OHS management software has been around for a good few years and there are some quite sophisticated packages available that can make keeping on top of your workplace safety requirements very simple indeed. However, there are still a great many businesses that either run old-fashioned, stand-alone OHS software, or still rely on a paper-bases system of reports and files stuffed full of paper.
Many small businesses and partnerships where there are minimal staff still choose to operate a paper-based OHS system, simply because they see this as the simplest and cheapest option for them, especially if they are running their business on a tight budget.
It could be the case, especially with smaller businesses, that they lack the time or knowledge to operate a modern OHS management solution. Most often staff are just too busy with their own work tasks to afford any time to look at modern solutions for upgrading their OHS system. This is a great shame because once they have a good quality solution in place, it will vastly improve their record keeping and will take far less time to maintain logs and files than running a paper-based system takes.
Upgrading your OHS system
Choosing a good OHS software solution can be really helpful for keeping on top of incident reporting, hazard management, contractor/employee inductions, scheduling health and safety training, recording certificate renewals and setting reminders for inspections and maintenance.
The problem in most well-established workplaces is that the management can fear change. If their existing paper-based system is currently doing the job, then there will be a lot of reluctance or even resistance to upgrade, despite their existing system only operating to a barely passable level.
If you are a manager or a working in a workplace that currently runs either a paper-based OHS system, or relies on old, out of date software that runs on a stand-alone system, then for the sake of your own health and safety, as well as that of your colleagues, you should push for an upgraded system that utilizes the latest cloud-based OHS management systems.
Pushing for your concerns to make your company management make a business decision to adopt and implement an up to date system will not only help to reassure staff that the company has their best interests at heart, but will also raise employee confidence, which in turn can increase productivity. All this positive action can work well to improve your company’s bottom line.
Time saving OHS practices
Time is money with business, so showing that upgrading to a good quality OHS software system can be far less time consuming that operating and existing paper-based process. With a paper-based system, everything needs to be entered manually by hand. Should you need to create a report to circulate to management or staff, then you will need to sit and sort through piles or recorded data to find the information that you want to use. This can then need copying again into another report, and then the report will need to be printed off, photocopied many times and physically distributed. Phew! How much time would this waste?
The cost of the paperwork, printing, copying etc. is going to be expensive, especially if you are going to produce multiple copies of your finished report. Why do all this when you can use a good OHS software package to retrieve, collate and analyse all your needed data into one report. This report can then be circulated electronically to everyone on your list with a few clicks of your keyboard – no time wasted standing at the photocopier!
