Health and Safety Software Recommendations

Over the course of my career, I have had the privilege of using quite a number of software for my safety job, and these are what I always pitch to companies I work for if they lack the support systems but have the resources to procure them.

a. Synergi

Synergi is a web-based platform for building a database of HSE indicators according to the defined scope of an organization’s HSE management system. Users can create unique cases for all health, safety, and environmental activities for easy tracking, following up, and closure. Every activity entered on Synergi will have its unique case ID for easy tracking. Activities can range from;
i. Inspections
ii. Internal Audits
iii. External Audit
iv. HSE Observation
v. Client Feedback
vi. Statutory Inspection
vii. Unsafe Act & Condition
viii. HSE Incidents
ix. Nonconformance
x. Environmental reporting

A case created for each activity will render on a pre-defined template with sections to complete, such as; the date, time, case ID, details of the activity, corrective and preventive actions raised, and the person responsible to close an action. If an action is assigned to a person, an automatic email alert is received. Users can attach documents e.g. accident investigation reports to close action. Once an action has been completed and the case is finally closed, all persons involved in the case will be notified automatically via email. This presents an opportunity for users in direct reporting lines to view the case and all related actions for verification and can be used for meeting agendas for discussion. Synergi is very useful for sending daily reports of all the HSE activities captured on the system for the day for discussions at morning calls. Reports could be generated according to HSE observations, unsafe acts, and conditions, accidents and incidents, HSE inspections, audits, proposed improvements, etc. with related actions taken and corrective actions with respective deadlines.

b. Power Bi

Once there is a good system for building an HSE database, Power Bi, a Microsoft Data Visualization Software comes in very handy for extracting the data from Synergi to generate performance reports in varying perspectives for decision making. This makes HSE implementation exciting as employees are able to get feedback in terms of how well they are performing in order to ensure continuous improvement. Power Bi reports can be updated on weekly basis or at agreed intervals to fit into reporting and meeting timelines of users and decision-makers. Since Power Bi is a web-based system, it can be assessed by all employees, irrespective of location once they have been granted access to the system by your IT department.

c. Lessons Learning Portal

To ensure adequate organizational learning from incidents, a lesson-learning portal created on SharePoint is often used to populate all one-pagers and safety alerts from a company’s operations and industry at large for internal communication and learning by operational and management staff. A lesson-learning portal becomes a source of useful learning materials to sustain conversations about past incidents and safety at all operational sites during toolbox talks, departmental meetings, general safety meetings, and morning calls.

d. Accident Investigation Tool (Investigator 3)

To ensure adequate support and uniformity of the accident investigation process, software like Investigator 3 from Kelvin Topset can effectively facilitate root cause analysis. This makes accident investigation and reporting much easier and exciting as an investigation team lead can adopt the tool to generate an RCA diagram for their investigation reports.

e. Crisis Management Software

To ensure adequate tier 2 and tier 3 emergency response and collaborative support to an onsite emergency response team, a system that ensures real-time communication and a log of actions that are transparent to all levels are key. A crisis management software secures communication, improve multi-level collaboration, enhance real-time situational updates, action logs, assignment of task, and tracking of accountability. The emergency commander in charge of the emergency will be using the system to register an emergency incident, to automatically alert an onshore emergency team to mobilize and log into the system to share situational updates, log actions, and assign and track tasks. These are my four main software recommendations for organizations that have adequate resources for health and safety. For individuals and small businesses who cannot afford the web-based system, Microsoft Excel becomes very useful but require time, energy, and technical know-how to create effective working solutions. That is where SHEQXEL comes in to support. I hope you find my recommendations useful.