Benefits of Using Occupational Safety Software for Your Company

Everything around us can be managed better by software and technology. In the consumer world, everything from shopping to finding love can be done with the push (or swipe) of a button. The same holds true in the business world as well.

Today, many aspects of an organisation are being managed by software. For example, the Human Resources (HR) department leverages payroll and performance management systems to make their job more comfortable and streamlined. Another example is in the training space where learning management systems (LMS) are helping companies induct new employees and contractors in record time.

The only area many companies were still lagging behind was in their workplace health and safety compliance. Now, more and more organizations are trading their traditional paper-based health and safety management systems for more sophisticated occupational safety software solution.

Benefits of using occupational safety software for your company include:

  • Being able to centralise and share health and safety related information across the organisation. Anyone with access can log into the system and review information from any device. You could also put restrictions in place to limit the amount of information anyone with access can view.
  • Data collection is streamlined because incidents can easily be logged based on a set of predefined criteria. Anyone with access to the occupational safety software can fill incident forms offline, and it will sync with the database when they come online.
  • Enables you to log data on the move with either your Smartphone or tablet. Unlike traditional reporting systems that require you to file paperwork to report incidents whenever you can “free up” time, our occupational management software have a mobile app interface that you can use to report incidents and complete tasks.
  • Saves you time and money. The time it takes to file a manual incident report can be used to file dozens using the software. This time could have been put to tasks that are more productive. Also, you could also save much money on the ink and paper used to print those manual reports.
  • Reporting efficiency is significantly improved. Beakon’s safety management system makes it easy to track and store all organisational health and safety-related information in an integrated system. This ensures your organisation stays on top of everything, thus mitigating risks while improving compliance.

In conclusion, setting up occupational safety software for your company is one of the smartest business decision you can ever make. As you can see from the benefits listed, implementing one in your company will not only provide ROI, but it will also show your employees that you take their safety seriously.

If you want a risk-free way to test our software, you can take advantage of our no-strings-attached free trial. With this trial, you can test out other components of our software including permit-to-work, injury management, and task management. Click here to get started.

 

 

 

Risk Management Software: What It Is and Why Your Business Needs One Today

One of the most critical factors in running a successful business is to have good decision-making skills. Making good decisions require a proper assessment of the risks and opportunities involved in any matter being deliberated on.

While there are several decision-making frameworks available, the best way to analyse every aspect of your business before making any important decision is to use risk management software. In this article, we look what the definition of risk management software and how it will benefit your company.

 

What Is Risk Management Software?

Risk management software is a vital part of business growth. It is an enterprise software used by organisations to help them identify, manage, and reduce all the different aspects of risks their business may face.

The software does this by using its risk assessment tools to process existing data and projections in order to identify potential risks the company may face. The results of the assessment can be found in the reports, and it contains a detailed analysis that helps company executives with decision-making.

 

Benefits of Risk Management Software

The advantages of such a critical piece of software cannot be overstated. If you are not currently using software to manage your company’s decision-making process, then this section will help you think twice.

Some of the benefits of using a risk assessment and management software for your company are:

  • It helps in recognising and classifying the possible risks: we have talked quite a bit about this already because it is what makes the software so unique. The software first identifies the risks involved after running an assessment and then it classifies them based on predefined parameters. Next, the software takes the generated report and analyses the results to suggest a suitable strategy.
  • Helps with managing your projects: We know how much hard work goes into achieving project goals. Delegation is an essential aspect of this and this risk management software by doing that effectively. By using this software, project managers can easily delegate tasks that have been assessed for risks along with the relevant recommendations to various departments of the organisation.
  • The software provides you with clear and consistent communication: Another obvious benefit is the ability to get accurate information from the reports consistently. Based on predetermined parameters that have been stored in the risk management software, the results of the risk assessment tool provides are consistent. Also, the software offers a centralised risk register that allows various departments to communicate with each other about the projects they are working on.
  • The software provides you with automated risk reports: Probably one of the most overlooked benefits. The in-depth reports that Beakon’s risk management software offers are accurate and automatic. These reports offer proper data on the organisation’s objectives and the related risks along with the necessary steps to take to mitigate those risks.

It is true that can still technically perform risk management manually. However, it would serve you better to invest in software. Risk management software helps you make complex decisions more effectively, get a good grip on possible risks and accurate results on how to prevent it. If you are looking for how to get started with risk management software, taking advantage of our free trial is the best way to go.

 

Why You Should Take Your Company’s Onsite Inductions Online

If money makes the world go round, then employees make a company go round. Just like money, employee and contractor management is not an easy task. Employers are not only legally responsible for the health and safety of their workers, but they are also morally responsible too.

This is especially true in high-risk industries such as construction and manufacturing where employees face various risks every day. Workplace safety and hazard prevention is a priority worldwide, and several guidelines have been put in place to guide companies on international best practices.

In order to remain compliant with these standards, companies are required to offer induction-training programs to help new employees or contract workers stay both safe and productive. These training programs are always onsite and need someone to oversee the program.

 

The Downside of Traditional Onsite Inductions

Due to the risk(s) involved in the job to be done, a proper induction process is required to ensure new employees, and contract workers understand the safety guidelines. While that is a good thing, the method with which it is done makes it a problem.

The traditional method requires in-person supervision to ensure the training is done correctly and efficiently. Depending on the scope of the project, the number of contractors employed will vary and so will their availability.

This means that the induction training could happen two or three times a week, and it is not uncommon to see just one or two contract workers attending the training. You are wasting a lot of time and effort by continually arranging in-person induction training for contractors who might not be working in your company for more than a week – sometimes lesser.

If you find this traditional method of onsite induction redundant, then you are alone. By using a Contractor Induction Software, you can improve and streamline your company’s entire induction training process.

 

What is a Contractor Induction Software?

A contractor induction software is an online solution that enables employers to quickly, and cost-effectively induct a new staff or contract worker. This software helps you to train your workers so that they arrive ready to work and compliant.

It should be noted that online induction could not replace a site-specific induction that will require meeting in person to cover any specific dangers or hazards. However, it is good enough to cut down on wasted time and allows everyone to be more productive.

You can expect several benefits from deploying a contractor induction software in your company. These include:

  • A significant reduction in operational costs. Resources such as room space printed training materials and trainers would no longer be needed if the entire induction process was moved
  • Consistency in the dissemination of information by the trainer and the accuracy in retention by the contractors or new workers are highly increased.
  • Ability to assess the inductees and test their understanding of the entire training. Beakon’s Contractor Management software allows you to audit their performance and send them reminders etc.

As you can see, using technology to streamline your contractor induction programs will save you time and money. If you are unsure of how these benefits will work for your company, you can take advantage of a free, no-strings-attached trial of our online induction software.

Everything You Need To Know About Safety Management Systems Software

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.

 

Top Reasons Why You Should Implement an Injury Management System in Your Organisation

Nobody says running a business was easy. From managing your employees (and contractors) to ensure your workplace is safe and compliant with all the necessary regulations, not to mention keeping a good eye on your finances, there are many moving parts to running a successful company.

However, one aspect of running a business that is often always overlooked, and yet essential, is injury management and return to work. Any business with employees is required to have an injury management system in place as well as an effective return to work program.

What is an Injury Management System and Return to Work Program?

An injury management system and a return to work program are the same. It is a requirement for all businesses, and it is designed to help injured workers make an early (and safe) return back into the workplace.

The system requires three entities to run smoothly. The first is the employer (your company), the second is a medical management team, and finally, the third is the insurer. All three parties must work together to ensure that employees are quickly reintegrated back into the workforce as soon as they are medically fit.

Benefits of Implementing an Injury Management System in Your Organisation

There are several benefits to implementing an injury management system in your organisation. Examples of these include:

  • The Ability to Retain Experienced Workers: The strength of any company lies in its workforce. Therefore, it is essential to do everything possible to keep highly motivated, top-performing employees in your company for as long as possible. Implementing an injury management system ensures that workers are quickly treated and integrated back into your workforce.
  • The Opportunity to Reduce Expenses: One of the secrets to growing any businesses is to reduce costs and increase profit. While it might seem like spending to take care of an injured employee is expensive, it is a cost-saving measure in the long term. This is because implementing an injury management system eliminates the need to hire and train a new employee as a replacement for the injured one. Additionally, it reduces the chances of paying high compensations costs to the injured worker.
  • It Helps Build Better Employee Relations: Employee-loyalty is quickly becoming outdated with more and more workers embracing the freelancing model. Unlike decades ago when companies expect employees to start and end their careers at their organisation, things are much different now. Implementing an injury management system in your organisation enables you to demonstrate to your employees that you can care about their welfare, thus eliciting loyalty from them.

Implementing an injury management system is no longer hard. This is because Beakon’s Injury Management System and Return to Work Module can be used to create, store and track all Workers Compensation information. It should be noted that this software could also be integrated with our Incident Reporting system, thus allowing companies to consolidate all documentation in a secure and confidential platform. You can grab a free trial here to see how this software can be quickly deployed across your organisation.

 

 

The Benefits of Using Task Management Software For Your Company

Time and money are two of the most valuable resources we have as humans. The same holds true in the business world as well, because companies are constantly striving either to make more money or to be more productive.

Most often than not, however, they are trying to do both. The good news is that a task management software helps you do both. When you deploy a task management software in your company, you are well on your way to becoming more productive which in turn directly influences your bottom line – more revenue.

This article looks at some of the benefits of using a task management software and how you can get your hands on one through a free trial.

 

Task Management Software Enables Your Employees to Be More Productive

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, time and money are two key factors for both people and businesses alike. A task management software enables your employees to be more productive and efficient because Instead of wasting their time on repetitive tasks, that can be easily automated using our task management software. This helps them save valuable time that they can spend on getting more work done, thus making them not only productive but also efficient.

 

Task Management Software Helps To Improve Teamwork in Your Company

Another key to productivity and efficiency is teamwork. When all your employees are working together in complete symmetry, the chances are high that productivity will increase as well. Good task management software enables all your company’s activities and information to be stored in a centralised location. This provides the opportunity for anyone in your company, regardless of what department they are, easy access to information they can leverage.

 

Task Management Software Allows You to Track Your Employee’s Productivity Time

Probably one of the most significant benefits you can gain from deploying task management in your company is the ability to track, record and monitor the time your employees spend on a specific task. There are several reasons why this is important. For example, it enables you to track the efficiency in which individual employee or contractor is working. This information will prove useful in a review and appraisal meeting where you can either praise top-performing workers or provide support for laggards. Another reason why tracking time is important is that once you know who your top performers are, you can quickly begin to assign them more tasks, which directly results in more productivity and as a result, more revenue.

Conclusion

Task management is an important aspect of any company that values growth and productivity. Beakon’s task management software is one of the industry’s leading productivity management platforms, and that is because it is easy to use, can easily be automated and most importantly, because it is cloud-based and can easily be accessed by anyone of your employees or contractors. If you want to take our software for a spin without any financial commitment, you can grab a free, no-strings-attached trial here.

 

3 Reasons To Invest In A Cloud-Based Workplace Safety Management System

Managing workplace safety is not an easy task. This is because the WHS (or EHS) systems that most companies implement is a combination of paper templates, excel spreadsheets, and several isolated software solutions (that do various other things) are all combined into a faulty system that is impossible to report on.

These systems are impossible to report on because they are very confusing to understand from the user’s perspective. As a result, shortcuts that eventually cost the company, in the long run, are taken. Making the switch to a cloud-based safety management system is the solution, and we explore five of the most important reasons why you should make the switch today.

Reason #1 – Cost Reduction

One of the most important reasons to switch to a cloud-based safety management system is because it will enable you to reduce your current expenditures.

If you are a proactive and safety-conscious company, the chances are that you have already invested in several safety management systems including:

If that is the case, then you are literally throwing money away because the costs of these stand-alone systems add up quickly. Another disadvantage of these systems is the disconnect experienced in the data gathered.

The solution is Beakon’s all-in-one WHS software. Our software has the enables you to manage every part of your safety requirements in one cloud-based platform at a very affordable cost. Apart from the cost reduction, you also experience an easy to use platform with a central reporting system that enables you to have a good overview of all your company’s safety requirements without having to log into multiple systems.

 

Reason #2 – Cost Avoidance

The next best thing for reducing operational costs for your company is to avoid unnecessary costs in the first place. The best way to do both successfully is to deploy a cloud-based safety management system.

One of the most obvious ways a safety management system can help you avoid unnecessary costs is by reducing your company’s exposure to insurance claims.

Due to complex data gathering systems as a result of incorporating several safety management systems, chances of the company being exposed to litigation rises significantly.

However, an all-in-one safety management system that provides automation and notifications, your company’s HR and legal departments will be on top of every new development.

 

Reason #3 – Increased Productivity

Finally, deploying a cloud-based safety management system increases your employee’s productivity thus, directly influencing your company’s bottom line.

Because you can easily automate several tasks within our software, specific functions like issuing a permit to work, filing incident reports and even managing contractors can quickly be done in a matter of minutes instead of hours.

 

Conclusion

Speed to respond to incidents or hazards, prevention of dangerous situations and improved safety planning are some of the advantages you can expect when you start a free trial of Beakon’s all-in-one cloud-based safety management system.

 

 

 

How To Guide: Using A Learning Management System To Onboard New Employees

Gone are the days when employees are expected to start and end their careers in a particular company. With the increasing trend of freelancing and lifestyle business options gaining ground among most millennials, statistics reveal that new employees base their decision about staying in a company for the long-term on the first six months, with about one-third leaving for a better opportunity within that timeframe.

As a result, companies no longer have the luxury (or leisure) of offering on-the-job training for new employees. Companies want their employees to hit the ground running and be as productive as possible from the get-go. This is even more important in industries that hire seasonally such as hospitality, manufacturing, and sales.

The best way, therefore, to help new hires hit the ground running is to offer a systemized onboarding process that indoctrinates them into the company culture while familiarising them with the procedures needed to carry out their job duties with utmost efficiency. This can be done by using a learning management system or LMS to create an induction training that will arm new employees with everything they need to be fully functional after their first week on the job.

Benefits of Using a Learning Management System for Employee Onboarding

Before the explosion of online courses and learning management systems, either the Human Resource manager or some other senior ranking executive in the company usually did onboarding for new hires. This was essential because factors like company culture, compliance and safety protocols and organisational procedures could not be left to any junior staff.

These days, however, new employees can get up to speed in less than a week with the help of a learning management system. Implementing one of these systems into your organisation opens your company up to a myriad of benefits, including:

  • Reducing Training Costs: One of the key benefits of an LMS is the fact that it cuts down the costs (and time) of training new employees significantly. So, instead of investing time and resources to train new employees, they can log in to your LMS system on any device and start their onboarding process.
  • Boosting Employee Performance: Another key benefit of implementing an LMS in your company, as mentioned in the previous section, is the ability to enable employees to become more efficient without the need for face-to-face training.
  • Ensures And Accelerates Compliance Training: Onboarding new employees more often than not has to do with ensuring that compliance with the organisation’s goals, mission and vision are imparted as quickly as possible. An LMS accelerates this process for recruits.
  • Cuts Down The Need For Direct Training From Senior Staff: While spending time with your organisation’s top-level executives are a morale-booster for new employees, it dramatically reduces the productivity of said executive and could directly impact the company’s bottom line. Leveraging a learning management system to automate this process provides a win-win situation that leaves everyone happy.

It is essential for your company to indoctrinate new employees into your organisation as quickly as possible. The most effective and scalable way to do that is by implementing a learning management system that will walk new hires through your company’s most important values and processes. This not only increases your employee retention rate but also ensures that your new hires can hit the ground running and be more productive.

 

Audit Software: The Inevitable Future Your Company Cannot Afford To Ignore

Auditing is an integral part of any company that operates under tight regulations and standards, regardless of its size or the industry it serves. It is a means of evaluating the effectiveness of the company and its business operations to achieve its business objectives while preventing fraud or misappropriation of assets.

However, for corporations or companies with several branches across the country (or overseas), auditing is never an easy task. This is especially true for those who are still using a manual auditing process, which is traditionally done with papers and calculators.

With technology disrupting every sector of today’s modern business activities, it is no surprise that even companies are adopting a better way of conducting their auditing process. Auditing software is a revolutionary way of auditing companies in a faster and more effective way to achieve the same results.

Benefits of Audit Software for Businesses

The introduction of Software-as-a-Service or SaaS has improved the efficiency of companies all around the world. This holds true even for companies looking to increase compliance. Adopting software for your company’s auditing process presents many benefits. We discuss some of the most obvious ones in this section.

Audit Software Enables Businesses to Improve Its Performance

At the core of all auditing processes lie the company’s productivity and performance indicators. The auditing process is designed to help auditors look more deeply into the operations of a business and pinpoint non-performing departments and inefficient procedures. Audit software enables auditors to do this more efficiently, thereby improving the company’s performance quickly and efficiently.

Audit Software Saves Time and Reduces Stress

One of the significant drawbacks of auditing is the time and effort it takes – both for the auditors and for the company’s employees. Auditors are known to be enveloped in several papers trying to make sense of data to draw out any meaningful conclusions. Also, the larger the company they are auditing, the more stressful the whole process becomes – which in turn increases the chance of human error. Audit software reduces the time it takes to conduct an audit from weeks to just hours. Additionally, audit software reduces paperwork and provides a comprehensive data trail thus decreasing the overall stress needed to complete the audit process.

Audit Software Improves the Accuracy of the Data Captured During the Auditing Process

Another major drawback with manual, paper audits is that it restricts auditors to writing notes and completing checklists without any additional evidence. This leaves room for both human error and bias because an audit report could be as detailed or as vague as possible. An audit management software enables an auditor to capture evidence in real-time and include multimedia files such as audio, video, and photo. This reduces the need for interpretation by anybody, thus eliminating human error and the need to take additional notes.

Conclusion

Audit software is the future of auditing, and if your company performs regular audits, then you should deploy one in your organisation. It does not matter whether you are auditing for safety management or financial management, audit software is guaranteed to help your company save time and increase both compliance and productivity.

Contractor Management Software: What It Is And Why You Need To Invest In One Today

Managing contractors is an essential aspect for any company that works with several independent contractors. There are several reasons and benefits why a company might decide to bring in contractors to supplement their current staff.

One of the main advantages of bringing on contractors is that it allows specialist skill sets to be deployed into an organisation without any long-term commitments. This allows a company to be more efficient without the overhead costs of hiring someone new – especially when the services needed are not recurrent.

Common Drawbacks of Manually Managing Contractors

Regardless of company size, when you have several contractors on your payroll, there has to be a management process in place to help you keep track of all the projects going on. A common occurrence, especially in larger organisations, is for contractors to employ sub-contractors to handle different aspects of the projects they were commissioned to do. This means you will regularly need to issue a new permit to work systems and conduct inductions for these new faces every time. This is not only time-consuming and stressful but also redundant when a contractor management software can do all these with just the click of a button.

What Is Contractor Management Software?

Just as the name implies, a contractor management software enables you to manage all the contractors currently under your company’s payroll. If you continuously outsource projects to contractors, then investing in this one piece is crucial to the overall effectiveness of your company.

This software not only enables you to collate all commercial contractor information into a single database, but also to automate processes across national, regional, and local contractors. Standard features you can expect in a premium contractor management software includes:

  • Managing insurance, licenses, SWMS, JSA’s and other documents.
  • Online Induction and training.
  • E-learning audio and video content
  • Automating tasks and alerts, SMS or email.
  • Remotely audit contractors online instantly.

Our management software for contractors allows you to track all your inductions, audits, and documents in one place, and on one platform, thus eliminating the need for paperwork.

Top Benefits of Contractor Management Software

Organizing and managing work orders, while also monitoring performance and ensuring contract workers are productive are some of the most compelling reasons to invest in a contractor management software.

Other examples include:

  • Onsite check-in and check-out
  • Work verification through photo and video upload
  • Centralized data, thus eliminating the need for paperwork
  • Simplifies the exchange of documentation and forms essential to the completion of tasks
  • Real-time and automated reports and alerts based on project completion or other notifications
  • Reduces stress and saves time for both contractors and employers for repeatable tasks such as training and inductions.

Any contractor management solution worth your investment should have an easy-to-use, intelligent, and intuitive design for both you and your contractors. This, in turn, increases productivity, reduces costs, and minimises overall risk – all critical factors when working with contractors.

Conclusion

The benefits and importance of contractor management software cannot be overemphasised. It allows you to manage several contractors without the hassle of being overwhelmed with paperwork. If this sounds like what you would like to experience in your company without making any financial commitment, then you can take advantage of our free trial.