Workplace accidents happen in every industry. Despite our best efforts to the contrary (including reading up on the kind of guidance available on the HSE website and articles published by charities such as RoSPA), harm to employees sadly does occur. This harm takes a variety of forms, which is one of the reasons it’s so hard to prevent.
For example, employees may suffer falls from heights, injuries when handling dangerous substances, or harm when operating heavy machinery. But what can be done to lower the rate of workplace accidents, and why is it important to do so?
First, let’s address why it’s essential to lower the rate and severity of workplace accidents. The first reason is that employers have a legal obligation to do so. Secondly, there’s a strong business case for preventing accidents too: fewer accidents mean that there’s less lost time and money in a business (such as sick leave and compensation payments), and above all else, a business gets to benefit from its improved reputation.
Putting safety front and centre in this way means that businesses are able to tender for big bids, but it also helps to improve employee morale and boost productivity too. Of course, there’s also an ethical reason for taking care of employees as well: lowering workplace accidents by reducing the likelihood of harm occurring is simply the right thing to do.
So, with so many reasons to lower workplace accidents, how are businesses doing it? Well, as well as reading up on their responsibilities as employers, businesses are also investing in software to help manage every aspect of health and safety in the workplace.
For example, businesses can invest in Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Software designed to help them implement best practice audit programmes. Using workflows, action tracking and email notifications, those charged with ensuring the health and safety of employees (often across multiple locations with a variety of hazards to contend with), find it easier to meet the specific health and safety needs of their organisation.
Companies can also invest in compliance software, enabling them to understand the latest rules and regulations on health and safety, adopting industry best standard processes to help bring about behavioural and cultural changes. They can also use this kind of software as a reference tool when proving that they’re compliant with UK legislation.
In addition, businesses can take advantage of incident management software, which is perhaps the most important piece of software when trying to lower workplace accidents.
Incident management software allows companies in all industries to track incidents when they occur, before then processing and reporting them. They can also use workflow notifications, email escalation and tracking tools to ensure that lessons are learned from each incident. Using specific software for reporting and tracking incidents in this way reduces the number of incidents that occur in the future as it enables companies to put effective preventative measures in place, re-evaluating those measures at regular intervals.
But, where can businesses find this kind of software? Well, it depends on what your specific needs are, how much budget you have to spend and what kind of standard you want the software to operate at. Many businesses use software on offer at places like Airsweb, and in fact, clients on this software provider’s list have recently won awards distributed by RoSPA in 2016.
Whoever you choose to buy your software from, just make sure they’re capable of meeting the complex needs your business might have, and that they’re able to evolve the software regularly enough to keep up to date with ever-changing EHS, risk and compliance requirements.
