict down the line, when it’s too expensive to go back.
This also enables you to socialize your vision and goals, get engagement and prevent a top-down mentality. Remember that employee engagement is directly correlated with the level of involvement they have in their work processes and activities.
Step 3 – Consider the Motivating Factors & Barriers
People are more likely to complete a task when they have the skills, time, materials, knowledge and motivation to do so, and things tend to fall apart when employees feel the procedure is useless, so make sure that what you’re doing is really producing tangible results.
As an example, consider the use of a checklist (digital or otherwise). Is it better to have people pencil whip a 26-item checklist every day or thoughtfully use a five-item checklist once per week? If employees complete the checklist, do they know whether anyone looks at the information and uses it? Does data show that the workplace is safer when employees use this checklist compared to when they don’t? Is there any acknowledgment for completing the checklist?
If completing or not completing the checklists gets the same response from the boss (i.e., none), people will stop using it. Employees need to understand the tangible value of their actions and know that people are paying attention.
Step 4 – Pilot and Repeat
A good process can be ruined by poor implementation, and supervisors must be brought on board to help support the implementation. Having employees modify a given process (i.e checklists, observations, work permits) improves buy-in and increase usage. After digitizing your process, be sure to pilot it with a small group and ask for more feedback, then deploy the new and improved version.
Step 5 – Make the Data Actionable
Implementing paperless inspections and audits provides a canvas that can be flexible and actionable. Defining the problem you want to solve and having a flexible solution can provide managers/or supervisors with the ability to view safety audits, work permit procedures, and field observations in a new light. The goal of any safety audit process, for example, is to identity issues before they actually occur. By assessing the data and trending it over time, managers can get visibility into issues well before things go in the red.
Step 6 – Enforce Accountability and Visibility
Create a process that holds everyone accountable for being visibly involved, especially managers and supervisors. They are the leaders for a positive change, and true digital transformation cannot occur without visibility and accountability.
Step 7 – Celebrate Success
Make your efforts public to keep everyone motivated and updated throughout the process, and be sure to reward employees for their contributions to this endeavor. If everyone feels good about what’s been achieved, then everyone will work that much harder to keep it going.
Don’t Forget to be Patient
Digital transformation takes time, but remember: Since your ultimate goal is to vastly improve the safety of your employees and your workplace, the ROI for this undertaking is massive. When your company culture is safety, you can’t afford to sit back and let technological opportunities pass you by. Be sure define your goals, get field operators involved early in the process, keep people motivated by connecting change to results, get feedback to improve the process, make sure the data is actionable, enforce accountability and celebrate success.
IMEC Technologies provides Safety Management Software to increase worker safety and aid compliance. IMEC’s Safety Management Software will manage inspections and audits, provides hazard identification, incident reporting, management of corrective and preventative actions from generation to closure. IMEC provides lock out tag out software solutions that will allow users to create lockout tagout procedures using an intuitive Mobile App and Manage Lockout Tagout Procedures, also the Review and Execution of those Lockout Tagout Procedures using the Mobile App. Annual Lockout Tagout Procedures audits are conducted using a Mobile App. The Mobile Inspection App allow users to perform inspections and audits, for example the system can be used as a Fire Extinguisher Barcode Inspection Software system to manage monthly fire extinguisher inspections and general fire safety inspections and also to record safety observations and manage corrective actions, anywhere and anytime. The solution can be used as a fire extinguisher barcode inspection software system or life safety inspection system to aid compliance in Higher Education, Healthcare, Industrial and Commercial Organizations. Benefits from a Fire Extinguisher Barcode System include the elimination of paperwork and reducing the burden of compliance with regulations such as NFPA, The Joint Commission. The Incident Reporting App allows users to easily and quickly report incidents, hazards and near-misses, these are then sent to the appropriate people for action and are managed to closure. Web Apps provide features such as, setup, management, scheduling tools, analysis, reporting and dashboards etc with the ability to report incidents to government bodies such as OSHA and RIDDOR. HazMat T&T is a hazardous waste management software solution designed for Environmental Service Companies and companies who generate a large quantity of hazardous waste. The solution tracks hazardous waste from cradle to grave aiding compliance, providing accurate waste inventory, increasing waste handling efficiency, reducing risk and also helps manage waste costs. HazMat T&T Hazardous Waste Management Software can be deployed in a number of deployment scenarios, from Large Hazardous Waste Generators, tracking their hazardous waste at their site to Environmental Service and Waste Management Companies using it track and manage hazardous waste at transfer and disposal sites. For more information visit our website www.imectechnologies.com