[National Safety Month] Implement Permit To Work Technologies To Strengthen Your Safety Processes
Use a mobile forms app to get the most out of your Permit to Work system
Hazardous work environments are all but impossible to avoid, especially in the construction, chemical, and manufacturing industries. These industries are some of the most foundational aspects of our daily lives but don’t come without inherent risks. One important way to mitigate these risks is by implementing a standard Permit to Work (PTW) system within your workplace. But how can you assure your colleagues and employees that all the necessary safeguards are in place? Using a streamlined, technology-based, transparent PTW system is one of the most effective ways you can promote safety on your job sites.
This can start with something as simple as moving your forms online to something as detailed as signature and GPS records on all your permits. It will take some testing and safety meetings with your teams to find the best path for your business, but it’s never too early to start.
What Is a Permit to Work?
A PTW is a management system developed by an individual business to handle work in potentially hazardous situations. These are the hazards that go above and beyond the typical work day. While these are most common in industries with hazardous materials, machinery, or environments, they shouldn’t be ignored in any industry.
The system details will vary based on your business needs but generally should carve out the: who, where, how, and when details of any dangerous task. This could be excavation work, running a specific piece of equipment work, working from a substantial height, or even working in an enclosed space. The entire process will typically consist of forms, checklists, and/or matrices and has historically been handled with paper forms, but there are many benefits to switching this to a digital process. Using a mobile forms app for your PTW can expand access for all your team members and streamline visibility across your entire organization.
The Details of the PTW
The permit to work can have multiple steps, and usually runs alongside a risk assessment process. This risk assessment process is ongoing but provides a general guide for when a permit to work is necessary and uses an internal measurement to decide if the situation can be made safe enough to perform the work.
Forms to Include
The permit to work can be a single form with multiple pages or can combine multiple forms with their own unique coverage. Overall they should include what work is to be done, who will do it, and what equipment will be needed. They should cover details as well, such as precautions to be taken, other teams who need to know about the work, authorization and signatures, duration, and what the process will be to extend the duration of the work if necessary. In many cases, there will also be emergency situation contingencies and a confirmation process that the work is complete.
“33% of all workers surveyed reported being exposed to permit to work failure. Also, 14% of workers surveyed said permit to work failure has caused or contributed to a serious injury in their workplace.”
Can a Permit to Work System Improve Safety on my Work Sites?
While a system alone can’t guarantee safety, it can substantially increase accountability for individuals, visibility into safety processes, and standardize safety checks within your team. Try not to think of a PTW as a way to make the situation safe, but as a way to verify that all reasonable and possible safety precautions have been taken, and who is accountable to confirm that they were.
The National Safety Council performed a Safety Technology in the Workplace Survey and found that 14% of those surveyed said PTW failure had been a factor in serious injury at their workplace. If the goal of a PTW is to reduce safety risks, then how could those systems be failing? Unfortunately, human error is a part of the equation, and many PTW systems are based on risk assessment strategies that also need to be constantly evolving.
What’s the Benefit of a Digital Permit to Work System?
Switching from typical paper PTW systems to a digital or electronic system, sometimes called an ePTW, can improve your internal safety measures. By using digital forms you can ensure the readability of all your forms, confirm that each step in your PTW process has been completed, and even capture an electronic signature on any forms that require it. The key is to use a digital form system, not just a PDF of your existing safety forms.
A PDF will allow you to capture PTW information, but the information will remain on those PDFs and will require manual translation and review. When you’re using a digital form system all the information from your PTW forms can be captured as separate data points and uploaded to any system, spreadsheet, or cloud storage platform you need. The best digital form platforms also allow integrations with your other business processes to ensure no information gets dropped.
Digital form solutions give you the ability to customize your form rules and calculations as well. For example, if you design your form to require a signature from supervisors or management, you can actually prevent the form from being submitted without it. The same applies to different safety measures you have in place, such as confirming through a signature that the proper PPE and equipment are available for the job. By automating these restrictions you can guarantee no PTW can be completed without your mandatory safety requirements being met. This can help minimize the overall safety risks on your site, and ensure safety processes are being followed, without the need to manually review each step of the PTW process.
Can a Permit to Work System Do Anything Else?
A PTW system is a great way to mandate safety requirements for your team, and for that alone, it’s worth ensuring you have it integrated into your processes. It’s also a way to identify trends and evolve your safety requirements over time. As a part of a thorough PTW there should be a form to indicate work completion, and note any concerns or problems throughout the process. This information, as well as any communication issues before and during the hazardous work, can and should all be recorded. You can use that information to identify weak points in your current PTW process and use it to improve your processes going forward.
That benefit is possible to get through a paper PTW but requires substantially more review. If you’ve already switched to an ePTW, you can review the data points, time stamps, and concerns all in one place. And when it comes to the safety of your team, why wouldn’t you make that as fast and simple as possible?
About GoFormz
GoFormz is a digital forms solution that helps bring your data into a single, actionable place. We believe that everyone should be able to fill out their forms online and deliver products and services that redefine how people and businesses collect and process information. GoFormz is the only online form solution that goes beyond a fillable PDF to get your data on any device using the same look and feel of your existing paper forms. Let GoFormz capture, digitize, and send your data wherever you need it to streamline all your business processes.
