Does Your Incident Reporting System Help Keep You Compliant?

By Author: jamesbond
Total Articles: 12
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For most companies, the answer to this question would be something like, “Perhaps... a little. Probably not!” Unfortunately, incident reporting is one OHS management system that is often overlooked. Mainly because most companies already have one... of sorts. Most incident reporting systems, however, are paper-based with little more than an Excel spread sheet to provide reports.

There are a number of potentially dangerous problems with this.

1.Incidents often go unreported. Due to the complexity of the system or the lack of importance demonstrated by simply having a second-rate reporting system, employees – and managers – often choose not to report incidents.
2.Reported incidents often remain un-corrected. Unless there are systems in place to ensure that incidents are investigated and corrected, they often remain unchanged. Particularly smaller incidents that may be considered unimportant.
3.Creating meaningful reports can take days, even weeks. Maintaining data is one thing, turning it into meaningful statistics that enable you to make intelligent OHS decisions is a much more complex task. ...
... The information gathered from having access to a suite of reliable, up-to-the-minute reports, however, can prove to be the difference between a safe and an unsafe workplace.
4.Potential reporting capabilities are not fully understood. As OHS professionals, we like to think we know it all. We don’t – and we don’t have to. The fact is that most of us do not know how to make the most of the data we have access to. An incident reporting system that contains comprehensive reporting capabilities is likely to provide us with information in a way that we had never thought of –as well as all the ways we have.

Compliance is in the reporting

Producing up-to-the-minute graphical reports across all aspects of incident reporting will be a key factor when it comes to proving your OHS compliance. So make sure your system can produce them! A good system will even compile a set of reports into a PDF or PowerPoint presentation automatically. And don’t assume that if your organisation has complex reporting needs, such as multiple sites, divisions or operations, that your reporting needs can’t be met – there are some great systems out there.

In fact there is an increasing availability of incident reporting systems on the market today. Some are better than others, so be careful. Make sure you understand exactly what your needs are before you begin your assessment process. Not all incident reporting systems will have everything you need. It is also a good idea to consider fully-hosted online options as they have the added benefit of eliminating IT issues.

Every company is different - different organisational structure, different safety-related language. Make sure your Incident report or Risk Management Systems provides the ability to customise to your company's specifics. For more information,please visit our website http://www.incidentreporting.com.au