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Why a Mobile First Safety Strategy Makes Sense for Electrical Workers
Many mobile-first training platforms also include certification tracking and reminders. So workers and managers can get reminders when someone needs to renew a certification or complete a new credential to work a specific job.
This lowers the mental load on everyone and prevents unpleasant surprises at worksites.
4. Safer Inspections
In addition to training and tracking functionality, a mobile-first safety strategy can benefit electrical workers during equipment inspection. Internet-connected sensors can track not only the equipment itself but also the environmental conditions in the surrounding facility. When anything goes out of range — temperature, humidity, rotation speed, etc. — connected software can send alerts to workers’ devices.
This allows for more proactive and targeted maintenance that lets workers address small-scale problems before they become bigger and/or more dangerous.
Set up correctly, such monitors can also feed data to a unified dashboard that lets leadership monitor the safety and performance of the organization as a whole.
A mobile-first safety strategy also makes it easier to manage lockout/tagout (LOTO) risks and audit or inspect LOTO procedures. This ensures the right processes are in place to prevent the release of hazardous energy during service or maintenance activities.
For example, a field leader uses a mobile device to document when a capacitor is properly disconnected for repairs in the field. From the palm of their hand, they can verify that all LOTO procedures were followed in the correct order.
A mobile-first safety strategy helps electrical workers keep track of both their equipment and their environmental factors, which leads to a better understanding of an organization’s safety goals.
5. A Uniform Culture of Safety
When everyone at an organization is expected — and able — to contribute to safety and compliance, they tend to be more invested in the organization’s overall safety outcomes.
For example, a worker who notices that the supply of PPE is low at a particular workstation can pull out their phone and submit a report on the spot, even if PPE tracking isn’t part of their core job duties. At scale, this kind of behavior translates to a culture of safety throughout the organization.
When it emerges, a culture of safety is one of the most powerful ways to maintain compliance and promote worker safety. When safe practices are the default, the overall risk of incidents goes down.
Going Mobile to Boost Electrical Worker Safety and Facilitate Compliance
A mobile-first safety program can help organizations inspire ground-up safety behaviors while also giving top-down visibility into safety and compliance.
While considering a move to a mobile-first safety strategy, be sure to ask providers about their ability to customize their product (e.g., by creating new forms as needed) and their user-friendliness. For workers like many in electrical fields, ease of use is paramount. If they’re too complicated or cumbersome, adoption won’t happen, let alone the benefits that a mobile-first approach to safety can offer.
This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
About the Author
Taylor Thorn is Senior Director of Product at KPA, a provider of EHS compliance software and services.