The Coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of health and safety in the workplace, as well as why there’s no better time to begin using audit/inspection software.

New Safety Measures

Government guidelines are asking for employers to conduct Coronavirus Risk Assessments to establish necessary controls. Some changes will also involve audits and inspections and permits to work. Safety audit and inspection forms will have to acknowledge if new safety measures like social distancing are being followed.

With so many processes seeing changes, it is the right time to use audit/inspection software. In addition to improved efficiency, configurability is a great feature of audit/inspection software. You can modify a configurable solution in the future, either because procedures evolve or unforeseen circumstances like coronavirus arise.

By implementing audit/inspection software, handling unanticipated circumstances such as COVID-19 will be less disruptive, given the transparency, automation, customizability, and repeatability that inspection software facilitates.

Anxiety Can Have Negative Effects on an Employee’s Productivity

Although COVID-19 is a physiological illness, it has also led to a mental health crisis. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported rising levels of anxiety and depression on a global level. Many workers are anxious about returning to their workplace, and most of their concerns derive from the risk of infection either during their commute or at work.

According to WHO, anxiety and depression have a significant impact on the economy. The estimated cost to the world economy in lost productivity is U.S. $1 trillion per year. A negative working environment can lead to mental and physical health problems that result in lost productivity.

A usual cause of anxiety is lacking a sense of control. By including your staff in safety enforcement, you are giving them some level of control over their well-being. A good way to do that is to provide all employees with the tools to report observations—exactly what inspection software is designed to do.

We Have to Rely on Technology More

So many businesses have shifted online because of the new need for physical distancing. The automation abilities of audit/inspection software help save middle- and upper-management, as well as field workers, time that could be better spent on their primary job duties rather than administrative work.

Audit/inspection software equips audit and inspection teams with the means to more quickly assess risk more, monitor performance, and collect and share inspection results. With this oversight and knowledge, there will be less disruption to operations. 

The software’s reports and dashboards—with clear graphs, charts, and rates—can be used when publishing safety announcements, both externally and internally.

Takeaway

Investing in configurable audit/inspection software will improve your corporate reputation and strengthen your company’s relationship with customers and regulators, as well as help you attract new employees--especially as long as COVID-19 persists.By investing in this software now, you will be sure that your business is in a position to deal with the crisis, or some other disruptor around the corner.

You can promote safety culture in your organization by choosing to use The Checker Software or one of our Checklist Books. Please take a look and get in touch with us to learn more.

Image: Shutterstock

Tags: safety management, safety awareness, workplace safety, legal compliance, inspection software, mobile inspections, inspection management, risk assessments, safety audits, audit/inspection software

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