The workplace landscape has changed pretty dramatically over the last month with the spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19. Many people have found themselves having to work from home, or if they provide an essential service, then working under strict health and safety regulations. With so many new regulations coming into effect, and the necessity of wearing personal protective equipment it is more important than ever to make use of safety software to track the health of employees. But, how can safety software actually track employee health, and contribute to their overall well-being?
Ongoing Safety Training
When an employee first starts their job, it is necessary to make sure that they have the proper safety qualifications to start, and to provide onboarding with the new regulations for their current position. Each employee needs to have a personnel file that is dedicated to them, and while paper files were once the norm, these have become obsolete in today’s digital world. Safety technology provides a platform in which every employee, whether a high-level manager or an administrative assistant, can have a file with all of their health records in it, and access to the training modules that pertain to their position. Regulations can change rapidly, and if employees are unaware of these this can put them at risk. A portal which immediately shares regulatory changes, can help occupational health managers to quickly tweak or input new safety modules for continued training.
Maintain Compliance
Compliance is one of those key components that many organizations have to think about on an ongoing basis. Just as safety regulations have to be met by employees during this time, the overall organization has measures that they must follow as well. For multi-national organizations, and those that function in a variety of states or provinces, all of the health and safety regulations must be met. Software is able to help with this in a way that a paper-based system never can. As soon as a new rule or regulation comes into effect, a technology that allows for real time updates can immediately flag government regulatory changes in the system. That way, environmental, health, and safety managers can quickly see what areas are now non-compliant and ensure they become compliant as quickly as possible. In this rapidly changing landscape, compliance is a must both for the benefit of an organization, and for the overall health of employees.
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Increase Productivity
A healthy employee is a productive employee. Health does not simply mean that an employee has no workplace injuries, or a clean bill of health. It refers to well-being in general, and this comprises both mental and physical well-being. Companies that want to see an increase in productivity often need to assess their workforce for well-being. Ergonomics play an important part both in machinery design within factories, and in something as simple as the office chair that an administrative assistant must sit in for eight hours a day. Regular inspections are necessary if employees are going to be at their most productive. In order for safety software to be effective, it needs to have an ergonomic audit component. That way employee well-being can be assessed every time a new piece of equipment is installed or updated.
Trend Tracking
Incidents occur, that is a part of every business, whether it is a chemical spill or someone slipping and falling in an office space. Some of these incidents are unavoidable, but each one can offer up some important information that can be stored digitally and analyzed. There might be an as yet unidentified equipment error, or employees on a certain shift not wearing the proper safety equipment. These small errors that can lead to a lot of incidents can show up when safety software is able to analyze and provide trends in certain incidences. A health and safety manager might not be able to identify these trends on their own, but with the tap of a button, software can quickly analyze employee profiles, and past incidents to see if there is a trending problem that needs to be addressed by management.
Promote Mental Health Modules
During this time, a lot of companies have had to move quickly and adapt to a work from home model, that they may have never used before. This means that employees now need to have home offices, in some cases specialized equipment, and access to a very strong internet connection. A lot of procedures have become unnecessary, such as showing up on time to that Monday meeting. When it comes to health and well-being, employees now need to have access to an entirely automated out of office service. This can be achieved via employee assistance programs, which can be monitored, and adapted as necessary via the right technology. Everybody needs support during this time.
Keep your employees happy, and healthy by choosing the right technology to keep them safe.