Risky business: how Logincident can help to reduce bad outcomes

Risky business: how Logincident can help to reduce bad outcomes

Put plainly, ‘risk’ is defined as the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the consequences of an activity in relation to something that society values, such as our health, wellbeing, finances, property or the environment; often focusing on negative, unwanted outcomes.

Human nature dictates that we’ll try to avoid negative situations and accidents from happening but realistically, they’re impossible to prevent because quite simply, we can’t see into the future, as much as we’d like to (hello, winning lottery numbers!).

There are common sayings based on this premise that you’ve undoubtedly heard before. ‘With the benefit of hindsight’ and ‘hindsight is a wonderful thing’; both alluding to the fact that while we can’t stop bad things from happening, we can certainly learn from them to ensure that the risk of the same thing happening again is reduced.

Let’s explore that for a moment, looking at it from the perspective of workplace accidents. How can we learn efficiently from unavoidable events such as an accident, so that risk is minimised for the future? Firstly, questions will be raised about how the accident or incident occurred. Secondly, depending on the situation, the date and time might be recorded and who was (or wasn’t) present. If it was outdoors, what was the weather like? Was the correct safety equipment being used? For optimum results, as many details as possible should be gathered and noted so that they can be analysed and in turn, the reason, or reasons why something happened are clearer.

Reduce the risk, reduce the accidents

Now, add into the mix a work environment that’s considered as potentially quite dangerous. One such sector that has a high rate of accidents per employee is the construction industry. Think - working from heights, heavy machinery, hazardous chemicals, the list goes on and so does the percentage of workplace accidents.

Naturally, managers want to keep accidents to a minimum but how? There’s a legal requirement through the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) whereby a person of responsibility must notify Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and keep records of specific workplace accidents.

By having these kinds of protocols in place, the risk of accidents occurring is reduced and if the risk is reduced, it follows that the rate of accidents decreases. Sounds simple enough, but what if the report isn’t written straight away and vital details are missed off? Worse, it’s written inefficiently or not at all, leading to conflicts later down the line? Wouldn’t it be much wiser to be able to record the important details of an accident immediately?

Reporting in the digital age

What if we told you that by digitalising the process, these hiccups that crop up with manual reporting could be a thing of the past? We can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from site managers all over the country. In 2021, most people have access to a smartphone and it’s through this innovative technology that we’ve been able to transform accident reporting as the construction industry knows it.

We’ve been working with one of the UK’s leading home building companies who’ve told us that our app has helped them to collate more accurate incident reports, with consistent information provided quicker and more easily than ever before.

What’s more, with a rise in claim-culture there has arguably never been a better time to phase out inaccurate methods of incident reporting but ultimately, it’s all about ensuring that the workplace is as safe as it can be – a basic human right. So together, let’s reduce the risk with smarter reporting and make the construction sector a safer place to work.