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5 ways to improve workplace safety through digital communications

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Melinda Jennings

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6 Dec 2021
3 min read
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Engaging and effective communication is critical for distributed workforces. It’s essential for creating a safe and compliant environment, especially in high-risk industries like utilities, construction, and mining. 

Unfortunately, not every workforce has the time, resources, and knowhow to ensure their business communication solutions are up to the task. Instead, many organizations continue to rely on outdated, paper-based communications for aspects like auditing. Or, they utilize a mixture of different solutions and have no centralized way of managing them. 

Luckily, through effective, centralized, and digitized communication, you can improve the safety and compliance of your workplace insurmountably. We’ve put together 5 ways to help you do just that.

1. Keep employees up to date with real-time communications 

It’s natural for safety and compliance rules to be updated as time goes on, as well as for training to be required both routinely and when new legislation is introduced. When these major changes occur, it’s important to quickly deploy engaging, effective communication.

With better communication sent across your employees' channel of choice, you'll be more effective in ensuring your workers feel informed and, as a result, safe.

2. Make it easy for employees to report incidents 

If an employee spots a potential hazard - such as a piece of equipment out of place or machinery not operating properly - they need an easy way to report it. And, even more importantly, they need acknowledgment that the incident will be taken care of. Otherwise, employees won’t feel as though their safety is being prioritized, and they’ll be less likely to report future hazards as they occur.

The most effective way of handling hazard mitigation is by first creating a simple process for employees to use (such as sending an SMS). Then, you can automate the mitigation process, including sending confirmation to the employee that their report has been received, and then automatically escalating it to the appropriate person for action.

3. Collect data and feedback from employees 

Digital communication solutions let you send employees surveys, polls, and other form-fillable communications. These data-gathering forms can accomplish everything from helping you better schedule shifts to giving you insight into your employees’ approaches to safety protocols. 

The ability to create forms also helps you test the effectiveness of training, issue daily compliance checklists, and more. With this capability, the possibilities are truly extensive and can be customized to exactly what your organization needs.  

4. Store audit trails securely and centrally

Compliance requires successful audits, and successful audits require being able to provide auditors with logs and records of all relevant communications. If your communications aren’t centralized, this is much more difficult to do. 

Effective digital communications solutions automatically store fully auditable logs of all conversations. These logs should be easily accessible to prove that incidents are handled appropriately, employees are properly trained, and all rules are followed while employees are on site.

5. Create a broader culture of workplace safety and compliance

When communications are frequent, open, and frictionless, the messages being communicated are absorbed into workplace culture. 

Seamless, optimized communications about safety and compliance can therefore create a workplace culture that prioritizes safety and compliance. The more regular and positive communication about the topic is, the stronger a workforce’s safety culture becomes.

Keep your workforce safe, compliant, and communicative with Whispir

Whispir is a multi-channel, customizable, and centralized communication solution that helps distributed workforces reimagine their safety and compliance. We’ve designed our product to be flexible, no-code, and fully tailorable to meet the specific needs of your business. 

Tap into the power of SMS, email, voice messaging, video chat, automation, intelligent AI, actionable reporting and insights, and much more. To find out how we can help you elevate your digital communications and improve the safety and compliance of your workplace, check out our comprehensive guide or get in contact with us today.

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