3 Signs Safety Software Might Be The Solution For You
Safety software is a relatively new solution to an old problem. Have you ever thought to yourself, there has got to be a better way to stay complaint with safety regulations? Do you ever get frustrated that you have to fill out so many assessments and statements on paper. Do you find yourself missing things in your assessments because you are worried that it’s not in the right format?
These are just some of the frustrations that come with the process of staying compliant with safety regulations. It can have significant effects on your safety culture if you find the process of safety too difficult. If you have ever ran into any of the above, it might be time to consider finding a solution before it becomes too much of a headache that safety goes out the window and all your effort is spent just to be compliant.
In this article we will cover in depth 3 signs that it might be time to consider utilizing safety software before your safety is ignored for compliance.
You’re worried about compliance incase of an incident
Running a business is no easy task. It’s like juggling 10 things at once. When things are going well, it’s a great feeling. But it only takes one slip up or incident to cause everything to come crumbling down. The stress and anxiety of a WHS incident happening in your business is enough to keep anyone up at night. On top of that, if you know you might get slapped with a fine after the incident you’ll always be stressed or worse, you’ll delay reporting an incident. This can lead to huge fines and even jail time. No one wants that.
Safety compliance in the modern day is no simple task. There are a lot of regulations and legislation that you must adhere to in your day to day business. This can become quite a headache and adds to the stress of making sure you have ticked all the boxes. Or worse, leads you to ignoring your requirements and hoping that an incident doesn’t occur. As we have covered in a previous article, incidents happen to even the best of employers who are proactive with safety, its simply the reality of probability. If there is a chance, eventually it will happen.
Ask yourself this. If there was an incident at your workplace tomorrow and it lead to an inspection, would you be confident you would pass? Have you got a solid and refined risk assessment process in place to identify, assess and control risks in your workplace?
If the answer is not a confident yes then it might be time to look at solutions. Safety software like our platform SafeWorkPro allows you to focus on your process more while making the document compliance side of things a worry of the past. While SafeWorkPro won’t solve all of your safety worries, it will help you be more effective with your time so you can spend less time filling out forms and more time focusing on the actions that lead to a safer workplace. We have talked about how your process is more important than your documents in a previous article. In the eyes of the law, the concern is about what you actually do to keep people safe.
If you want to spend more time on safety and less time on the books, then safety software might be the solution for you.
Safety software makes documentation simple and easy
How long does it take you to complete a risk assessment from start to finish? What about a SWMS? Do you find it difficult to complete documents because of all the back and forth that is required between the site, office and in between your workers? If your documentation process is top notch and you have no issues with filling out lengthy paper documents then this might not apply to you. But for those that get frustrated with how much time away from work they have to take to complete documents, this one might be for you.
When the bottle neck for starting a job is the paperwork you need to complete for safety compliance it can become frustrating. It can sometimes feel like too much time is being wasted on paperwork when you could be working. This can lead to rushing through it which defeats its purpose. It also means that you are more likely to skip the processes that really matter to keep people safe.
If you are on a site that needs a SWMS and something changes that requires you to re-evaluate your SWMS, the process starts again and the tools are down until it is done. With safety software, the process of completing documentation is significantly easier. In principle, it is the same but in practice you’re saving time that would otherwise be spent filling a document and running around to get it signed. SafeWorkPro’s simple form based builder allows you to build custom documents which are super simple for your workers to complete on site when needed.
Save the hassle of the back and forth trying to get your documents read and signed by those on site. Have workers fill and sign documents from anywhere on site and have them submitted to the cloud for you to review from any location. SafeWorkPro even lets you get notifications when certain actions happen like a risk rating on a risk assessment matrix being too high or an incident is submitted. SafeWorkPro can help you save time on compliance and let’s you focus on what you do best.
Safety software helps you find old documents quick
Ask yourself this, can you find your risk assessment or SWMS from a job 2 years ago? If you were audited, could you produce it? This is something that isn’t obvious until it is an issue and by then it’s too late. How much of an impact on your day to day operations would a surprise audit have? Would you need to go digging through the back office folders to find the documents required? What a headache!
Even while you are on site, your documents like a SWMS need to be available for everyone to see. While they are there, they are likely to get damaged or degraded by weather. Sometimes, by the time they get stored for safe keeping they are almost falling apart.
With the safety of cloud document storage, SafeWorkPro can store all of your important documents online forever. With all of your documents in one place and neatly organized it’s super simple to find the documents you need, even if they are from years ago. Our software also makes audits quick and easy with next to no disruption in your operations. Export all of the data from your SafeWorkPro site for review without having to spend hours digging through folders, photocopying and physically delivering documents.
Conclusion
If any part of this article resonates with you, it might be time to consider trying out a better solution to using a manual safety process. Beyond just the convenience, SafeWorkPro can help you focus your time on the actions that truly make people safe, not just the actions that make you compliant. At the end of the day, that is what you will be judged on if you have an audit or investigation. Documentation is required of course, but that is simple the surface level when it comes to safety.
If you want to learn more about how SafeWorkPro could help you in simplifying your WHS, reach out to our friendly expert staff for a free, no obligation live demo.
Download a Free Method Statement Template
Personal safety at work revolves around conducting consistent and compliant OHS procedures. This involves tools like proper signage, a clear safety procedure, training but for businesses, especially the small operators, this can be a drain on resources. Add on the cost of paperwork like a safe work method statement (SWMS), and then compliant OHS procedures become a serious consideration businesses need to make.
Obviously skipping any of these processes will not only put workers at risk but also invite harsh penalties from regulators. Here at SafeWorkPro, we believe that by maximising efficiency with health and safety documents, we can drastically improve the cost of conducting high risk construction work to highest safety standard possible.
The first step to this is getting a free SWMS template, something that is surprising difficult to find. SWMS are mandatory under Australian workplace health and safety laws so using them properly not only makes OHS sense but also means you can display compliance with these laws and regulations.
So for your convenience and in the hope that it will boost your workplace safety record, SafeWorkPro is offering you access to a free safe work method statement template. This is a safe work method statement sample based on the examples offered by Safe Work Australia. Although it is just a template, the free download will provide a basis for future SWMS across a diverse range of construction jobs.
If you would like more information on SWMS, risk assessment of OHS policy, refer to the SafeWorkPro Blog.
Meet the Regulators: Workcover Victoria
The Victoria Workcover Authority (trading name is Worksafe Victoria) is the state government body that monitors and regulates safety laws in the workplace. Its jurisdiction is restricted to Victoria but it is part of the broader Safe Work Australia framework. The goal of workcover Victoria is to promote safe workplaces for workers and employers, and ensure both parties have appropriate avenues for compensation and support.
The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (the Act) outlines the system of laws, regulations and compliance measures that form the framework of the Victorian Workcover Authority (VMA). Broadly speaking, the role of Workcover in Victoria includes the monitoring and enforcement of OHS standards, the assurance of worker and employer rights and responsibilities, and workplace injury rehabilitation and compensation.
Responsibilities
- Occupational health and safety: ensure the OHS regulations outlined in the Act are properly maintained and enforced. This VMA is also responsible for spreading workcover information to the public, licencing of high risk equipment/goods, offering advice on compliance to employers as well as forming policy interpretation should a case demand it.
- Workplace injury rehabilitation and compensation: the management of the Workcover workers compensation and other rehabilitation support services. Support services include not only compensation schemes but also healthcare and related support should it be required. Workcover insurance is funded by a percentage of the remuneration employers’ pay. In turn the Workcover claim form is also a process Workcover Victoria deals with.
- Worker and employer rights and responsibilities: under the Act both employers and employees are entitled to certain rights but also certain responsibilities. These include the respective duty of care, reporting of injuries, claims, representation in legal procedures, privacy and return to work information. For more information on workers rights and responsibilities, head to the Victorian Workcover Authority website. Alternatively, if you are an employer you can find more information here.
Compliance and Enforcement
The Victorian Workcover Authority has many compliance and enforcement options at its disposal in the case of substandard safety conditions or a breach of the Act. These include:
- Conducting legal procedures (litigation and appeals) regarding decisions made after inspections
- Conducting prosecutions against those alleged to have breached Victoria’s occupational health and safety regulations
- The investigation of alleged breaches of the Act
- The Management of Victoria’s OHS emergency response unit
For more information on the Victoria Workcover Authority, you can visit their website at www.vwa.gov.au
How a Dynamic Risk Assessment and Software Work Hand in Hand
What does every manager want?
More time.
More time to consult with clients, more time to get the job done right and more time to finish all the paperwork that inevitably comes with high risk work.
Unfortunately time is a luxury and finding enough of it can involve re prioritising important tasks. Health and safety often falls behind when the time constraints of the any industry begin in take hold. Even the most basic risk assessment can involve the time consuming task of hazard identification, not to mention implementing control measures and reviewing acceptable standards workplace safety.
But taking shortcuts around proper risk management is a dangerous option for a construction manager to take. Shortcuts not only bypass important stages of risk assessment which in turn puts the well being of workers at risk, but also invites potential penalties from Australia’s various workplace health and safety regulators. Only an exceptionally unwise manager would consider this option but the problem still remains: how can managers make more efficient use of their time without undermining workplace health and safety?
The answer: a dynamic risk assessment process.
The ACT Emergency Services Agency provides a useful dynamic risk assessment definition:
“The continuous process of identifying hazards, assessing risk, taking action to eliminate or reduce risk, monitoring and reviewing, in the rapidly changing circumstances of an operational incident.”
High risk construction work can involve rapidly changing circumstances that require the utmost diligence from workers and managers alike. Yet even a dynamic risk assessment done on paper is still significantly inefficient. To solve the problem of time (or a lack there of) managers need to embrace technology, or more specifically, dynamic construction safety software.
any mobile device or smartphone and provides workers with a way to complete and update risk assessments in real time without the direct involvement of the site manager. With no paperwork involved, SafeWorkPro means risk management takes up less of the manger’s time, but more importantly, that risk assessments can be updated and revised with the click of a button.
That is the true capability of dynamic risk assessments – forms that can be completed, updated and revised quicker than the paper-based alternative, but in a way that doesn’t compromise acceptable standards of workplace health and safety. If you’re interested, sign up for SafeWorkPro today commitment free.
