MY SAFETY LEARNINGS DURING INTERNSHIP AT LUMIFORM
Today is the last day of my internship at Lumiform… During the eight (!) months of working at Lumiform, I learned a lot about doing business. Particularly in the area of safety. So, as a kind of put-myself-together reflection, I would like to share my safety learnings with you!
#1 THE PROBLEM OF OUTDATED SAFETY PRACTICES
One of the most amusing things for me was that even global enterprises with sophisticated operations run by hundreds of workers still experience difficulty with safety procedures. Personally, I always associate such companies with technological progress because to sustain your operations in so many locations and make all the departments adhere to the same standards, everything has to be digitized, right?
Everything down to the simple if-the-lights-are-working check. When you think about international fast-food chains, for example, you would never expect them to do vehicle checks or HACCP inspections with pen and paper.
Surprisingly, they still do. Though it brings so many inconveniences and eventually can lead to decreased customer satisfaction which can happen because of some overlooked issue. We never ponder over it, but businesses often underestimate the importance of being in sync with technology while supervising safety. This is unacceptable especially during the time of the pandemic.
#2 GOING DIGITAL IS EASY EVEN WITH STANDARDIZED INSPECTIONS
Frankly speaking, before working at Lumiform I also didn’t know that mobile tools can be so widely applicable for inspections. For example, I could imagine it being used for a simple hygiene or maintenance check. The one which employees just do for themselves to ensure that their supervisor will not be mad at them the next morning for forgetting to lock the cooling room.
However, checklist apps are so much more than this! I wrote articles about how useful; such a tool can be for all kinds of ISO inspections. Also, for OHSAS, BSCI, and ISPS audits and for supervising Lean practices, for instance. It is possible to adjust these forms to the digital format, enabling you to do an inspection using your smartphone instead of paper forms — saving trees and time.
#3 SAFETY FIELD IS HUGE
We never think about it, but there are thousands of people all over the world performing safety inspections in all kinds of industries. You have inspectors in manufacturing, mining, construction, real estate, public services, pharmacy, retail, and this list can be endless.
This is an enormous market, the potential and the demands of which are usually neglected by other businesses. Lots of these inspectors are simply unaware of the benefits they can get from digitizing their procedures. Software producers are often not targeting them enough and also not tailoring their product features to their needs.
#4 THE IMPORTANCE OF REPORTING
Every safety manager is obliged to create a weekly/monthly report to have an outlook on the recent inspections and areas for improvement. What is funny (or sad, to be more precise) is that they have to, most likely, type them manually. Therefore, they just do inspections on the site with laptops in their hands to be able to directly create a report after the check is done.
Every time I heard this in a conversation with a safety inspector, my naturally weak arms already started hurting. I was just visualizing doing a 4-hour audit and carrying a computer all the way around. I always felt delighted to tell them that in 2021 we actually have tools that can generate reports automatically for them even without dragging a laptop to the site. Cell phones should be less heavy, I assume.
#5 SAFETY PROFESSIONALS HAVE A GIANT NETWORK
Specialists within this field are very active on social media, in particular on LinkeIn and Facebook. On these platforms, they share their professional achievements and experiences. HSE managers, on average, make more posts than people of any other professional sphere. Sure, why not boast of having completed a safety course/received a new accreditation?
This means that if you are active within safety, you will easily find like-minded people in LinkedIn groups and chats. This will help you boost your professional competence + find a jogging buddy for morning runs on Sundays.
THE CONCLUSION OF MY SAFETY LEARNINGS: THE FUTURE IS BEHIND DIGITAL TOOLS!
All the parts of this article have one thing in common: Digital checklist tool like Lumiform makes safety experts’ lives much easier. At least you don’t have to bring your laptop to the site:). You can download the app from Appstore or Playmarket and directly get to doing inspections. Want to raise an issue? Have the report generated in a way that suits you precisely? Create locations, roles, crazy checklists, and throw all the paper forms away. Sorry, I meant to recycle. We try to be sustainable here :-).
So, you know where you need to register, don’t you? ;-)
