How Can A Business Reduce The Amount Of Incidents In The Workplace?
/ By Laura Stupple / Audit Management • Audit Software • Incident Management • Learning Management Software • Risk assessment software • Risk Management • Risk Management Software • Safety Management • Safety Management Software • Work Health Safety/ 0 Comments

How Can A Business Reduce The Amount Of Incidents In The Workplace?

Reducing the amount of incidents in the workplace should be a high priority for any business. However, sadly many companies wait until it’s too late to start putting procedures in place to reduce the risk for their employees.

As soon as you sense something isn’t right with a workplace safety policy, a workplace set up or an injury on site and how it’s being managed, it’s crucial that you report it. Without businesses taking a critical eye to their safety management procedures, they will never be able to progress and reduce the amount of incidents in the workplace.

If you stumbled upon this article because you know your businesses safety isn’t up to scratch and you need to do something about it, take a look at the ways that a business can reduce the amount of incidents in the workplace.

  • Audit Your Safety Procedures 

Ideally, this is the entry point for a business to go ‘ah-ha, we can do better’. If you’re coming in at this point and have found this article after some reflection on where your business is failing, good on you! Often people leave it until after an incident has occurred to start making changes to safety measures, and obviously that is less than ideal.

Auditing your safety protocols before an incident occurs is essential, and that’s where a handy tool like Audit Software comes in. Auditing your risks, procedures and data is a crucial part of moving forward successfully and reducing the amount of incidents in future. 

By looking at where previous incidents have occurred, the risks that are still present and the ways you mitigate them, you put yourself in a much stronger position to understand the health and safety status of your organisation. The first step to reducing incidents is to know where the risks are, and to understand whether you’re doing enough to protect people against them.

  • Engage The Whole Team In Incident Reduction Measures

Once you’ve looked at what is going on on your site and how things could be better, it’s time to get the whole team on board. Often, companies will undergo these amazing audits and have great policy changes, however they forget to include the workers who are on the ground.

This means that their audit and new regulations miss the vital feedback from workers who will be able to highlight extra risks that leadership teams won’t come up with. By including team members from each department in the audit and reconstruction of safety procedures, you’ll ensure that everyone is in it together from the off.

Keeping workers engaged in safety is a crucial part of minimising risks. Often leadership teams will ‘take over’ the safety changes without consulting the people who actually need to implement them and this is a mistake. Engage the whole team for full coverage of your organisation.

  • Implement Training To Reduce Incidents

When we think of workplace training, we often think about the kind of learning that goes on at the start of a contract. This is often really effective and is crucial to ensuring that people are qualified to get on the tools. However, this isn’t the only training that needs to go on.

In order to do your bit when it comes to safety and compliance, your business needs to carry out refresher training to keep people up to date. Often, accidents and incidents will happen when people get complacent and forget the safety training that they did months or even years ago.

To ensure that the risks of the job remain in the forefront of employee’s minds, putting workers through LMS training that they can complete anywhere is a great idea. LMS systems like Beakon’s will alert leadership and employees when their refresher training is due, making sure that your people feel empowered to take their learning into their own hands.

  • Review And Improve As Information About Incidents Comes Through

An incident response strategy has to be flexible and agile in order to take into account the kinds of incidents that are happening in your workplace. Each site will be different, and companies need to look at industry and company specific data to see where their incidents are occurring.

By reviewing incident data and taking staff surveys, you will get a good picture of how your organisation is managing safety in real-time. There is no one size fits all to incident management, but by reporting, investigating, analysing and proactively actioning issues, your business will be able to improve processes in order to lessen the likelihood of accidents in the workplace.

5 Easy Ways To Improve Your Safety Practices Today
/ By Laura Stupple / Learning Management Software/ 0 Comments

5 Easy Ways To Improve Your Safety Practices Today

Do you want to improve your safety practices without making drastic changes or breaking the bank with new safety measures? Making your workplace safer shouldn’t be a huge, stressful process. Rather, businesses should be taking small, daily steps to ensure that the workplace is compliant and safe.

These kinds of small changes are quick and easy to implement, but can have huge knock on effects. We’re sharing with you the best ways to improve your safety practices little by little, so that your organisation becomes safer overall.

  • Educate Your Team

Okay, so we promised that these steps would be easy and ‘educating your team’ sounds pretty drastic right?! Wrong.

It’s true that training your team can be a huge job, but with an LMS system that empowers your team members to take the lead on their own education, it isn’t a huge task. Encouraging workers to take on daily bite size chunks of training will ensure that everyone keeps on top of their ongoing education.

LMS systems save time and money when educating employees and contractors, and ensure that there is a digital trace of all training completed. This allows both the employer and employee to keep track of what learning has been completed and ensures that they are qualified to take on certain tasks.

By making learning an imperative, you ensure that no one gets left behind or complacent in the workplace.

  • Be Aware Of Existing Injuries 

Whenever someone starts working for your business, it is important that you become aware of their existing injuries. Why? Because you need to ensure that they are not aggravating any pre-existing conditions on your site.

Often, we ask workers to do repetitive movements like lifting, bending or moving in ways that cause stress on the body (and particularly back). If someone has an injury, it will not be appropriate for them to do repetitive tasks on that particular weak spot. It’s important that this is noted and documented to avoid any injuries occurring in the future.

  • Offer A Digital Incident Reporting Solution

One of the biggest issues with incident reporting is that it simply doesn’t get done. Often, if there is a lot of paperwork to fill in and the injury is perceived as ‘not that bad’, then incident management goes out the window.

This is where digital incident management systems come in very handy. They allow people to access the forms they need to fill in from anywhere, and make the process much more simple and appealing. 

  • Make Visitor Management Sign In A Priority 

Visitor Management is crucial to safety on site. Why? Because visitors are probably less aware of the risks and precautions on site so need to be supported. Without effective visitor sign in practices anyone could just walk onto site, injury themselves and hold you accountable.

It is crucial that your business has a system to track visitors at buildings, work sites, and facilities by recording key data and ensuring you are in control of who has access to your premises. 

Visitor management systems give you the benefit of:

  • Automating access permissions and providing self-service inductions.
  • Logging who has visited your sites, when they have visited your sites, and what areas they have accessed.
  • Synchronising with Staff ID and Card machines, including those with security coding.
  • Providing all necessary data for performance, compliance and OHS audits.

  • Have A Strategy To Alert People Of Tripping Hazards

This one sounds so simple, however it is often the forgotten safety hazard that causes the most damages. In fact, a huge majority of accidents on construction sites are caused by slips, trips or falls on the same level – that is, people tripping on things on the ground.

This may seem trivial, however 27% of reported injuries on sites are caused by tripping hazards like cables, rubble, holes etc. There are so many tripping hazards on construction sites that are often just left as part of the environment. However, implementing a solid system to label these hazards and alert people to them is key to reducing risk.

Safety Management Made Simple 

Safety Management really needn’t be difficult. It is one of the pillars of running a successful business, and can be made easier with professional software systems from Beakon that support some of the world’s biggest businesses.

Ready to learn more? Book your free trial today.

Task Management Software For Construction: Why Is It Essential?
/ By admin / Contractor Management • Contractor Management Software • Learning Management Software • Task Management Software/ 0 Comments

Task Management Software For Construction: Why Is It Essential?

When you manage a project on a construction site, it makes sense to have project management software to help you out. Task Management software falls under that – it helps construction teams manage their tasks and stay on top of their timelines.

So, we’re delving into the top reasons that so many construction managers and teams swear by task management software.

What Is Task Management Software?

Task management software does exactly what it says on the tin – manages tasks so that you know exactly where your construction site is at. Some of the key features of task management software are:

  • Task allocation – Start allocating and actioning tasks as soon as decisions are made. 
  • Work in real time – Create tasks, assign tasks, set due dates, and task requirements or instructions before you’ve left the meeting room.
  • Meet deadlines: Keep projects on track and tracking
  • Manage dispersed teams – Keep on track of your team wherever they are
  • Access important documents wherever you are: Beakon software uses fully responsive design so it works on all devices, including smartphones and tablets. Using cloud-based storage, your files and documents are accessible wherever you are, whenever you need them. Keep everybody on track and on schedule!
  • Custom software that is quick and easy to manage

Why Should Task Management Be Used In Construction?

Task management should be used in many industries, but in construction especially. Why? Because construction involves managing a huge number of tasks that are essential to finishing a project on time. Many construction businesses struggle to have control over their project without task management systems, whether they are digital or paper-based.

Knowing exactly what is going on throughout your project is essential, and the top reasons that task management should be used in construction are:

Real time communication that suits the fast pace of a construction site 

If you work on a construction site, you’ll know that things are constantly changing. While it is essential to have a plan and a timeline, we all know that the slightest change can have a knock on effect.

This is where task management is essential in construction, as it enables teams to stay in contact in real time. This means that if there are changes to tasks, owners of tasks, or timelines that everyone is kept in the loop.

A great example would be if a concreter calls in sick for 2 days right before a tight deadline. Say for instance that concrete needs time to dry, and no other work can continue until the concrete is down. This is going to have a knock on effect that will impact the timing of other tasks within the business. Task management software will inform people of the changes, alter their tasks, adjust timelines and ensure that your business doesn’t lose money because of last minute changes. Real time communication is a game changer.

Budgeting and forecasting 

Task management software not only allows you to project manage more effectively, it also helps construction teams manage their costs and budget better. With a clear list of tasks completed, and tasks to be completed, construction workers can better assess internal and external costs and any changes.

Plus, having historical cost performance analysis at your fingertips means that you can call upon past costing at any time to improve forecasting. Having this knowledge at your fingertips means that construction teams that establish fairer and more consistent bid prices, manage jobs and deliver the succinct accounts and expenses associated with every task.

A happier workforce

The above points speak to running an effective and profitable business, however having task management software in place also has softer benefits that can boost performance. These benefits affect the people who work for you, and include:

  • More streamlined task management resulting in fewer conflicts
  • Less pressure to remember task information, with a system that allows workers to input in real-time
  • Lowered risk of error with collaborative documents that can be audited by various members of the team
  • Lowered risk of losing vital task information with a backlog of historical data that builds up online
  • Reduced stress when it comes to filing, taking care of and getting sign offs on physical document
  • An overall happier, more productive workforce who feel supported by the company they work for

Better opportunity to expand and grow

Without these solid task management systems in place, construction businesses struggle to expand and grow. Task management is often the first step in business expansion, as it enables construction companies to work more efficiently and in turn, take on more work.

Having a task management system with flexible features that suit your business at every stage is essential, as your priorities and needs will change as you scale up. Task management software helps construction teams manage more projects, more effectively which offers you more opportunity to expand and grow.

For more information on task management software, discover Beakon’s offering for yourself with our free trial. Alternatively to learn more about similar software that benefits construction sites with our article on the benefits of audit management software.

The Benefits of Audit Management Software
/ By admin / Audit Management • Audit Software • Incident Management • Safety Management • Safety Management Software/ 0 Comments

The Benefits of Audit Management Software

Safety audit management software helps your business get a good grasp on what is happening within your organisation in terms of safety. The software helps you conduct safety audits and ensure that your safety inspections meet minimum requirements.

When you opt for a company like Beakon software, you’ll also have the benefit of being able to use a tablet or mobile to carry out the audit. This helps businesses synchronise data so that they can carry out the all important audits anywhere.

The key benefits of safety audit software are:

  • Increased operational efficiency
  • Standardised safety practices by location, auditor, and project
  • Measures the quality and effectiveness of your safety program
  • Helps to save time and money on all safety initiatives

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How Does Safety Audit Software Work? 

Audit Software is an amazing way to streamline all tasks relating to safety and minimise the risk of an incident. Audit software shows you how your organisation is currently performing, and shows areas for improvement. It is a key part of health and safety, as it allows businesses to understand where they’re currently at in terms of their safety procedures.

A safety audit gathers data and information pertaining to safety practices of an organisation. Having this all collated in one simple online system is essential in the modern world, where paper based audits won’t cut it. With so many rules and regulations, businesses that still operate on a paper based audit system are likely putting themselves at risk.

The Benefits of Audit Management Software

An effective safety audit should:

  • Gather data concerning how safety procedure are working
  • Streamline reports and statistics regarding incidents
  • Help to improve the procedures of the organisation by highlighting weaknesses
  • Detect hazard that need immediate attention
  • Provide security checklists so that businesses can mark themselves based on legal requirements
  • Assess the health and safety performance of the organisation and help to formulate improvements
  • Formulate a safety improvement report
  • Develop control measures to manage risk

The Benefits Of Safety Audit Software For Your Team

Safety Audit Management Software is really the first step in creating a succinct safety plan for your team. Without a good understanding of your organisation’s starting point, it can be hard to put safety practices into play. With safety audit software, you can expect to benefit from:

  • Sector specific requirements that take into account the specific safety needs of your organisation
  • A documented digital list of the work you’re doing to audit your safety measures
  • Prove that you are consistently working to improve your safety measures and remain compliant
  • Lower the safety risk of your organisation without compromising other business strategies
  • Implement incremental safety measure that work for your team and minimise disruption of day to day running of the business
  • Collate data and statistics that show the state of safety within your organisation
  • Get quick audit results that can easily be turned into actionable recommendations
  • Get notifications to keep on top of when you need to complete an audit
  • Reduce the risk of incidents on your site
  • Minimise the reputation damage and financial risk associated with negative safety measures 

The Benefits of Audit Management Software

Work With Beakon To Improve Your Safety Procedures

Keep on top of audits to ensure your business is adhering to its legal and moral requirements, with Beakon’s Audit software.

Keen to try our best in class audit software for yourself? Sign up for a free trial with us today! Plus, learn more about the pros of working with safety audit software over on our blog.

Safety Software: The Key Benefits
/ By admin / Audit Management • Audit Software • Incident Management • OHS Software • Risk assessment software • Risk Management • Safety Management • Safety Management Software • Work Health Safety/ 0 Comments

Safety Software: The Key Benefits

What are the key benefits of safety software?

Safety software covers an array of topics and can be used to improve the safety procedures of a business. Whether a company wants to boost compliance, improve employee wellbeing or change how they do things in regards to safety on site, safety software is a great first step.

So, what are the benefits of safety software? There are so many! Because there are many different types of safety software, there are also many different benefits. We’re diving into the key benefits of different types of safety software, so that you can see where your business might be missing out.

What are the different kinds of safety software?

The main safety software that your business will need is:

  • Safety audit software
  • OHS safety management software 
  • Incident reporting systems 
  • Injury management systems 

Let’s look at each one in a little more detail…

Safety Software: The Key Benefits

Benefits of Safety Audit software

Safety audit software helps your businesses get a good grasp on what is happening within your organisation in terms of safety. The software helps you conduct safety audits and ensure that your safety inspections meet minimum requirements.

When you opt for a company like Beakon software, you’ll also have the benefit of being able to use a tablet or mobile to carry out the audit. This feature helps you synchronise data so that you can carry out the all important audits virtually anywhere.

The key benefits of safety audit software are:

  • Increased operational efficiency
  • Standardises safety practices by location, auditor, and project
  • Measures the quality and effectiveness of your safety program
  • Helps to save time and money on all safety initiatives

Benefits of OHS safety management software 

OHS safety management software refers to any software system that helps a business comply with Work Health and Safety regulations. This is a crucial element of running a business, so having OHS software that you can really trust can have many benefits and keep your business out of trouble. 

Some of the key benefits are:

  • Consistency

Review information, provide insight, and gather a picture of your organisation.

  • Compliance

Ensure your business complies with all relevant Australian workplace health and safety laws and acts in like with the Work Health and Safety Act 2011.

  • Efficiency

Streamline your safety reports and store of all the necessary information on one single, easily accessible dashboard.

  • Cost effectiveness 

OHS software helps you reduce the risks of legal consequences or penalties for your business.

  • Boosts customer & employee trust

Be seen as an ethical company who puts the health and safety of its people first.

Safety Software: The Key Benefits

Benefits of Incident Reporting systems

Safety software often embodies incident reporting systems, so that employees can register incidents effectively when they’re out and about. A remote software system that operates on mobile can be an asset to a business, and is sure to make everyone’s life easier in the terrible event of an incident at work. 

The key benefits of incident reporting safety software are:

  • Protect your employees 
  • Maintain a working environment that is safe 
  • Minimise risk
  • Ensure that employees know how to report an incident 
  • Ensure employees take care of the health and safety of themselves and others.
  • Identify trends and incident types
  • Predict incidents and prevent them
  • Remain compliant
  • Conduct periodic reviews to assess risk

Benefits of an Injury Management system

Last but not least, an injury management system can have some incredible benefits. As well as boosting employee and customer trust, having an injury management system can also help people recover from injuries and make a speedier return to work.

An injury management system is designed to help injured workers make an early (and safe) return back into the workplace. An employer, employee and insurer will work together to ensure that the employee is reintegrated back into the workforce.

Key benefits of injury management software are:

  • Keeps employees safe
  • Helps the business remain compliant 
  • Retains staff members who have been injured at work
  • Support employees on a safe return to work
  • Helps build better employee relations
  • Builds trust in your organisation
  • Reduces expenses by assisting an employee back to work vs hiring someone new

Safety Software: The Key Benefits

Learn more about safety software for your business!

Overall, the key benefits across all safety software is that it helps to keep your employees and your business safe. When working on a site, it can be hard work to keep on top of everyone’s safety, but safety software makes that simply. With many different varieties of safety software, there is something to fill in the gaps at every organisation.

Looking for more info on injury management systems, incident management, or safety management? Chat to us today and sign up for a free trial!

OHS Management Software: Why Should Companies Invest?
/ By Laura Stupple / Learning Management Software • OHS Software • Risk Management • Risk Management Software • Safety Management • Safety Management Software • Work Health Safety/ 0 Comments

OHS Management Software: Why Should Companies Invest?

Are you considering investing in OHS management software? If so, you’re probably wondering whether the software is worth the money. It’s natural – if you’re going to be investing time and money into a new application, you want to know that it’s going to improve business operations and enable you to offer a safer work environment for your people.

We’re looking at why OHS management software is so effective, and why companies should invest.

What Is The Purpose Of OHS Software?

Businesses invest in OHS software for a variety of reasons. Some want to boost their public image, some want to streamline their safety processes, but for the most part businesses who invest in OHS software cite making their people safer as a main incentive.

The reality is that 3,751 workers were fatally injured while working from 2003 to 2018 in Australia. This is a tragic statistic, and one that proves that businesses have a long way to go when it comes to protecting their employees at work. Within those who have been fatally injured at work in 2020, the majority were working on a site where they managed or operated machinery (8.3 per 100,000 workers) and labourers on sites (2.3 fatalities per 100,000).

This proves that site managers really can’t be too careful when it comes to OHS. Working on sites with labourers and heavy machinery is highly dangerous, and often people can forget the risks as it becomes part of their normal routine. OHS software helps to ensure that doesn’t happen – and that everyone keeps their finger on the pulse when it comes to workplace safety.

Fatalities are the worst case scenario, however they do happen. More often though, sites will encounter scenarios that cause injury or even disability as a result of workplace accidents that should have been avoided. The implications of these accidents are huge, which is why companies of all sizes and in all sectors are keen to reduce their workers’ risks and put a robust occupational health and safety management system in place.

OHS Management Software: Why Should Companies Invest?

Why Should Companies Invest In OHS Management Software?

OHS management software has a whole host of benefits. Take a look at some of the most compelling ones:

  • Keep your people safe by educating them

Whether it’s employees, contractors or visitors that you need to keep safe, it’s crucial that you have the correct processes in place so that they understand the requirements. OHS is useless unless everyone participates in keeping safe, and education is a massive part of that process.

An OHS Management System ensures that all employees have a clear understanding of how to handle key activities, whether it’s reporting an incident, responding to an issue, or working through a problem. With a record of exactly what happens on your site, and processes that every understands and follows, your organisation’s OHS performance will improve.

OHS Management Software: Why Should Companies Invest?

  • Reduce costs associated with accidents 

On the surface, OHS software may seem like an outgoing cost. However, in reality a good OHS management system will save you huge amounts in the event that something goes wrong on your site. Many people go through life with an attitude of “it won’t happen to us/me”, but the proof is in the stats. A 2020 study recently revealed that 27,090 labourers made serious claims in one year. That’s a huge amount considering the stat refers to only serious claims amongst labourers.

When you consider that the average cost of these kinds of incidents on a worker is $51,960 per incident, it soon makes sense why so many businesses are keen to straighten up their risk and safety management procedures. By managing risks and seeking to minimise them, as well as reporting all incidents effectively businesses can significantly improve their OHS procedures. 

This saves huge costs when it comes to staff compensation claims, the cost of hiring temp staff and the cost of a back to work scheme. The goal with OHS software is to reduce incidents altogether by tracking and monitoring the risks and red flags within an organisation. Without this, businesses are leaving themselves open to major financial downfalls.

OHS Management Software: Why Should Companies Invest?

  • Ensure workers feel valued 

When we think about how we can improve the employee experience and boost engagement, we often forget that safety at work is really important to people. Yes people want a good pay check, a nice working environment and a solid management team, but in reality none of those things matter if you don’t feel safe at work.

When people don’t feel safe at work they quit. This means that you could lose top talent in your organisation because they don’t feel that they are being looked after in terms of their safety. OHS software shows your people that you care about their health and wellbeing and are prepared to invest in them.

By improving safety in the work environment, you enable your people to increase their productivity and enjoy their work. No one wants to go to work somewhere they don’t feel safe, and by improving the safety management practices within your organisation you can minimise that risk. This in turn makes workers feel valued, safe and motivated to work hard for a business that puts their safety first.

Want to learn more about workplace safety? It’s time to discover Beakon software. We’re currently running a free trial whereby you can explore our OHS systems. Book your test drive of Beakon software today!

Why Have A Permit To Work System?
/ By Laura Stupple / OHS Software • Permit to work • Safety Management • Safety Management Software • Task Management Software • Work Health Safety/ 0 Comments

Why Have A Permit To Work System?

There are so many reasons to have a permit to work system. Not only is a permit to work often a legal requirement of OHS, it’s also an important act of compassion for people who work for you. Ensuring that people understand their obligations and are qualified to carry out a job is integral to protecting the health and wellbeing of everyone.

A permit to work system provides a way to assess the risks of a job and specify precautions. By specifying the work that needs to be done and calling out the risks, it is easier to ensure that the right people are doing the job. People always ask “why have a permit to work system?”. To answer that question we’re giving you the top reasons to invest in a permit to work software.

Why Are Paper-Based Permit To Work Systems Not Working Anymore?

The question is not only “why use a permit to work system?”. But also, “why install an electronic permit to work system?”. Well, an electronic permit to work system is far superior to a paper based system, because:

  • Paper-based permits to work can get lost, damaged or be tampered with
  • Paper-based permits to work are impossible to customise or edit
  • With a digital permit to work system you can request permits easily with the push of a button, but with paper based ones it’s a long process
  • There is no digital trace with paper permits, which is essential in the modern world
  • With paper-based you can’t collate all permits that have been requested, issued and approved in one place in the same way you can with an ePTW system
  • Digital permit to work systems are far more productive, and free up your team members’ time
  • With an ePTW system you don’t need to worry about illegible handwriting. It is much easier to understand and file away digitally.
  • Electronic systems are far more secure

Why Are People Still Using Traditional Permit To Work Systems?

A permit to work system is essential for signing off work that is to be completed on a site. For this reason, many businesses have stuck with their paper permit to work systems out of necessity. They fear that changing to an online system would be a lengthy process and worry that it would take them forever to set up. This isn’t true, and in fact, permit to work software will actually save time. 

The main reasons that people use paper-based systems is because they simply don’t know any better, or they fear advancing their systems. If that sounds like your company, take a look at the reasons that you should consider an electronic PTW system.

Why Have A Permit To Work System?

Take a look at the top reasons to have a permit to work system.

  • Ensure that your team is on top of issuing permits

A key problem with paper-based systems is that there is no real-time trace of what permits are being confirmed on site. For example, someone might forget to issue a permit to work, and then fill in the permit to work form a week later after the work has been completed. This goes against OHS.

On the flip side, with an electronic system you’re able to capture the permits being issued in real time and ensure that they are dated correctly. This removes the opportunity for people to fill the permit in after the work is completed, and means that people are held accountable for signing off on permits.

  • Support risk assessment procedures

Many high risk jobs have specific criteria to be met before someone can carry out the job. A permit to work system prevents workers from working on that project until the risk assessment is complete and they are confirmed to be qualified to work. This protects both the business and the individual from harm.

  • Set out clear procedures 

A key benefit of a permit to work system is that your people understand what is expected of them. By setting out clear frameworks, guidelines and procedures, it makes the entire site a lot safer. This is especially true when it comes to how the site should be kept in a safe state, and how workers can ensure safe work can be carried out.

Have you got questions about permit to work systems? Reach out today to start a free trial with Beakon, and discover why you should have a permit to work system.

Incident Management best practices
/ By Laura Stupple / Incident Management • Learning Management Software • OHS Software • Risk assessment software • Risk Management • Risk Management Software • Safety Management • Safety Management Software • Work Health Safety/ 0 Comments

Incident Management best practices

Improving incident management practices isn’t always easy. Although it is of high importance, often staff members don’t want to spend time learning about incident management. Let’s face it – it’s pretty boring for them. However, in the event of an incident or emergency, they need to know exactly what to do.

As a manager who oversees people it’s important to have a grasp on incident management best practices. This way, you can spread knowledge within your team and ensure that you are always complying with your legal and moral duties.

We’re rounding up some of the incident management best practices that every business should be aware of.

What is incident management?

Incident management refers to how a company or team responds to an incident. An incident could mean a variety of different things to different businesses, but what is important is that each business has clearly defined understanding of possible incidents and has clear instructions on how to manage them.

Without incident management practices in place, businesses can be liable in the event of an incident. Incident management helps to mitigate the disruption caused by an incident and reduce harm when an incident occurs. It allows businesses to continue business as usual whilst also maintaining their obligations to their employees and the public.

The stages of incident management can be defined in simple terms as identifying, analysing, reporting, correcting and managing hazards. The goal of incident management is to effectively report incidents and ensure that the risk of a potential incident is minimised in the future.

Why do businesses need incident management practices?

Businesses need incident management in order to protect their reputation, their employees and comply with their legal obligations. The WHS Act requires that employers notify the regulator of certain types of workplace incidents depending on how serious they are. 

This measure is in place to protect employees and businesses from putting a foot wrong, and to ensure that every safety incident at work is fully reported. Depending on how serious the incident, a business may be required to preserve the incident site. However, this will be relayed to the business via the regulator once they report an incident. 

The important thing to remember from a businesses’ point of view is to ensure that all relevant staff understand the incident reporting guidelines and are able to carry them out on behalf of your business. This is where cloud-based workplace training and incident management reporting systems are extremely beneficial.

Incident Management best practices

 

Train staff to report incidents as first responders

This tip relies upon training having already been completed before the point of an incident. In short, the first responder needs to have already had sufficient training in how to respond to an incident. 

A comprehensive ‘first responder’ E-Form on an online incident reporting system can help with this, and urge the first responder to take the right steps. With Beakon, all incidents that are reported will work through a built-in Risk Matrix and prompting questions to assess the incident effectively. Prior to the incident happening, it is essential that the first responder has already been briefed on the process of incident reporting.

 

Investigate the incident

It is best practice to investigate any incident that occurs in your workplace. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the incident has to be reported to a higher body, but it means that your business needs to report and investigate all incidents internally.

 

It is key that you assign mandatory investigations based on risk level, looking at things like why the incident occured, the root cause and Contributing Factor Analysis. It is also important that you review investigations for quality and accuracy before being released for action.

 

Analyse the incident and report to a regulator if necessary

In some cases the incident report will need to be escalated. In order to do this properly, you will need to analyse the incident and assess its seriousness and risk level.

An incident management platform means you will be reminded to escalate the incident report automatically based on your business rules. The complex administration of compliance can be tricky to master, but with a platform that embeds your Health & Safety framework, business rules, and industry and legislative requirements within it, you can rest assured that you are protected.

Record corrective actions

After an incident occurs, a company is required to take corrective actions to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. In order to do this, you may want to invest in a digital platform that allows you to create an online paper trace that can’t go missing. Providing corrective actions and showing how you are minimising risk is an essential part of compliance, and a best practice that should not be forgotten about.

 

Create a return to work program

 

When someone has been involved in an incident, it is a requirement that you support them in their return to work. Incidents involving an injury will mean that the individual will likely need time off, and may have special requirements when they return.

It is best practice to ensure that the returning employee’s needs are met, and that regular meetings are hosted to see how they are getting on.

 

Incident Management software that helps keep your business compliant

Incident management software helps to keep your business compliant and ensure that employees are protected. It is not simply about reporting an incident. A business must also be aware of the incident management that needs to occur in order to continually evolve and minimise incidents.

At present, we’re offering a free trial so that you can see how incident management works with Beakon software. Sign up now!

How To Keep Employees Engaged When Learning Remotely
/ By Laura Stupple / Contractor Management • Learning Management Software • Online induction software • Task Management Software • Work Health Safety/ 0 Comments

How To Keep Employees Engaged When Learning Remotely

With remote work becoming the norm, knowing how to keep employees engaged in their training when working remotely is essential. Disengaged employees can cost your business, and therefore keeping them engaged while they train should be a top priority.

For many businesses, L&D is last on their to-do list and therefore the evolution to a digitised, cloud-based LMS system is often held off. However, with 2020 proving that every business needs to be prepared to train their people remotely, it’s time for businesses to invest in the software to keep employees engaged.

Here are the top ways to keep employees engaged when training remotely:

 

  • Communicate regularly to keep them up to date 

 

One of the key reasons that people switch off with their remote training is that no one is communicating with them. Whether it is reminding them to carry out the work, or offering advice on why learning on the job is so important, without communication remote training can seem like a waste of time to your busy employees.

Remote learning isn’t easy, but having communication channels that sit within a secure LMS is a sure fire way to remind people why they’re doing the training. Communicate with your employees regularly when working and training remotely to keep people awake and engaged.

 

  • Offer reminders to complete the training 

 

We can all be forgetful from time to time. Whether you’re a manager who needs to keep on top of your team’s training, or the staff members who’s training is overdue, when we’re busy on other things training can slip our minds.

Offering reminders that training is due or upcoming is a great way to allow employees to plan their time. With reminders, training doesn’t come as a last minute shock on a Friday afternoon when employees really can’t be bothered.

 A solid LMS makes this reminder process super easy by harvesting data and keeping track of where employees are up to with their learning. With this data, they are able to remind managers and the individual team members when something is overdue. This not only helps your business remain compliant, but it also allows your employees to stay engaged with their training.

 

  • Use a mobile-friendly system

 

Nowadays, it is essential that remote learning comes packaged in an easy-to-use mobile system.

Why? Because if you’re an employee on the go, the last thing you need is to have to sit at a desktop on site and complete training. Not only is this often a waste of valuable employee time on site, but it also means that your team members might have to complete training at a time that doesn’t suit them.

Everyone learns differently, and while one employee’s peak learning time might be 3pm on a weekday, others would prefer to complete training at home. With remote learning that is mobile compatible, the choice is placed into the employees hands. By empowering them in this way, you can ensure that they stay engaged and can learn in their own time.

 

  • Encourage them with feedback

 

Online grading is one of the quickest and easiest ways to let employees or contractors know how they’re doing with their training. With quick and easily digestible quizzes, people don’t feel as though training is a mammoth task. It’s all about offering learning in bitesize chunks that make it more fun.

It’s not just about offering them feedback online though, with live customisable tracking a quality LMS will allow you to see how individuals are doing too. This makes it super easy for a manager to check in on their team and see who is doing well and who needs a helping hand. Once managers can see how people are doing, it is recommended to reach out to team members and offer feedback.

An LMS makes this such an easy task, but the power of feedback and encouragement should not be underestimated. Empower your people with positive feedback, and you’ll soon see training engagement rates soar.

 

  • Make knowledge sharing easy

 

Not all knowledge on an LMS should come from packaged, external content. This can be helpful for some topics, however often site-specific or company-specific knowledge can only be shared from person to person. Therefore it is important that the content you’re sharing with your people isn’t generic, and sometimes comes from employees within the business.

If your content is boring and generic, your team will likely switch off as they’ve heard it a hundred times before. With a platform that enables knowledge sharing, your people will be much more engaged. When learning off of other people in the team, and handling documents that are actually used in real life, your people will feel more immersed in the learning process.

 

Do you need to do more to keep your employees engaged when they train remotely? Get in touch now to see how Beakon software can revamp your employees remote learning experience.

What Is A Cloud-Based LMS?
/ By admin / Learning Management Software/ 0 Comments

What Is A Cloud-Based LMS?

Whether a company is looking for online induction software for visitors, or complex company-wide training deployment, cloud-based LMS systems can help your business track progress and keep up to date with any gaps in knowledge. Traditionally, these systems have been paper-based, however in the modern digital world it is essential that businesses make the transition to digitise their learning processes.

With the rise of elearning and remote working, cloud-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) are becoming increasingly popular. Not only do they make learning easily accessible to team members, they also maintain a digital trail which allows companies to retrace their steps and keep up to date with their obligations. We’re looking at what a “cloud based LMS” actually is, and why they are rising in popularity.

 

What Is A Cloud-based Learning Management System?

 

Cloud-based Learning Management Systems host elearning via the internet, as opposed to on hardware or software on specific devices. Since they are hosted on the internet, they are accessible to anyone who has been granted secure access via a web portal.

This makes cloud-based LMS’s very accessible and flexible, and ensures that employees find it easier to uphold their personal obligations within your company. Empowering your people to take control of their learning can have amazing effects, and a flexible cloud-based LMS system makes that possible.

Why Are Cloud-Based LMS’s More Effective Than Traditional LMS’s?

 

  • Easy to install: Within a very short timeframe, your employees can be learning on a cloud-based LMS. Their short install time is a key benefit as opposed to working with an LMS that is installed onto a device.
  • More secure: The cloud is considered more secure, as they are hosted on secure online platforms.
  • Scalable as a company grows: As your company grows, you may need to accommodate more employees or users on your LMS. With an online cloud system, you will be able to scale up as you grow.
  • Mobile compatible: Increasingly, people want to complete their training on mobile devices, which isn’t always possible with traditional LMS systems whereas with cloud-based systems employees can access training on mobile.
  • Flexible learning: A key benefit vs traditional systems is that employees can learn wherever, whenever as long as they have internet access.

How Does A Cloud-based LMS Benefit Employees?

 

A cloud-based LMS delivers training to staff and contractors anywhere. This means that employees will always have the right tools on hand to upskill and ensure that they have the relevant learning software by their side at all times.

This can be especially helpful when it comes to health and safety training, or site specific training, as employees can go back over their training on the LMS. As well as offering flexible learning that can be accessed at any time, a cloud-based LMS system makes it more interactive and engaging for employees so that they actually want to do it in the first place.

With an LMS that utilises cloud-based technology, employees have access to logs and training that can be customised and re-purposed to target different audiences and different learning outcomes.

How Does A Cloud-based LMS Benefit Employers?

 

A cloud-based LMS benefits employers by offering flexible learning that employees will enjoy completing. This will make it much easier for employers to ensure that training is completed, and takes the stress out of having to chase and remind people verbally. With digital reminders, the process is automated which saves time and hassle.

With customisable dashboards, live tracking, and online grading employees find that training is much easier to deliver and manage remotely. In this sense, cloud-based LMS’s benefit employers by making the whole process a lot easier and ensuring that they maintain compliance with a digital trace of completed training.

What Can Cloud-Based LMS’s Be Used for?

 

Cloud-based LMS can be used in a variety of ways, including:

    • Employee Training: The most common use case of LMS is to support the training and development of internal employees. 
    • Customer Training: Cloud-based Learning Systems can be used to deliver training to customers who need to understand how to use a product effectively. 
  • Visitor Training: When you have visitors to a site or location, sometimes it is essential that they are trained. A cloud-based LMS can be used to educate visitors and keep everyone safe.
  • Safety Training: Safety training is a great use of a cloud-based LMS’s system as it can be used to keep workers and contractors updated with the latest best practices when it comes to safety training. 

 

Learning Management Systems That Improve Training And Delivery

When considering which LMS your company should choose, it is always wise to opt for a cloud-based system. The benefits are vast, and overall these benefits combine to allow a business to future-proof. 

Why not take Beakon for a test drive and discover all the benefits of a cloud-based LMS for yourself?