Workplace safety is an essential aspect of any organisation, regardless of its size. There are several compliance standards all over the world that organisations must meet to be deemed safe. In Australia, for example, the Organizational Health and Safety (OH&S) requirements every organization must follow are AS/NZS 4801 and OHSAS 18001.
The primary objectives of these safety management requirements are to reduce workplace injury or illness by creating a safe and secure work environment. Implementing these systems in your organisation can help you successfully eliminate these risks, as well as any resulting legal disputes that could arise if any of your workers had suffered a mishap.
Implementing a Safety Management System
Every safety management requires a system to record, manage and analyse every data that relates to safety in the organisation. This enables everyone, from top management downward, to see precisely where accidents or unsafe work practices are taking place in the organisation and take active steps to put a stop to it.
Benefits of implementing these systems include:
- Helping to identify, and as a result, minimise, hazards associated with your company
- Reducing or outright eliminating workplace-related incidents, accidents or injuries
- Significantly cut down on the possibility of workers filing legal claims for compensation or liability claims
- Provides very obvious data trail and evidence if an accident or incident does occur
As you can see, implementing an effective safety management system protects not only you but also your employees, contractors and suppliers who could be in your work environment. However, as fantastic as this sounds, there are still significant drawbacks to implementing these systems.
Drawbacks of Traditional Safety Management Systems
Management systems have always been traditionally developed and maintained through a combination of forms, documentation, hardcopy manuals, etc. While these work perfectly and meet all regulatory compliance, after all, it has been in existence for decades; there are significant drawbacks to it.
Some of these drawbacks include the paperwork associated with it. The bigger your organisation, the more cumbersome the whole process is, and the more paperwork would be involved. In a bid to remain agile, productive and efficient, many organisations are moving to online solutions to help them manage their safety systems.
Benefits of Adopting Safety Management System Software for Your Organization
Just like in every other industry, implementing software to handle manual processes has several advantages and safety management software is no different. We look at several benefits of adopting software to manage your company’s safety management systems.
- Increased Compliance
- Increased Accountability
- Improved Data Trail
- Reporting Capabilities
- Safekeeping of Records
- Consistency in Documentation and Implementation
- Accessibility to Desktop, Tablet or Smartphone Users
Also, safety management software includes hazard, risk, incident and injury reporting, thus making auditing even much more manageable. If you are still contemplating whether or not you should invest in a safety management software, you can take advantage of a free trial to help you experience the benefits without any financial commitment. Once you see the distinct advantages for yourself, you can then decide to move forward with implementing the system across your organisation.
