What are the challenges of paper/excel based safety audits? Are you at risk?
Having manual, paper and excel based health and safety processes may be the norm for some organisations. However, as with many aspects of modern workplace culture, that norm is no longer serving you, your teams or your company in the most efficient way. While manual processes are better than nothing, they aren’t the most effective or accurate method of creating and completing your workplace safety audits. The reality is, these outdated methods are slow, prone to errors, and make it harder for you to track and improve safety performance.
Paper-based audits could be holding you back.
Here are a few reasons why…
Manual audits are time-consuming
Manually collecting health and safety data takes time. With paper-based processes, your safety audits will take longer than they need to – both in terms of creation and completion. They will disengage those completing the audits, compromising data entry and accuracy too. What’s worse than having an audit where there is a list of questions where some are only relevant based on the previous answer. How often do you see“N/A” for example?
When you use paper to complete audits, you no longer have a real-time view of when that audit was complete. Was it before the job, a day after, a week after? This can compromise your compliance requirements and also generate more time-consuming work for you. The last thing you need on your plate is more emails chasing missed or lost audits.
Inefficient or inaccurate analysis
Manual data collection is also difficult to analyse efficiently. Excel might seem like an upgrade from paper, but it’s far from foolproof. One small data entry mistake or formula error can compromise an entire report. Version control becomes a nightmare when multiple people update the same spreadsheet, leading to confusion and inconsistencies. Health and safety audits demand accuracy. Relying on spreadsheets means you’re constantly at risk of human error that could lead to compliance issues or hazards being overlooked.
With paper and excel, audits are static. You collect data, input it manually, and analyse it later – sometimes too late to take immediate action. Think of how quickly you could reduce risk, and how efficient you could be, if you could see that the audit has been completed on time and corrective actions have already been assigned out.
Risk of loss
Physical paper records are at higher risk of being damaged, destroyed or stolen than digital files. Even if your records are not lost to flooding or a break-in, paper degrades over time and files that are regularly handled (like safety audits) may become difficult to read, disorganised and ultimately unusable.
Paper also takes up a lot of space, as do the filing cabinets you need to store all that paper. Over months and years, your safety audits can become increasingly cluttered and difficult to keep track of. Finding different versions and tying those back to a specific job, asset or vehicle make is also an unnecessary burden on your workload.
Difficult to demonstrate compliance
As your company grows, so do your health and safety requirements. Managing audits across multiple sites with paper or Excel becomes increasingly complex and inefficient. Regulatory bodies such as the HSE expect fast, organised, and accurate reporting – something paper and spreadsheets simply can’t provide at scale.
Lack of sustainability
As we’ve seen, manual safety processes are time- and resource-heavy. They can take employees away from their daily responsibilities, reducing productivity and proactive safety management. They are also materially intensive, relying on unsustainable natural resources (i.e. paper).
Now that we’ve seen the drawbacks of manual audits, let’s explore how digitalisation can not only solve these issues but also give you time back, whilst empowering you to proactively reduce risk…
What are the benefits of digital safety audits?
Using digital technology to carry out your safety audits can improve your workplace safety, not just for those directly responsible for health and safety but for everyone who works in your organisation. Here are 7 reasons why you should digitalise your safety audits, with the help of Notify Technology’s audit management software and easy to use
safety audits App.
Save time with templates
A common hindrance with paper-based health and safety processes, is the time it takes to create, complete and submit inspections and audits. The more complex your organisation, and the most assets your organisation has, the more time you, your teams and designated auditors could spend on manually creating and filling out audits.
With the right digital tools, you can save time by creating your own audit templates tailored to your organisation and industry. With Notify’s audit management software, you can create and clone templates, so they are ready to use whenever you need them. Each audit template is fully customisable and you can re-use or repurpose templates depending on the scope of your audit. Having your digital templates ready-to-go will save a huge amount of time and ensure consistent data entry across all your audits, enabling you to accurately compare and analyse your safety data over time.
With conditional logic included, those filling out audits won’t see questions that don’t require answers. For example, a question could be “Is the fire exit blocked, if yes what actions need to be taken?”. Naturally, if the answer is “no”, the user wouldn’t see the next question to fill out more information. With digital software, this becomes a reality. No more time-consuming audits and unhelpful “N/A” data!
Complete audits on the go
Traditional paper-based audits are not easily portable and sometimes auditors aren’t able to log their findings there and then. This might mean that key details are lost or misremembered by the time any audit information is added to a report or spreadsheet. Audit management software can help you avoid this issue with the ability to complete audits on the go.
With Notify’s purpose-built audits app, users can complete audits from anywhere, on or offline. For example, you might need to carry out a vehicle check as part of an audit. Using Notify’s native mobile app and either via a QR code, or via scheduling, you can complete checks in front of the vehicle and add your findings straight away. If you find anything to report, like a mechanical fault, you can use the app to assign corrective actions to an engineer immediately. Your colleagues will be notified in real-time, allowing them to take action straight away, avoiding delays and mitigating future risks.
See your data all in one place, in real-time
With paper-based audits, collating all of your health and safety data into one comprehensive picture can be difficult. Notify’s audit tracking dashboard creates that picture for you, enabling you to visualise your company’s overall auditing activity, all in one place.
The dashboard shows you exactly how many open, complete and overdue audits you have, as well as who is responsible for carrying out specific actions. You can filter your data by category, department or worksite, allowing you to compare data and spot trends. This means you can take action to improve particular processes and head off hazards before they escalate.
Schedule future audits
Safety audits, like many aspects of good health and safety management, should be carried out regularly. How regularly will depend on the size and complexity of your organisation, but you should always be aware of when your next audit will be. Digital software allows you to schedule future audits, ensuring you and your teams know when to expect and prepare for an upcoming inspection. Automatic email reminders for due audits will also help to ensure audits aren’t missed. With audit software, the date and time of the audit is logged, providing you with assurance that the audit has been completed on time. This digital audit trail will help you support compliance and provide evidence of an audit taking place prior to an incident or accident – helping combat insurance claims.
Chase up overdue audits
We know that some aspects of safety management can be overlooked or delayed, particularly in busy or complex workplaces. Notify’s audit management tools can help you spot when audits are overdue and allow you to follow up with the relevant teams or colleagues to ensure they get back on track. This again will help support your ongoing compliance with industry standards and ensure your team’s safety across your organisation.
Customise your audit visibility
With Notify’s audit management tools, you have complete control over who can access and update particular audits. You can fully customise who can see what in an audit, depending on what department or site they work in. You can ensure that auditors only see the questions they need to answer with audits assigned directly to them, speeding up the time they need to spend and enhancing their engagement.
Paper-free equals planet-friendly
As well as benefiting your company, digital audits also help the environment. By removing the need for bulky and wasteful paper files, you cut down on the number of physical documents you need to store. With Notify’s digital tools, you also eliminate the need for physical photographs and external files, thanks to the ability to upload any supporting evidence directly to the native app. With digital audits, you can help support the sustainability of your safety processes and the planet.
Tired of chasing down paperwork and struggling with outdated audits? Switch to a smarter, faster, and 100% compliant way of managing safety. Book a free demo and see how Notify can ensure you get consistent, accurate and timely audit data.