So you think you can trust your incident reporting system. Bet you can't!
You probably have an incident reporting system of some kind in place. You might even be happy with it. But if your incident reporting system doesn't include an incident investigation feature, it could cost you!
The Example
Recently, a former Queensland director was granted compensation for a psychological injury she received as a result of two 'loud and vulgar' arguments with a subordinate colleague in front of other staff and students in October 2008. In the second argument, the subordinate had to be physically restrained. In response to the events, both employees were summarily dismissed. The director filed complaints and claimed that the incident had resulted in personal depression.
A court found that her employer failed to investigate the incidents before it sacked her in response to the events and were required to pay compensation, stating that, 'The termination of Ms Page's employment was not implemented in a reasonable way."
The Lesson
Investigate before you act. Reporting this incident alone would not have been enough for the company to avoid responsibility. In fact, had the incident been investigated, they would likely have dealt with the situation very differently.
An incident reporting system that implements mandatory investigation before an incident can be closed would likely have provided the additional information that the company needed in order to make an informed decision on their course of action. As it was, the decision to dismiss the director without any form of compensation was made on third party observations alone.
The Problem
Australian law requires every organisation to have an incident reporting system in place. For many companies, and almost all small companies, this consists of an incident report form and somewhere to store the recorded information; it could be an Excel spreadsheet, it could be a filing cabinet. The law doesn't ask for much more than this. The investigation aspect of this requirement, while provided for on most incident report forms, does not require action before the information is stored. And that's the problem.
The Solution
If your incident reporting system has in-built functionality that requires an investigation and the subsequent report to be completed before closing the incident, you can guarantee that you are provided with the information you need to take corrective actions.
This is how your incident reporting system can actually work to improve workplace safety. And isn't that the point?
The Next Step
While investigative actions can be mandated by simple organisational policy, this provides no guarantee. However, there are a number of incident reporting software solutions on the market today that provide this feature. A simple Google search should help you find the solutions you're looking for. Try the keywords, "OHS incident reporting" or "injury reporting" and check out what's available.
The solutions are out there - and they could save you a lot of money!
Questions and Answers
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