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.
How much can software-based risk assessments save your business?
It makes sense to calculate just how much money you can save with risk assessment software before you sign up. So using our risk assessment productivity case study, we’ve calculated the savings for a business to be between $72.25 and $116.15 per worker, per month. Not too shabby. Under plant conditions these savings increase to between $144.50 and $231.63. Even better.
So far we’ve discerned that risk assessment forms take around 9-16 minutes to complete whereas with SafeWorkPro’s software alternative, the risk assessment workflow only took 4-8 minutes. That’s a time saving of 50 to 55 per cent! To get a better idea of the steps behind these savings, take a look at the below diagram that shows time-cost associated with the paper-based method.
The same workflow is used when using a software-based process compared to a paper-based process but the average time a reduced. From this we can determine a time saving per worker. The next diagram shows the average time spent on software-based risk assessments.
As you can see, risk assessment software offers massive time savings and as the old saying goes ‘time is money’. But before we get into the specifics of how we came to these figures it should be noted that the savings below do not take into account the cost of safety management software. Nonetheless the results are still great.
Let’s begin by calculating the time spent completing the risk management procedure for an individual worker every month.
Avg job time = 4 to 8 mins
Avg jobs per month = 20 jobs
Avg job time x avg jobs per month
= 4 to 8 mins x 20 jobs
= 1.3 to 2.6 hours per month
Depending on where the invoices and time sheets are considered, the costs will be on either the contractor’s business or the plant they work for. In these following calculations we include both costs to show a comparison but when you are doing your own cost analysis you must consider which business will be liable.
The average cost of a worker is:
Avg cost to business = $42.50/hour (Hour much you pay your workers)
Or
Avg cost to plant = $85/hour (How much you charge for your workers)
Therefore to calculate the amount of money spent in a month for a single worker:
Avg cost to business x hours per month
= $42.50 x 1.3 to 2.6
= $55.25 to $110.50 per month per worker
Or
Avg cost to plant x hours per month
= $85.00 x 1.3 to 2.6
= $110.50 to $221.00 per month per worker
What about the annual cost? The figures taken from our survey of a business that employed 12 workers indicate that:
Business cost per month per worker x number of workers x number of months
= $55.25 to $110.50 x 12 x 12
= $7,956.00 to $15,912.00 per year
Or
Plant cost per month per worker x number of workers x number of months
= $110.50 to $221.00 x 12 x 12
= $15,912.00 to $31,824.00 per year
For any business this is a lot of money. So what is the potential saving minus the cost of this health and safety management software?
Paper based business cost per year – software based business cost per year
= ($18,360.00 to $32,639.00) – ($7,956.00 to $15,912.00)
= $10,404.00 to $16,727.00 business savings per year
Or
Paper based plant cost per year – software based plant cost per year
= ($36,720.00 to $65,279.52) – ($15,912.00 to $31,824.00)
= $20,808 to $33,355.52 plant saving per year
For businesses this is a saving of $72.25 to $116.15 per worker, per year. Moreover this saves $144.50 to $231.63 for each worker a year.
The potential savings calculated here do not include the cost of the risk assessment system but considering OHS laws and regulations aren’t going anywhere, you should view software as an investment. Once you have established the cost of the software system you intend to use, you can calculate your return on investment (ROI). We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. In the meantime you can read more about how SafeWorkPro’s job safety analysis software can cut your costs and boost productivity.
Risk Assessment Workflow for Construction Workers
In the hussle and bussle of high risk construction work, an independent contractor will be on several different sites in a month so having a firm understanding of the risk assessment worksheet is vital. At each construction site they must carry out several safety and risk management processes or face strict penalties. Below is a high-level diagram of the processes that construction contractors should carry out based on our risk assessment productivity case study.
1. Create Risk Assessment: Before starting any high risk construction work, a risk assessment must be conducted. Also known as a job safety analysis, risk assessments must include a safe work method statement (SWMS) and a risk assessment matrix.
2. Present to Foreman: The foreman or manager on the worksite must be presented with the risk assessment and SWMSs before work commences.
3. Conduct Work: All work should be conducted in a safe manner that complies with the safe operating procedures specified in the risk assessment.
4. Filing and Auditing: At the end of the day (or job) the risk assessments and SWMS’s should be filed and kept to pass any possible audits within the next 7 years.
There are two really good reasons why you should do risk assessments. First and foremost, they are designed to help keep your workmates safe. It is possible that a period of time will elapse between your team’s risk assessment training and its actual practice. So a risk assessment is a great way to remind your team of the inherent risks in high risk construction work and show them what risk management steps must be taken. The second reason you should do risk assessments is that you are legally required to. The Workplace Health and Safety Act 2011 states that before carrying out any high risk work you must do them or face strict fines and penalties.
So, where to from here? If you have a paper-based process in place, have a look at how much time and how much money this costs your business. Or if you are ready to tech-up and automate your process online then have a look at SafeWorkPro. Lets work safe Australia!
