‘We are currently in a dangerous culture where health and safety is suffering from being knocked for being ‘overly cautious’, run by single-minded individuals whose one purpose is to disable rather than enable.’ said Andy McDonald Managing Director of Knowledge Online this week. ‘With this reputation, the risk is that some companies and their employees could let their health and safety standards slip with the adage that ‘it won’t happen to me.’
Last week the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) warned plant hire companies* to make sure vehicles they supply are supplied in a safe condition after a company was prosecuted for hiring out an excavator without suitable rollover protection, and for failing to carry out pre and post-hire checks on equipment and hirers.
It was found that rollover protection had previously been fitted to the machine, but was absent at the time of hire. A number of other issues arose from the investigation that included the revelation that the company did not conduct any pre-hire checks on its machinery except for fuel, oil and water checks. It also failed to provide demonstration to the man injured on how to operate the machinery at time of delivery or to provide written instructions, safety procedures or operating manual for the excavator.
Andy continues ‘One answer is to create a bespoke form loaded onto a PDA for companies to run through before, at the time of delivery and after hire. This makes the whole reporting process an easy and integral part of the business, with reports that are easy to complete and download to a system which distributes them instantly.’
Following a successful launch, E- SAFE 100, a bespoke reporting and auditing software could be the answer for an industry which critically needs to address its health and safety issues. E-SAFE 100 dramatically reduces the amount of manual reporting by capturing data electronically and downloading it to Knowledge Online’s business information management system for monitoring and analysis. The software is loaded onto a handheld PDA and taken with the appropriate field representative, whether it be for health and safety, quality, environment or property audits.
Findings are entered directly into the handheld. E-SAFE 100 records it and creates a database of reports which can be emailed to the relevant people. If the report is not carried out it sends an alert up the chain. The system flags and resolves issues, preventing accidents or inefficiencies. This new and efficient software conducts real-time analysis that is ideal to check compliance based performance, carry out inspections, measure for best practice and allow for the automated escalation of an alert if necessary. Whether a business works out of one location or across many premises, E-SAFE 100 can seriously help improve audits and inspections.
* The press release from the HSE can be found at www.hse.org
E-SAFE 100
www.knowledgeonline.net
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