Why Paper-based Safety Systems Can’t Keep Up with Today’s Safety Demands

In July 2024, OSHA imposed a penalty of $810,703 on a North American cleaning solutions company for failing to conduct the required atmospheric testing inside a tank before sending in a worker. Tragically, this failure led to the worker's unresponsiveness and eventual death. The company had been warned previously and was a repeat offender—two workers had died in 2019 under similar circumstances while cleaning a tanker truck. By not adhering to critical safety protocols, the company put its employees' lives at risk. It failed to prevent unauthorized entry into confined spaces requiring permits and did not provide an attendant to monitor employees working in these hazardous spaces.

Paper-based safety management systems rely on human diligence to be efficient and ensure workplace safety. However, studies show that 80-90% of accidents are caused by human error. A Finnish study revealed human errors cause 84% of serious accidents and 94% of fatal accidents. Lack of skills or misinterpretation/breach of rules are the major contributing factors to unsafe work conditions, and organizational factors also contribute to injuries.

Human Errors in Manual Safety Systems: The Big 10

According to the Louisiana Transportation Research Center, the 10 most common Human Factors that cause accidents include:

• Negligence– Not observing basic safety rules or instructions for maintaining equipment.
• Anger/Temper– Becoming irrational and disregarding common sense.
• Hasty Decision– Not thinking before acting.
• Indifference– Not being attentive when performing a task.
• Distractions– Being interrupted by others or being preoccupied.
• Curiosity– Trying something out to see how it will turn out.
• Inadequate Instructions– Worker not being trained or improperly trained.
• Poor Work Habits– Not keeping the workplace clean.
• Overconfidence– Taking risks without sufficient thought, understanding, or precautions.
• Lack of Planning– A team executing a task without role clarity.

When a company depends on paper-based safety management, the problem gets compounded, and managing the human and process-related limitations can become challenging.

Limitations of Paper-Based Safety Management

In paper-based safety management, a company faces several roadblocks to the efficient management and continuous improvement of safety in the workplace. Some of these challenges include:

Data Gaps: Businesses need to be able to identify hazards proactively and implement mitigative measures to make the workplace safe. In a paper-based system, accessing past data to draw insights about trends and high-risk areas can be difficult. Available data can be inaccurate, duplicated, and unreliable, impacting safety management.

Poor Accessibility: The right information at the right time is crucial but difficult in paper-based safety management systems. Retrieving relevant information can be difficult and time-consuming. This can lead to unwanted risk-taking and shortcuts that can lead to accidents and mishaps.

Data Loss: Paper-based documents need to be filed and stored properly. They are vulnerable to destruction and theft, impacting confidentiality and causing the loss of valuable information crucial for informed decision-making.

Resource Intensive: Maintaining paper-based safety-related data requires significant resources such as paper, storage space, and human effort. This also adds to the element of risk due to human error, further compromising the effectiveness of the safety management system.

Non-Compliance: Regulatory requirements include the proper maintenance of safety data, periodic data analytics, and continuous improvement based on past events and potential risks. Without accurate and reliable data, this can be difficult, increasing the risk of noncompliance.

Role of Automation in Minimizing Safety Hazards

Red Ambiental, a clean technology company specializing in managing hazardous waste products, wanted to improve its risk assessment capabilities and manage its sustainability and environmental needs. The company implemented ComplianceQuest’s Safety Management solution to implement efficient audit management and permit management systems for enhanced safety when handling hazardous wastes.

Additionally, implementing a cloud-based safety management system brings with it the following benefits:

• Leadership Commitment: When an organization implements a safety management system, it comes with top management's willingness to invest in a safer workplace. This leads to clearly defined safety policies, processes, and procedures to achieve a common safety goal. This helps guide all its workers in the organization to follow a clear path and align their tasks to meet that goal.
• Clearly Defined Roles and Responsibilities: The next step is to ensure that all workers have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities and how to ensure the safe discharge of their duties. They have easy access to safety-related documentation and training to fill any gaps they observe in their work. They are also empowered to report misses and observations to enable the organization to improve its processes continuously.
• Proactive Safety Management: The total participation of employees and the management ensures the identification of potential hazards to implement mitigative measures and proactively manage safety issues. This helps work towards zero harm and better preventive safety management overall.
• Improved Documentation and Training: Automating processes reduces the load on resources to document safety-related events. Safety-related documents are stored in a central location, making them easy to retrieve, manage, revise, and approve. The training management system also helps ensure the employees have the necessary skills to meet their safety needs and continuously upskill themselves to keep pace with their work-related needs as well as the ever-changing safety environment.
• Permit Management: Automating permit management ensures that only trained and authorized workers have access to restricted and high-hazard areas. It specifies the nature of the job to be performed in such areas, the precautions to be taken, and the duration of being in such an area, with due authorization from a manager.
• Audit Management: Periodic audits are crucial to ensure the systems are implemented as intended and activities are aligned to the defined processes and procedures. Any deviation is identified and corrective measures are implemented to ensure conformance.
• Management Review: Safety data is reviewed periodically and continuous improvement is ensured by identifying new risks and opportunities. Periodic review and monitoring also help to identify gaps and address them in a timely manner.

ComplianceQuest offers a cloud-based safety management solution built on Salesforce. The solution uses the power of AI to augment decision-making and effect continuous improvement in the safety management system. It helps organizations meet the ever-changing demands of the safety management system due to the globalization of supply chains and the ever-changing safety environment.

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