How Does an Occupational Safety Management System Work?

Field technicians and personnel often encounter different challenges and worksite hazards. Accidents and injuries are more likely to happen without a set protocol or the enforcement of safety practices.

To help enforce these practices, many companies rely on a team management app for field managers, inspectors, and technicians.

This software helps different organizations enforce existing occupational health and safety practices. However, it’s essential to understand that these practices differ between companies and change with new developments.

How Does an Occupational Safety Management System Work?

Workplace safety is a massive concern for employees and employers. Aside from meeting legal requirements, investing in occupational safety through a solid management system has many benefits.

So how does an occupational safety management system work?

In a nutshell, it comprises various parts and processes connected via an efficient, centralized information system. Organizations with solid safety management policies are known to update them regularly.

While they vary depending on the organization, they often contain the following components:

#1. Effective Planning/Strategy

A safe work environment starts with a comprehensive policy with a sound rationale. This policy must meet national standards while contributing to the organization’s overall performance.

More specifically, an effective policy development strategy should include the following:

• Applicable national, international, and collective standards and agreements
• Potential health and safety hazards that employees may encounter within the worksite
• Available effective control measures and emergency prevention that employees can exercise
• Extensive documentation of safety activities (e.g., training, inspection records) accessible via a central information system;
• First aid provision

#2. Incident Reporting

Incident reporting is the most critical component of any occupational health and safety management system. It should also be optimized since the system is accessible to everyone within the organization.

A team management app makes it much easier for employees to fill out and send an incident report. As a result, employees can fulfill the following promptly:

• Report potential worksite risks and hazards
• Review completed incident forms with permission
• Report accidents and injuries in real-time

#3. Risk Assessment

Effective occupational health and safety systems should allow senior management to conduct risk assessments efficiently. Because traditional paper-based systems can entail more manual work, many companies opt for automation.

Occupational health and safety management software is essential for filing and analyzing reports. They also reduce the time management personnel need to create a working solution.

#4. Training and Certification

A safe work environment improves morale and performance. Employees develop the skills they need to respond to emergencies with a proper system for documenting training and certification.

Team management automation software can streamline and keep track of employees’ training. On top of responding to emergencies and following correct protocol, they should be able to do the following:

• Fill out incident forms
• Send or save completed forms to the right point persons in the organization
• Implement actionable tasks

#5. Data Accessibility

Every system has to keep track of the management's data to analyze and create effective action plans. However, the amount of forms that need filing and sorting makes paper-based systems tedious and slow.

Large organizations with multiple branches typically have issues with these systems. As a result, management software with a central information system has become necessary for fast and easy processing.

#6. Communication

Communication among employees is crucial in all industries and organizations. Field technicians, managers, and help desk staff of all levels need to communicate regularly for the following:

• Project/task updates among employees
• Sharing information between colleagues and managers within and across different departments
• Managers and staff need to communicate with stakeholders and update them regarding the organization’s progress

How a Cross-Platform Team Reach App Can Improve Worker Health and Safety

Technicians, field managers, and help desk staff often communicate and handle large amounts of information in real-time. On top of this, they must also make decisions to complete tasks or projects within the allotted schedule.

Field managers, in particular, must also ensure that everyone on the worksite follows the proper health and safety practices. Here’s how a team reach app can help enforce protocol:

Automate and Optimize Form Processing

Traditional pen-and-paper systems take up too much time in industries with time-sensitive operations. Paper reports can take a long time to arrive at managers’ desks during work-related accidents or injuries.

Today, it’s possible to sidestep this problem entirely. Most organizations use cross-platform software to make filing out incident reports easier. On top of this, sending them to management is much faster and takes seconds.

Improve Data Transparency

Field managers and safety inspectors must review many reports to enforce safety standards and protocols on-site. But because they aren’t always at the said worksite, discrepancies can happen due to human error.

Occupational safety management automation software also has the advantage of improved data transparency and accuracy. Features like geo-tagging and map filter overlays help admin users track project advancements in real-time.

Enable Communication Between Field Workers and Managers

Clear communication is critical in many organizations where work hazards can result in damage or injuries. It can make all the difference between successful operations and disasters in construction, mining, or power generation industries.

Worker safety management software also keeps communications clear between all levels. It allows employees to access and share the correct information quickly and easily with little downtime.

The Takeaway

An effective occupational health and safety management system are more than a legal requirement for companies like Task Management, Inc. It provides a clear plan and set of policies that employees across all levels can follow to ensure worker health, safety, and success.

Like most systems, a workplace safety management system has many moving parts. These parts not only need sound planning but also need the right tools to be effective.

Occupational safety management software is one such tool. Automating various processes makes it easier for employees to gain crucial skills and follow safety protocols. Additionally, this software keeps all necessary information in one central database for easy access.