What is Real-Time Incident Reporting?

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Workplace incidents can be defined as any event that may affect safety margins. For instance, a safety incident, such as a near miss, may require companies to review the event and identify what went wrong to ensure it doesn’t repeat.

Incident reporting is an important practice to ensure the safety of all employees within the company. In case of an incident, employees need to report it immediately, in real time, so that EHS teams have actionable data to work with.

Real-time incident reporting is generally defined as the practice of reporting an event that occurs, or is happening, to relevant safety personnel. Often, employees can send real-time incident reports using a safety app, or data can be gathered through AI monitoring tools.

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Why Real-Time Incident Reporting is Vital for Workplace Safety

Real-time incident reporting is of extreme importance in modern workplaces. Real-time reporting helps employees work closely with EHS teams to improve workplace safety. 

Thanks to incident reporting technology, frontline employees are able to provide relevant details about the event to responsible authorities, even taking photos and including annotations for increased detail. 

• Preventing Loss of Critical Incident Details Over Time

The primary reason why real-time incident reporting is so important is because as time passes, there’s an increased risk that an employee may not remember all the details about it. They may end up omitting critical details from their incident reports that could affect the company’s investigation.

• Detailing the Sequence of Events for Accurate Safety Analysis

In most cases, safety events usually transpire due to a series of actions that occur in a series. It’s vitally important for employees to detail this series of events, as it may help safety teams better understand what happened and improve their incident response. 

• Swift Response and Aid Through Real-Time Reporting

More importantly, real-time incident reporting can allow companies to take swift action, including offering aid to affected employees. In certain cases, especially serious injuries, immediate reporting can help companies take action quicker, improving overall incident resolution.

• CCTV and Real-Time Reports for Comprehensive Incident Analysis

In case the company has CCTV footage, real-time incident reports make it easy for them to understand exactly how the events transpired, while also reviewing the video evidence. This allows them to glean important insights related to the causality of events, including any contributing factors, which can significantly enhance incident tracking and hazard reporting efforts.

How to Enforce Real-Time Incident Reporting in the Workplace

There are several steps that companies can take to enforce real-time incident reporting in the workplace.

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1. Educating Employees on the Importance of Real-Time Reporting

Frontline employees can play an integral role in reporting incidents in real time. It’s imperative for companies to educate employees about the importance of real-time safety monitoring and the broader incident reporting process.

This means conducting training sessions and discussions with employees about what to do, how to do it, and why they must report the incident. 

In many cases, employees choose not to report incidents such as near misses because they fear the employer’s wrath. Employers need to encourage their frontline employees to report such incidents, or even create an incentive program. ‍

2. Training Employees on Real-Time Incident Reporting Procedures

Companies must also train employees on how to report real-time incidents. For instance, if the company uses an incident reporting app or incident reporting software, all employees must receive proper training on how to use it.

It’s also important for employers to review the incident reporting system and to remove friction from the incident reporting process as much as possible, thus making it easy for employees to report incidents quickly.

3. Enhancing Real-Time Incident Reporting with AI Safety Tools

One of the best ways to improve real-time incident reporting is to use AI safety technologies. AI-powered workplace safety solutions integrate directly with CCTV camera systems, allowing companies greater visibility into various incidents through safety video analytics.

In case a safety event occurs, the AI tool automatically captures it and sends alerts to designated personnel. The safety rules can be customized, so the AI safety monitoring tool can capture events of varying risk levels.

Automated safety monitoring tools are by far the most effective way of capturing safety incidents and gathering real-time incident reports. The tool can be used for conducting safety audits, which in turn help improve the effectiveness of safety decisions in the workplace.

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Use Protex AI to Improve Incident Reporting in the Workplace

Protex AI is one of the best workplace safety solutions that companies can use for real time incident reporting. It plugs in seamlessly with existing CCTV networks, offering greater insights to companies and helping safety teams make effective decisions.

Protex AI records unsafe events, making it easy for safety teams to review video evidence later on and prepare actionable plans to improve safety.

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