The mobile phone and usage of apps has got a prominent place in our lives—maybe a bit too prominent. Still, many companies don’t allow their employees to use their mobile phones during work time. There are numerous valid reasons for not allowing it: unsafe, loss of productivity, distractions, etc. When a company applies this policy, they mainly look at the negative sides of using a mobile phone.
There are indeed drawbacks of using mobile phones during work, but simply blocking them out means the company misses out. There is much potential in mobile usage for the QHSE management system, so it’s a real shame not to utilize this.
Why Not?
Companies have great reasons why not to use the mobile phone during working hours. They claim that people will use the phone for personal activities, such as personal calls or simply using Facebook. Yes, people will do this when they have their phone in reach, but you should also trust your employees that they know the balance between work and personal time.
The point of it being unsafe is a lot stronger. People will use the phone while they are working, which means they don’t pay attention to their work. We’ve all seen the videos of people getting into accidents due to this.
These are both serious complaints, and awareness training sessions should be provided to make this really clear. People should only use the phone during work when it is safe and for work-related actions.
Why?
There are quite a few reasons why phones should be banned from the workplace. However, the possibilities of the mobile phone in QHSE are enormous. The use of mobile apps in the QHSE management system will lead to a significant amount of new data and insights.
The ease of use of the mobile app in QHSE management is tremendous. People are so used to grabbing their phone for everything in their personal lives, hence training time and adoption. Most people intuitively know how to use a mobile app, especially when it is designed similar to the other apps they use on their mobile phone. The user is used to getting notifications when things change in apps, which is very convenient when things need to be done for the QHSE management system.
Harvest QHSE Data
Employees can file NCRs, fill out forms, and check out data without hurdles. They don’t have to find the form somewhere on a computer and type everything that they need to fill in—don’t get me started on the challenge of adding pictures to it. Doing this on an app is very simple if the right platforms are used.
Filling in forms and gathering the information is one easy example of what is possible with the mobile QHSE app. We have seen a 100 percent increase in issues filed due to the ease of use of mobile phones. Also, the ability to autocomplete data makes the mobile app the number one platform for creating QHSE management data. Things like QR-code scanning and GPS data make it so easy to gather lots of data without much effort. Next to the administrative actions, online training for safety and quality awareness or new work instructions can easily be performed on the mobile with the right platform.
Proper Policy
When you allow employees to use the phone on the production sites, it is crucial to have some clear guidelines to prevent undesired behavior. The employees have to understand that they get this freedom but always have to put their own safety first no matter what happens. Also make it clear that they need to do the work and don’t spend their time on Facebook. Good guidelines and clear consequences when they don’t follow the guidelines.
Conclusion
Not utilizing the mobile phone is a loss of opportunity to improve the QHSE management and the safety and quality culture. An app makes it so much easier for employees to interact with the QHSE management system and makes them more aware of this. Give employees this option but clearly communicate what kind of behavior is acceptable and what isn’t.
