Apps: Why the hype?

Risk assessment is something every single company should be doing, and regularly. Any European company employing more than five people has to document and record their findings by law, not to mention the rest of the world that mostly follows the same legal requirements. So why do people find it so difficult? Why do so many people not do it? Why do 60,000 people Google 'risk assessment” every month?

We believe the reason is that people find it a chore - something they’re only doing because they have to. They shouldn't. Risk assessment shouldn't be something people only take seriously after an accident, it should be done properly to avoid the accident.

What's so difficult?

Why do some people have this opinion on risk assessment? Well, let’s look at how most would carry out the report. It will start at the risk site, which usually isn't going to conveniently be located next to your computer. So it's pen and paper time - write down all the hazards and make notes on controls, likelihoods, etc. Drive back to the office and maybe look at a photo you've taken and start to input your findings into a pre created Word template, trying to get everything to fit in the column. Next, start working out your risk score, save and email it across. It seems long winded every time, but is so important to do it accurately, when people’s lives are at stake. Think about the millions of people who carry out this long winded procedure on a daily basis. This is where we believe the Risk Assessor App (iOS & Android) has hit the ground running.

Users can now take a photo while at the risk site and simply drag and drop pre-loaded hazards over a grid screen. Users can add as many of their own default hazards as they like and edit them along the way - making it fully bespoke to the assessment in question. Select and enter as many control measures as you like and, with a few more answered questions, your personalised risk assessment PDF will be created and saved to the device. All the risk scores will be worked out for you and detailed on the report. This is all free.

There’s no need for the person out in the field to drive back and write up his report, it's done - and now they simply select their report and email it straight from the risk site. Subscribers are taking it a step further and uploading completed assessments straight to the Cloud management system, meaning other users in the office / site can immediately see and download the report. Follow-up dates are synced with the device and appear on the user’s Cloud Dashboard - so no more excuses for not following up the risk assessment.

The Risk Assessor App has been around for a year now and is constantly being updated with improved features. With 19,500 users so far, we’re listening to what people want - from small sole traders to huge corporations. While the App is a useful tool to create the assessments, managing them is just as important. We used the clout of The Health and Safety Event in Birmingham to launch the Cloud Service and were blown away by the immediate response.

Our plan will be to continue supporting our existing users, while listening to them and expanding our portfolio of services. The quick success of the Risk Assessor App and its Cloud service isn’t just down to the quality of the product. The price-tag helps as well. It should help any business with risk assessment and can be tried out for free.

We encourage anybody with any level of health and safety experience to download the freeApp and see for themselves. The Cloud service can also be tried free of charge for up to 30 days. You’ll still need to understand the report you’ve created, so you may want to seek full training, although hopefully this tool will get you started.