Hi alfi, your first post here for 13 years, so welcome back.
The title of your thread is “Best software for new self-employed consultant”.
There will never be a simple ONE answer to such implied question as there are so many variables to consider UNLESS you are one of the often snake oil salespeople touting THEIR software package and its part of their sales pitch that it’s the “best”!
But THAT software package will mostly have been developed by people with IT skills and not a depth of experience of H&S issues, UNLESS it is very specialised e.g. to help you with doing QRAs in low probability, high consequence scenarios where there is sufficient and reliable input data to do defendable sums. If you have never come across a QRA the chances are you don’t need to.
You CAN’T do a QRA on e.g. the chance of someone falling from a roof and dying. Far too many input variables that you cannot get reliable data for. Used to be the case that typically 10 people a year died from falls whilst doing “roofwork” in the UK but unless you can work out how many hours “roofers” and others do “roofwork” each year you can’t come up with a number as to what the “Individual Risk” per annum might be.
Whilst you have been away I have retired from full time employment, so much of my day job these days is mentoring H&S professionals at various stages of their careers.
Occasionally, one of my mentees will ask me a question such as what I think of their CV and my response may start with “This may sound harsh, but if I don’t give you an honest view of my professional opinion, then I am doing you no favours as your mentor”.
So, if what I now write sounds harsh, I make no apologies.
The nature of your question prompted me to think:
- Have they put together a robust business plan which includes working out who their target audience is likely to be e.g. SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises) OR the Clients who have deeper pockets – or perhaps a mix and if so WHO are the Clients who will pay for the mortgage/rent and utilities etc and WHO are the ones that will pay for meals out?
- Have they sorted out their insurances including getting PII (Professional Indemnity Insurance) with sufficient cover if things go wrong and a policy that isn’t full of get out clauses in the event that things DO go wrong?
The answer to the first of these questions is also relevant to what type of software package might add value to what you can offer as a self-employed consultant. The smaller Clients are more likely to be happy with getting a report that is, in effect, mostly a shopping list of what needs to be improved. In general, the larger Clients want more balanced reports that set out what aspects of their business are being managed well, alongside areas for improvement with clear justification as to WHY there is EVIDENCE of a need for improvement.
The other thing that I found a bit puzzling was why you are apparently only looking for software to assist in the production of risk assessments, not least as these should probably be better done by your prospective Clients, perhaps with input from an external Consultant, rather than being thought up by some outsider who is likely to know very little about how their Client operates.
However, even if you only want this software for risk assessments, you still need to think about what you want it to do!
Do you want it as a means of recording what YOU think, OR do you want it to be a source of possible answers to the multitude of scenarios that any self-employed H&S consultant is likely to be faced with (UNLESS they are very strict in deciding on which Clients to take on and which to turn away, so only tackling processes with which they are very familiar)?
It is VERY unlikely that those who have been central to informing the software have experience as H&S professionals, so the software, more likely than not, will be largely informed by non H&S professionals (or, increasingly these days, bots) trawling websites etc for legislation, supporting guidance etc and that means that the software is probably unlikely to recognise the exceptions to the rules, and even more unlikely to have a clue as to working out what may or may not be “reasonably practicable” or similar legal test of whatever scenario is in front of you.
Which then poses the question as to how much you could trust what e.g. AI suggests as solutions to any given risk assessment scenario. Do you have the competence to recognise that sometimes the “solution” could be far from optimal?
If all you are expecting from this software is some templates there are plenty readily available or you could put templates together from scratch – actually if you are competent what you produce are likely to be better than anything you might find on a shelf.
So, what are you actually looking for from “software”?