Benefits of Safety Incident Management Software

Workplace incident reporting (e.g. near miss, property damage, hazardous condition, first aid, injury or illness), can be a time-consuming process that is complicated by federal health and safety regulations and reporting requirements. Many companies rely on paper forms, cumbersome spread sheets, and other inefficient reporting systems to manage this function, but they are fraught with problems including:

• Lack of complete and/or accurate report information
• Reports easily misplaced, misfiled or lost
• Difficult to share beyond small reporting group
• Follow-up tasks are problematic to track or document completion
• Focus is primarily on lagging indicators which can negatively impact overall program performance
• Data must later be compiled, reorganized and structured to meet federal and state reporting requirements

Paper based incident report systems can result in expensive mistakes for your organization including fines for late or incomplete filings, as well as increased insurance rates and higher production costs. The larger the organization, the more challenging it is to successfully manage this process using these outdated methods. Even small businesses struggle to meet reporting deadlines and utilize appropriate filing formats using spread sheets and printed reporting systems.

Safety Incident Management Software Benefits

The solution to these challenges is safety incident management software. Many systems on the market can be scaled to meet the exact size of your organization and address the critical safety issues of your industry. Additional benefits of an effective safety incident management software system are:

1. Improved Accuracy of Data. An automated system allows for immediate access to incident reporting tools, which increases the accuracy of your collected data. Prompts within the system will assure that all required information is captured and the report is as complete as possible.
   
   
2. Timely Notifications. When a report is filed in the system, a series of emails are sent to targeted individuals within your organization, including the director of safety, human resources, and others as may be appropriate or necessary to conduct investigations and other follow-up activities. Many systems allow you to tailor this communication depending on the severity of the incident.
   
   
3. Better Response Times. All appropriate parties within your company will have immediate access to the incident reports, so the occurrence can be addressed promptly to avoid process disruptions and repeat problems. This process saves your company both time and money.
   
   
4. Streamlined Reporting Processes. An automated reporting system assures consistency between your company’s sites, business units, and even international satellites. This consistency allows you to gather meaningful data, analyze it, and create actionable recommendations.
   
   
5. User Friendly Process. The Wise Businessware Safety Incident Management software system is designed for ease of use, which means it is more likely to be implemented and accepted throughout your organization. Intuitive dashboards, autofill data fields, and many other features make our programs fast and easy to use, resulting in accurate and timely data.
   
   
6. Transparent Investigations. In addition to the initial report, safety incident management software allows you to track and document the safety investigations in real time. From start to conclusion, every step taken, and the person responsible for the action, is documented, and can include recommendations for further corrective action. Unlike a paper system, this information is automatically tracked via the trigger incident and results in a complete record of all follow-up actions taken.
   
   
7. Near Miss, Hazardous Condition, Property Damage, First Aid, Injury or Illness Tracking and Response. An effective EHS system eliminates potential problems, protecting your company’s profitability and reducing lost work hours and workflow disruptions. Tracking incidents allows you to apply corrective actions to prevent similar occurrences in the future and thus avoid the expenses and paperwork that might have been incurred. This pro-active approach can save your company large sums in direct and indirect costs.
   
   
8. Standardized Incident Reporting with Complete Data. An automated system creates a cohesive language for completing incident reports, which allows it to produce accurate reports on demand. Most systems ca produce customized reports based on the data fields you choose, which allows you to evaluate problems based on dates, locations, supervisors, related near-misses, direct costs of the incidents, investigation times, and more.
   
   
9. Improved Compliance. Nearly every safety incident management software package on the market will automatically convert your incident data into the automated reports, forms and logs you need to comply with state and federal filing requirements. This feature saves your company the significant number of man hours normally required to compile this data and helps you avoid fines related to both filings and violations.
   
   
10. Excellent Return on Investment. Safety incident management software pays for itself in several ways, including fewer man hours devoted to the collection and tracking on safety management issues, reductions in both lost time and alternative work, avoidance or reduction in OSHA fines, lower Experience Modification Rate (EMR) which results in lower insurance premiums, and fewer lawsuits.
    
    
11. Improves Your Business Reputation. An often overlooked benefit of improving incident response time and reducing accidents is the positive impact on your organization’s reputation. Your company becomes known as a safe place to work, which increases retention and attracts new hires. It also helps you avoid negative publicity that might discourage new business.

Safety Incident Management Software in Action

With most businesses, when an injury occurs in the workplace it is first reported and then documented on a paper form that is hopefully completed at the time of the incident. Unfortunately, sometimes process occurs hours or even days later, with relevant information lost. This form is then either handed to a manager, filed or set aside to be addressed later, never to be seen again. If you are lucky, the information from the form is entered manually into a spread sheet. This process could result in numerous user errors, such as cells being over-written or columns misapplied, and this problem is exacerbated if the typist has to infer information from a poorly completed form. Tracking responses to the incident is difficult and creating accurate reports and logs for internal and external purposes is nearly impossible.

In contrast, companies using a safety incident management software system will address the occurrence in this way:

1. The incident is documented in a digital form using a computer, tablet or smart phone. This process allows data to be quickly and accurately captured in the field as well as on your properties.
   
   
2. Regardless of where the form was completed, the data goes into a single user-friendly online data base.
   
   
3. Follow-up and investigation tasks are automatically assigned by the system and notifications are immediately sent to appropriate personnel.
   
   
4. Reminders are sent if action is not taken or recorded within the allotted timeframe.
   
   
5. All contributing parties input their data into the system, creating a complete incident to resolution documentation trail.
   
   
6. Accurate reports and external filings are generated with a push of a button.

In addition to incident reporting, ehs software may also be used to document near misses, hazardous condition, property damage etc. creating a pro-active system to reduce risks. As incidents go down, work delays are avoided and the company's EMR is reduced.

When it comes to Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S), knowledge is power, and the more accurate and timely your information, the more power you have to take corrective action, avoid additional incidents, and protect your organization’s bottom line. An incident management software system gives you faster access to accurate information than a spread sheet or paper driven processes and is worth the investment of time and money to implement.

Wise Businessware offers a suite of EH&S Software designed to support the needs of any organization. Our intuitive and integrated tools can be customized to meet your needs, and include user-friendly dashboards and forms, making it easy to implement and utilize. We provide the system for you to collect the information you need and transform it into actionable reports and compliance documentation.

Our suite consists of discrete modules that you can use alone or integrate to address your specific needs. To learn more about our EH&S Software suite request a consultation.