Is the Lack of an Incident Management System Exposing Your Organization to More Risk? Rick Shaw, CEO/President, Awareity


Do your employees know what to do if they overhear a co-worker making threats towards other employees or staff? What if someone notices another employee drinking on the job, leading to unsafe working conditions? What if someone notices threats made on a social networking website? Do you have a way for employees to share concerns or suspicious behaviors with management?


Many organizations have some type of reporting system in place whether it is a phone hotline, an e-mail address you encourage employees to contact, or you have procedures in place for reporting to supervisors or management. These traditional methods of incident reporting have been around for a long time and unfortu- nately in today’s world they may be exposing your organization to expensive gaps, liabilities and lawsuits.


What is the difference between traditional Incident Reporting Systems and today’s more innovative and comprehensive Incident Management Systems?


Ongoing Awareness and Accountability at the individual level and a whole lot more. And many of the differences can have a direct impact on your people, your reputation and your bottom line.


Without a simple, centralized and secure way to connect incidents reported, the whole picture is not seen and another at-risk individual may slip through the cracks. We have also seen situations where someone knew about concerning behaviors and reported the incident to a person that did not take appropriate actions due to being too busy or lacked awareness about what to do or who to include.


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Managing Workers' Comp: Workplace Violence Can Put Your Company at Risk


Having a plan in place to help recognize the signs of workplace violence and deal with the aftermath can save lives and money. According to a study by NIOSH, 1 million workers are assaulted and another 1,000 are murdered each year in the workplace. Once employers recognize the warning signs of impending workplace violence and understand the potential triggers — domestic problems, drug and alcohol abuse, termination or disciplinary actions — they need to put a plan into place to protect their employees. Any plan should begin with educating employees, the people most likely to interact on a day-to-day basis with a poten- tially hostile coworker. It's the employer's responsibility to protect its employees, not only from coworkers, but also from non-employees, such as spouses or disgruntled customers. Employ- ers should be aware that courts are increasingly awarding


settlements against employers due to negligence on their part in preventing acts of workplace violence. Therefore, companies need to create written policies stressing zero tolerance for workplace violence. Pre-employment screening and preventive measures such as background checks should be an integral part of the hiring process.


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Near-Miss Reporting: The Cornerstone of Effective Accident Prevention


Identification of near-miss incidents is a leading indicator of safety performance. Near-miss incident reports can be used to identify a pattern of undesirable events that enable you to correct the conditions that caused the incidents before an accident occurs.


What a great opportunity! And yet, near-miss reporting is often inadvertently discouraged or avoided at many workplaces because of a culture of blame and disciplinary action associated with mistakes or wrong behavior.


IMPORTANT! Near-miss reporting will be most successful in a "blame-free" environment and where employees see positive action taken to eliminate hazards.


Setting Up a Near Miss Reporting System


Here are 10 key steps for setting up an effective near-miss reporting system: 1.


Gather a work group.


2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.


10.


Review OSHA logs and workers' compensation files. Conduct a trend analysis.


Look at incident investigation reports. Review current procedures.


Decide on what you want reported. Revise (or create) procedures. Train everyone on procedures. Establish audit mechanism.


Establish metric so you can track reports.


According to the National Safety Council, most accidents are preceded by at least one near miss. That makes near-miss reporting a cornerstone of effective accident prevention.


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