You know you need to record your company’s health and safety data. But there are plenty of ways you could mess it up. And that’s not going to help anyone – least all of the people you have to keep safe.
Health and safety data capture is a tricky business. There are lots of possibilities for something to go wrong. Especially when humans are responsible for entering that info into your system. You know how fallible we are.
What are some of the most common challenges you could face when capturing your data?
Silos of data
When you analyse your health and safety data, there’s a lot of different info you need to look at. And these various sorts can typically fall into different categories – from risk assessments to training and countless others. Silos of data are the result. This can mean different people are looking at different things – the things they see as relevant to them and their specific roles.
And when this happens, important flags get missed. And your business gets in trouble. Avoiding silos of data is so important to ensure the safety of your team. One of the most crucial things you could do for your colleagues is to keep all your important info together in one place. This means it’s easily accessible by everyone who needs to see it.
Incorrect information entered
There are always going to be errors made when people are responsible for recording stats and figures. This is just an unfortunate element of human nature. People can input the wrong info by mistake. We’ve all seen it before. Whether it’s a temperature, time or transaction being recorded, there’s always a risk of a figure being missed or info being entered in the wrong order.
People can also input a defect in the wrong place, upping the chances it could be missed. Without the necessary awareness of what’s going on in the business, you could miss accident and incident trends. This means you won’t be able to prevent them in the future. There’s also the chance someone could assign the wrong note to a defect or image. The possibilities for mistakes are endless! They mean your company faces the very real threat of a significant safety failure. And this is a very concerning reality for businesses.
Duplicate information entered
When multiple people are tasked with monitoring the health and safety of a business, this can lead to the potential for duplicate data entries. This is especially true when you’re using older systems, like spreadsheets and clipboards.
Just imagine: someone shows up for work, not realising that that a certain check has been done and does it again, entering the same information. This gets added to the initial check and then means the wrong analysis is drawn. It’s easily done. It emphasises the need for a more sophisticated checklist and monitoring system.
Data not entered when it’s needed
When you have people entering the data you need for your health and safety checks, it can easily be done at the wrong time – or not at all. This means you might miss the deadline you’ve been set for delivering your health and safety report to your board. And if they don’t have all the facts, they can’t make informed decisions about how to improve safety management.
A missed check can also lead to serious trouble – failed audits and inspections and potentially fines and legal consequences. As the person responsible for safety in your organisation, you could find yourself facing a prison sentence.
You need a system that alerts the right people when a task or check has to be done. A system like DRI can help you with that. It sends you instant notifications through alerts and email, helping you correct anything that may need to be addressed.
Don’t forget to check back in next week, when we’ll discuss how your company can get your health and safety data capture right. In the meantime, if you’d like some help with it, just give us a quick call on 0161 967 1616 or fill out our form below.