Can A Workplace Safety Software Help You Stay OSHA-Compliant?
OSHA compliance is the ultimate test of how seriously a company treats employee health and safety. Learn how workplace safety software can improve compliance.
Complying with OSHA regulations requires more than just investing in training and safety tools, although they are essential for keeping a safe workplace.
Employers who want to keep a streak of OSHA compliance and avoid hefty fines should also invest in proactive safety technology. That is, a program that delivers intelligent insights that help administrators detect and even audit occupational injuries before they occur.
Whether you are a small business — with a pocket-sized OHS budget or a large organization, this article highlights how workplace safety software can help you stay compliant with OSHA.
Safety Software Helps You Track employee safety performance .
Employees (or say humans) are the weakest link in a safety program. Even if you designed a fail-proof OHS plan, accidents or injuries could still occur due to negligence.
Training employees and providing PPE is essential, but you don’t want to stop at that. You should also track their performance to see how they comply with regulations. That’s where workplace safety software come in-
It can help you break your safety regulations into a list of actionable points and follow how your workers comply with each one.
For instance, a worker should do the following and mark them as done in a mobile application before climbing a height:
- Strap in a protective helmet
- Check guardrails
- Check fall arrest systems, etc.
The mobile application seamlessly records this activity in the safety managers’ digital logbook. Following this process comes with four benefits:
- You can avoid OSHA fines in defense that you trained employees on using the PPE. The injury is entirely due to their negligence.
- You can use this process to develop Safety Performance Indicators that scores employees according to how well they adhere to safety regulations associated with their daily tasks.
- In addition, you can then design a reward system for employees who perform well in the SPI to boost their morale.
- Lastly, you can record day-to-day safety performance data and develop proactive safety improvement plans.
Tracking employees’ safety performance with software helps you stay compliant with OSHA. You will identify an employees’ level of commitment to safety and correct any potential safety hazards before they cause an accident.
Efficient Safety Data Sheet Management.
Workplace injuries involving chemical hazard is the sixth most frequently cited OSHA safety violation. In fact, recently, four companies received around $1.6 million in penalties due to the death of six workers in a liquid nitrogen leak.
Typically, employers must provide a comprehensive Safety Data Sheet (SDS) to educate workers on the facility’s hazards associated with chemicals.
The SDS contains valuable information such as
- details on the potential hazards of working with a particular chemical
- How to safely handle and store the chemical.
- And first-aid information in case of an accident.
However, it is not easy to keep track of and manage a safety data sheet in the typical 3-ring binder. This is especially true if your workplace contains a lot of different chemicals.
Inaccurate or missing information is the common blind spot that may lead to serious injuries. Workplace safety software can automate how you record, update and distribute SDS. It sets up a digital inventory where you can
- access all your chemical portfolios anywhere at any time.
- Use smart search capabilities.
- Store records
- And generate advanced reports
That way, you can rest assured that you have fulfilled OSHA Hazard Communication Standard 29 CFR 1910.1200.
Promote workplace safety culture
Clear and consistent safety culture aids the establishment of processes and principles for ensuring a safe working environment. If this is not done, many organizations will fall short on their safety plans.
Utilizing a digital health and safety solution is a great way to promote agile safety culture in the workplace. This software help to:
- boost safety communication through a digital user interface
- enhance training and risk control
- encourage teamwork and collaboration, and so on.
Once you reduce the time spent on communication and training, you can then focus on more value-adding tasks to stay compliant with OSHA.
Develop safety training programs that fit your needs
With proper safety training, employees are better equipped to identify and avoid workplace safety incidents. In addition, employers can reduce their liability in the event of an accident or injury.
Many organizations fail to accomplish efficient safety training programs due to:
- lacking the resources required to create one
- Lacking time or human resources to develop and implement a safety training program.
- Lacking the expertise to create a comprehensive safety training program.
An efficient workplace safety software can help facilities get past these barriers and design a safety training program that caters to the organization’s specific needs.
For instance, AI camera sensors can identify common patterns with a specific incident. An example is how the system uses its PPE detection capability to detect and report if an employee did not wear a hard hat when an injury occurred.
Hence, a safety officer can double down on this information to design a safety training program on PPE use. The system also provides ready-to-use, customizable and comprehensive templates that can help you create a broad safety training program.
Finally, the software assists in the management of employee training record so that you have an audit trail of who has been trained and when — reducing liability for accidents/injuries.
That way, you will always comply with OSHA’s safety training mandate and enjoy a safer workplace.
Digitalize safety incident report
It can be challenging to keep track of all the safety incidents with paper records and spreadsheets. It is even harder to update everyone on the latest information.
This can lead to mistakes and potential accidents. And when all safety data are scattered in different places, identifying trends or problems with the safety program becomes a needle-threading task.
But it doesn’t have to be…
You can use safety software to digitalize safety incident reports in the workplace. The software tracks incidents in real-time and generates detailed reports in a fraction of the time required for manual incidents reporting.
When an injury or near-miss occurs, the worker reports it through the software, sending an alert to the manager. If necessary, the manager can assess the incident and contact a safety professional through the app.
This allows for real-time communication between workers, managers, and safety professionals, which helps to
- Improve response time to critical situations.
- Provide an easy way to access data reports on past incidents
- Allowing companies to create more effective training programs.
Digitalizing safety incident reports is vital for your OSHA compliance and safety.
Enhance safety audit management
Organizations have a great challenge with safety audit management because it requires time and effort. But the consequences of failing a safety audit are more inconvenient. Ambitious companies who want to avoid costly consequences can automate manual and repetitive tasks during a safety audit.
That’s where workplace safety software comes in.
This software is equipped with intuitive interfaces and controls. Typically, the internal compliance officer or an employee can use it to-
- plan
- schedule
- perform
- and publish safety audit reports across your organization at ease.
It enables a robust auditing cycle where auditors can build and customize audits forms and safety inspection checklists with industry-standard templates.
Another thing it does is equip auditors with insights through advanced audit analysis. Therefore, the key findings are used to provide expert recommendations and develop an OSHA-compliant safety program.
Conclusion
Workplace Safety Software is a digital system that improves incident reporting, enhances employee safety performance, automates safety audits, and fosters a safety culture in the workplace.
