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Leveraging EHS Technology in the Fight Against COVID-19

Learn how to take advantage of traditional EHS tools used by health and safety professionals as you rapidly respond to the coronavirus and enact social distancing measures to keep your workforce safe and well.

The COVID-19 pandemic has rightly been characterized as a once-in-a-hundred-years event – it is impacting organizations globally and, at the end of March 2020, there is no end currently in sight. SAI Global has been working with our customers for over 25 years to deliver solutions that help them manage EHS and Operational Risks. We understand the magnitude of the challenges our customers are currently facing, and we are here to support you through your response to the coronavirus and beyond.

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been asked the questions – How can the SAI360 platform help me get through this? What are my options? How could I be more effective with all that is going on?

Here we summarize how customers can leverage their existing SAI360 software and mobile app from SAI Global to help navigate and respond promptly throughout this challenging time.  Our customers may already have some of these options enabled, and this will allow you to act now.

Our outcome target is to provide immediate support and guidance to you, so you can focus on ensuring the safety and well-being of your workforce and minimizing the spread of the virus.

 

Continue to assure safe working environments without risks to the health of workers

Given the already changing nature of work globally to be conducted by an increasingly mobile workforce, this is now exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic – with the vast majority of workers operating remotely or at home in lone-worker scenarios. It is critical during this time that business as usual tasks and operations are managed in a safe and sustainable manner, which can potentially be overlooked while every organization focuses on its COVID-19 response.

Roam, our native SAI360 mobile app, enables our customers to effectively manage several scenarios across a broad cross-section of EHS use cases. Our app can operate offline and upload into the system when the user is back in range to enable workflows. Roam can push notifications out to mobile devices, which can be configured to suit different roles and locations, allowing you to deliver constant short messages to the right people at the right time, including where positive cases of COVID-19 are detected in your workplace.

In terms of confirming the location and status of your workforce, all EHS forms and checklists can be delivered via Roam. Some example workflows relevant during COVID-19 that can be used via Roam include:

  • Enable workers who must come into workplaces to continue operations to undertake a Take 5 to assess whether work conditions are safe and pose no risks to their health; you can include checks that relate to social distancing and new PPE and hygiene requirements
  • Capture COVID-19 cases and track recovery
  • Get workers to self-assess their home office environment, identify hazards and ergonomic effectiveness using various checklists
  • Identify hazards that might increase the risk of virus transmission, and controls to reduce the likelihood of those hazards occurring
  • Inspections to ensure that workers are conducting the necessary deep cleans required for safety and hygiene reasons to protect everyone
  • Update existing and build additional questionnaires to undertake scheduled and frequent critical control verification, audits and inspections, and ensure safe workplaces
  • Conduct and record frequent health checks for workers who must be on-site, such as checking a person’s temperature prior to letting them on-site
  • Confirmation by workers of their health and location on a set schedule

SAI360 Roam Alerts and Checklists

 

Ensure contractors are aware of new procedures and taking necessary precautions when undertaking a task

 

Contractor safety management in normal business operations is challenging enough. For organizations that must continue operations while leveraging existing or additional contractors, new risks are introduced with COVID-19 that need to be mitigated via updated, or new controls.  Contractors need to be fully aware of your organization’s updated procedures and policies to ensure that they protect themselves, but also ensure they do not pose a risk to the health of other workers.

Our digitized Contractor Safety Management tool leverages training and competency information to ensure on-site contractors have undertaken your updated instructions that include specifics for COVID-19.

The Permit To Work workflow includes a pre-approval checklist which can include COVID-19 checks. Once approved, a job safety card along with additional information about your new and updated procedures can be sent to the contractor. Using our mobile app, the contractor can indicate when they start and complete the job, so you have a record of when a contractor was at your workplace.

 

Manage COVID-19 cases and monitor the health of at-risk and impacted workers

Monitoring the well-being of your workforce is paramount to effective decision-making during times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. While many organizations have procedures in place to assist with these types of scenarios, there may be gaps in the data you normally collect and analyze. Most of SAI Global’s customers now have team members working remotely, and this presents a new set of challenges in managing the well-being of the workforce, including incidents, injuries and illnesses.

One of the key ways that these can be tracked and managed is via SAI360’s Incident Management workflow. Potential and actual COVID-19 cases can be recorded as an illness, along with other relevant details to track days away from work, associated risks and corrective actions. Using your existing Incident Management workflow ensures you maintain all the details for regulatory compliance reporting.

Once a case has been identified, the Case Management module provides support to record regular interactions with your workforce, identify early intervention strategies, along with return-to-work programs for impacted workers – which is more critical than ever in times of great uncertainty for both the employee and organization.

Automated reminders to Case Managers ensure regular contact and follow-up. Using Case Management, you are also able to track the status of claims and monitor medical and other expenses incurred on an ongoing basis.

Customers who leverage our Occupational Health module with Incident and Injury Management can get a secure and instant overview of an individual’s health records, including incidents/injuries/illnesses, health and hygiene tests, ergonomic assessments, early intervention cases, return to work/rehabilitation programs and workers compensation claims. This consolidated view facilitates the identification and monitoring of at-risk personnel (pre-existing health conditions) and reports in real-time on the health status of workers.

SAI360 Cases Dashboard

SAI360 software is readily adaptable. A dashboard view can assist in rapid response to changing working conditions and employee health and wellness status.

 

Address increased worker needs for respiratory protection

COVID-19 is a respiratory virus, which spreads primarily through droplets generated when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Exposure of susceptible persons through the mouth, nose, or eyes can propagate the infection. An effective way to create a barrier to the nose and mouth is by issuing respiratory protection to anyone working in areas of elevated exposure risk.

While many organizations already have a comprehensive Respiratory Protection Program in place, the COVID-19 global pandemic has resulted in a sudden increase in demand for respirator use. Consequently, workplaces may find a corresponding increase in demand for medical evaluations and fit testing, as some workers may now be required to use a face filtering respirator and more workers may express interest in voluntary use. Also, supply issues may necessitate workers switching to other makes/models of respirators or to use a different type of respirator.

Using the Respiratory Protection module customers can:

  • Submit requests/referrals for respirator use
  • Track a worker’s status for medical evaluations and fit testing
  • Document any restrictions for the worker’s use of the issued respirator
  • Identify workers using makes/models of respirator that are/will be unavailable
  • Manage individuals who are now required to use their respirator vs. voluntary use

 

Adapt SAI360 software and mobile app to respond rapidly to new ways of working

COVID-19 is an unprecedented event that challenges our normal processes and behavior. We all took drastic measures to protect employees and contractors on very short notice. New ways of working were required, and policies and procedures had to be adapted rapidly.

Our SAI360 customers have the ability to simply adapt their modules to move ahead much more aggressively and deal with the crisis effectively. Graphical designer tools allow workflows to be readily adapted and new data points created for new processes and procedures. New forms to collect important data with associated reports and dashboards can be easily created. These can be deployed to all workers as and when required, and as your business navigates through this crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to take time to resolve and businesses will certainly be changed by it. We firmly believe that our customers can remain agile and risk-ready by leveraging the flexibility and adaptability of the SAI360 platform for EHS and Operational Risk.

Manage employee data in SAI360’s Case Register.

 


We’re here to help YOU

In times of crisis, it’s important for our customers to know that SAI Global has strong leadership at the helm prepared and calm in the face of this adversity. We will continue to engage with you and help support your efforts as you deal with the pandemic. Talk to us to discuss your specific needs in more detail; let’s look for a solution together. If you need to reach David Irvine, SVP of EHS at SAI Global, he can be reached at david.irvine [@] saiglobal.com.