Posted By Jasonjg Just a few questions for you all to think about and add comment to. In Health and Safety roles, what percentage of your time is taken inputting data into statistical format i.e. bar charts, pie charts and comparison diagrams? What percentage of time is taken designing such forms in a way so as statistical data can be obtained. What percentage of time is taken with other data from different management angles? General Management Quality Environmental HR Finance Marketing Etc Does a “off the shelf “ Computer Management System save time or is a similar if not more amount of inputting required. Is the perception from some true, concerning key personnel being glued to their desk transferring data to the computer from Inspections, accidents, near misses, the list can go on and on. My own view is this! Many key management personnel within larger companies are being tied down collecting some form of statistical, performance indicator or benchmark data. As well as regulatory inspection requirements and now the up and coming behavioural sciences and the likes of 360-degree feedback tools etc, I could go on and on. It seems that statistics, tractability and accountability is a continuous time consuming problem which when mis-managed remove a lot of people from their key roles. How do we as safety professionals combat this? Apart from the administration support that some more senior managers may receive i.e. junior member putting all the data in, what other systems do you use or have seen advertised. As well as for study and experience purposes, I am dwelling on the design of concept that could reduce much of this tedious work in all departments thus enabling me and others to better manage our time. Just wanted to grasp the current state. Your valid thoughts please

Posted By Jasonjg Thanks for the response Merv Heres a bit of a long winded response (sorry) If I remember correctly, you specialise in behavioural safety. I am guessing you would have a rough idea on the administration costs and timeframes alone, in sending a attitude questionnaire out to all members of staff at a 11000+ employee company. When I say admin, I am meaning the length time for the results to be presentable to the board or stakeholders. The man-hours needed to input the data, including the individual topics included within the questionnaire and for different areas of the company. I am not currently doing anything workwise at present but whilst sitting here all nice and relaxed and away from the rat race for a while thought have been bombading my bored head. I got to thinking of some of my past experiences within safety and quality and what has been discussed on the endangered species thread. Maybe I am being a tad inexperienced here, but I am getting the impression that companies are spending vast amounts of money and time on systems to aid help in the collection of statistical data of one form or the other. If not this, they spend time analysing inspection, audit results from all areas not just safety. Companies have so rapidly followed the computer age, that the inputting side of the business is struggling to keep up causing delays, inaccuracies with time and money being wasted that could be better spent. All this as well as the shortcut temptations and the discontent that management have to anyone increasing their paperwork without a very valid reason (safety many times being the last of the valid reasons). Remember the older clock-card system, hole punched, card collected and then fed into a secret machine that grassed you up for being late. At the end of the week you were then warned but hey that time has gone or is going out very fast. Now we have the new swipe card, where the minute you swipe it you are given an hour before your name is heard on the speaker system. Your whole yearly attendance can be checked and even the occasional absence pattern. I think we as a profession are in threat of remaining in the old clock card system even with today’s many packages. We need to start looking for methods where we can get results in the fastest time possible and strive to remove the person who carries the clock cards and feeds them into the machine for a end of the week result. We are expected to communicate with employees on a more grand scale than ever before as its good business. How do we do this with more efficiency and faster results? Anyway I hope you all understand what I am rambling about. It is a necessary evil of the job but I would like some thoughts on how people are tackling these issues. Does you management system save time?

Posted By Jasonjg Barry I think you are so not alone in the world. Not just the safety world but also again many in the quality management world struggle along with other areas. I have seen many little ingenious systems that individuals create in different companies. We have document macros and expensive QHSE software packages that hold vast amounts of data in nice and orderly fashions. We have wireless technology, laptops and intranets. Technology has never really been any better so why are we still tied to the desk? Input of statistics and results of inspections blah blah blah. We like Directors are like brains with nerve endings (managers, employees, environments and objects) in every part of an organisation. Now the way I look at today (may be a bit philosophical) is that if we compared the above statement about Brains and nerves, with a nomal human body, we would have some form of incapacity or disability and I go as far as to say “too many companies and organisations are in this state”. Why? Well I think the following applies along with many other factors, which would be enough for a dissertation. 1. Brain does not receive enough feedback from many of his nerves. (One example would be employees and consultation is still for many, still in the dark ages) 2. When Brain wants feedback, it is delayed (the preparation, distribution, collection and interpretation and then presentation of signals from our nerves) 3. Today Brain is supplying technology to assist him get more and faster info from some of his nerves. (Managers may get a laptop, the pc and the software however this is at some considerable costs) Point 3 is, in my humble student opinion, where business is at today. We have left half the nerves input out and when we attempt to speed up the process it is too expensive (new technology comes at a cost). Now moving back to the all-relevant safety manager’s role, we are often seen as either a good management strategy or a reactive plaster that infringes on other nerves airspaces. We are a central nerve system that is bogged down trying to collect information from different nerves for the brain as well as trying to convince nerves to better protect themselves and others. We are privileged enough to have a laptop, maybe a junior and some expensive software. We can collect/create many pro-formas from other safety officers to speed our preparations up. We then try to receive, analyse and distribute the desired info back in a timely manner. This info is not only for brain but also for a shrink and the nerve endings. I think it’s the inputting and presentation of this information that is causing many of today’s problems. This has to be more efficient than it is today as well as being able to be used by everyone from bottom upwards within an organisation in a cost effective manner. We should strive to get at least 80% of our required info in at least 80% less time. We should strive to get instant feedback but today this is impossible as no company could afford the technology required! Or could they? I think it is possible and unless I am being completely off target here, I think some companies already do. To make it simple for you I pose the following question for you to answer. Taking employee feedback as an example. What would be today’s most cost effective way of getting the fastest possible results of an attitude survey from 30,000 employees? How would your company do it? I seriously think we should be discussing this issue more widely as a profession.

Posted By Richard Chalkley Great thread guys! We ahve a central spreadsheet for reporting accident rates etc. It has local and global (Corporate) definitions of LTI's etc in built and allows full cross corporate visibility of the data. It is simple and built in-house. Due to the simple format we can bolt-on other requirements. We just added a module to collect energy usage and waste generation which Finance fill in from the invoices. All in all, it does not duplicate effort and takes very little time to do. I spend, in total, a day a month on this. Finally if you really want to do an attitude survey over thousands of people have a look at www.surveymonkey.com - Merv is right though - you do need to decide what you want early on. Surveymonkey is however, a useful and powerful tool if used right. Richard.