What value is there in an online safety management application?

Increasingly businesses across Australia and the globe are changing their business management practices and seeking online solutions. The “new norm”, as it could be referred, for managing safety, risk and compliance is cloud based and the advantages far outweigh the old paradigm of paper-based programs.

Safety for Life is a Professional OHS Consultancy and Software Company based in Brisbane. Ms Caroline Kingston, the Director, has over 25 years’ experience working across a wide sector of industries.

9 years ago, Ms Kingston released Sherm Software to the marketplace. Ms Kingston said her vision was to provide a software solution to support small and medium sized business manage safety, risk and compliance; streamline administrative tasks; and enhance the capability of workers to report incidents and hazards, and to have ready access to company documented information relative to the work practices.

Vital Chemicals have been using Sherm for close to 3 years and the Managing Director, Letiscia Xavier says, “Sherm is perfect for our company! We all use Sherm, it’s a great fit not only for Safety but for our Quality Management and Environmental Management System. It enables us to position ourselves as a leader in our industry, especially during the Tender evaluation stage when companies can see how we manage our HSEQ performance.”

The value of any online safety software application comes down to capabilities. Priority features include ease of use, accessibility, automation with reminder notifications, scalability, security, flexibility, support and ongoing improvements that are not pushed back onto the customer. When too much customisation is required in an online safety management system this is when the client can experience lengthy rollouts. Ms Kingston commented, “With Sherm we can have a new client up and running within the week. From the time we get their data we have a plan in place with the client and we lead them through the process. It is very efficient and resolves hassles for the client. They can just get to and work on the plan we provide for them.”

Sherm is supported by a mobile app that is free from both Apple and Google stores. This was specifically designed for workers on the fly and certainly makes recording evidence of hazards and incidents quite effective. Being able to upload a photo or videos of a problem or an incident is critical for risk management. If the worker needs more access to Sherm, they can simply login through a browser on their phone or tablet and get what is required or do what has to be done.

Ms Kingston commented that Inline Drilling, a drilling and blasting company in Central Queensland, have been very happy with the ability of doing their pre-start inspection via the mobile app. Transitioning to Sherm has provided Inline Drilling with records management and reporting capabilities that keeps their Tier 1 clients impressed and enables the third-party auditing to be completed remotely.

Additionally, our client Aintree Contracting in Tasmania, who have been with Sherm for 6 years, maintain Certification to ISO9001 and are transitioning to AS/NZS ISO 45001:2018 this month, and due to the restrictions on travel, the Certification body is able to do the transition audit remotely. The value add here is phenomenal as it reduces costs in auditors’ travel, the consultants’ travel and everything is just done online!

As an integrated software management system, Sherm certainly has a range of capabilities that can add significant value to any company, being small, medium or large. The transitioning to an online safety management system is rapidly increasing. The tech industry is the biggest growing sector globally and at Safety for Life, we are excited to be a part of this growth to support our clients discharge their duties for health and safety and continue to provide a high quality OHS Software solution for Australian business.

Image caption: Caroline Kingston, Director/Principal Consultant at Safety for Life