Safety

eBook Content: Your Pest Control Business: Create a Better Team in 4 Steps

Your Pest Control Business: Create a Better Team in 4 Steps

In this eBook, we’ll take a closer look at how to better empower and manage your employees, helping you to create a responsive, service-oriented team that’s as good at capturing and controlling business-critical data as it is at ridding the world of rodents and roaches. 

Introduction:

As an owner or manager of a pest control business, you’re no stranger to the age-old problem confronted by every company whose employees work mostly in the field: How do you get the most out of your employees when you’re not physically present to supervise them? 

On one level, you have the same challenge that every mobile business does. Some employees simply lack the professionalism to work productively without supervision, and some fail to possess the people skills required to represent your business professionally to a diverse group of customers.

The U.S. will add nearly 13,000 new pest control workers by 2022, a growth rate of 20% a year. 

Your challenges are bigger

But that challenge may be even greater for you than it is in most other industries. First, the industry is growing quickly. The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the U.S. will add nearly 13,000 new pest control workers by 2022, a growth rate of 20 percent a year. Environmental and other factors have led to an explosion in recent years of certain kinds of pests, causing rapid expansion of businesses.

Also, your employees deal with dangerous chemicals that can and harm and kill. (Indeed, that’s what they’re supposed to do.) An improperly applied chemical in a customer’s home could hurt a pet or a human. In addition to being a tragedy, that could cost you your business, and more.

Pest control is dangerous work for technicians, too. Crawling underneath houses and through cluttered attics and basements, carrying heavy equipment, and confronting rodents and other animals are all in a day’s work for your employees.

Even when no one is harmed, and even when no improper application of a pesticide is made, any number of violations of federal or state regulations could cost you many thousands of dollars, or your license to operate.

How much of your business is in the hands of your staff?

Think about how much of your livelihood is in the hands of your pest control technicians. You trust your employees with more than just handling chemicals correctly and filling out every report as required. You also trust them to interact with your customers. So even if they’re doing the “pest control” part of their job right if they’re not also dealing well with the human side of your business, you could get bad ratings on online review sites and fail to get the word-of-mouth referrals that businesses like yours thrive on.

That’s why it is absolutely vital that your workers be fully trained and qualified, and that you continue to carefully monitor their work, even if you can’t be with them every day.

Step 1: Know the regulations — and follow them to the letter

Pest control companies must obey two regulatory masters. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency sets limits on what chemicals may be used under what circumstances. State regulators may ban or restrict the use of some substances that the federal government hasn’t, set licensing and training requirements for your techs and managers, and demand the maintenance of records concerning the use of chemical products.

It is your responsibility as the business license holder to make sure that your techs follow the regulations regarding the safe use of pesticides, as well as all the necessary record-keeping.

In most states, pest control companies are required to have at least one supervisor dedicated to those compliance requirements. For example, California requires that pest control companies have “at least one person in a supervisory position who holds a valid qualified applicator license at each principal and branch location.”

That’s not all, however. After becoming licensed, California (whose regulations are strict but not atypical) requires careful records management. Companies must: 

  • Retain pest control application notification records for two years
  • Retain records of pesticide use for two years
  • Submit pesticide use reports to the county agricultural commissioner’s office in the county where the application was made
  • Have valid permits for restricted materials used.

When chemical pesticides are applied, you must also know whether the pesticide is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for general or restricted use.

General-use pesticides are the most widely used and are readily available. These are the products that the average consumer can pick up at a hardware store, albeit in diluted concentrations. Restricted use of pesticides is available only to certified professionals for controlling the most severe infestations. The EPA carefully regulates their registration, labeling, and application.

EPA compliance with the use of restricted pesticides remains a vital concern. You certainly don’t want to risk a citation or loss of a business license due to a violation. All the more reason to make sure you are clearly and consistently documenting the pesticides your company uses, and cross-checking them against approved chemicals. Approved chemicals vary by state, so be sure you are intimately familiar with your own state’s regulations.

Make sure you are clearly and consistently documenting the pesticides your company uses.

A quick review of cases showing violations of The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) makes it clear that transgressions can cost tens of thousands of dollars in fines and penalties, and even result in suspensions outright. For example:

  • In Oregon, one company was fined more than $50,000 for using outdated labeling on its pesticide products
  • Also in Oregon, the federal government filed charges against a pest control company whose illegal use of pesticides led to the death of a homeowner
  • In Arizona, a pest control company’s improper production of a pesticide led to a fine by the federal government, and could have landed the company in more serious trouble with its state regulator. 

In most cases, violations such as those cited above are the result of actions taken by employees who either didn’t have or didn’t follow their training, and supervisors who weren’t paying close enough attention. Although requirements vary by state, training isn’t optional. Techs on your staff must have completed about three months of coursework, then pass a written exam.

Many states also require that licensed techs earn a certain number of continuing education credits each year in order to maintain their certification. It’s vital, therefore, that you not rely solely on a tech’s license as proof that he or she is qualified to work for your company, and doing the job well.

Your employees are required to complete detailed reports on what they are applying for, so be sure that you are paying attention to that paperwork. In addition to being required, those documents provide important insight into what your techs are doing throughout the day and can serve as one basis for your conversations with them.

Step 2: Hire qualified staff and train them properly

For your company to succeed, however, your employees must do much more than what’s minimally required by regulation. Today, perhaps more than ever, consumers are knowledgeable and concerned about their exposure to anything that strikes them as “unnatural,” including harsh chemical pesticides, so your techs need to be comfortable talking in layman’s terms about every product they use.

So that means hiring staff who have both technical know-how and the so-called soft skills of customer relationship management. According to researchers at MyMajors.com, which analyzes the skills and attributes individuals need to succeed professionally, the best pest control technicians possess a wide range of competencies, including:

  • Critical thinking; the ability to logically evaluate problems and weigh solutions against one another
  • Time management, because your techs must work efficiently to service all of your customers
  • Effective speaking and writing, because techs must be able to communicate clearly with customers, regulators, and you
  • Active Listening is a crucial element of effective communication. Techs who fail to pay close attention to what property owners tell them about their pest problems and treatment preferences may not have the information necessary to solve the problem.

Techs also need the technical know-how in chemistry, of course, and must be cooperative, dependable, able to tolerate stress and function with a high level of integrity.

So, in addition to ensuring that your techs have the proper applicator training and certification, they must also receive instruction on customer relationship management. It’s best to pair your new techs with seasoned veterans, so they can train their new colleagues on how your company handles customer communications, and be sure they’re handling their chemicals correctly.

Make sure your employees communicate with customers

When you fail to fully and clearly explain everything the homeowner needs to know about products being applied in their home — including what the product is, how it works, how long it will be active, all potential risks to human or animal health, everything the homeowner should do to mitigate those risks, and any available alternatives — the results can be catastrophic, for both your customer and your business.

Take the story of one Washington, D.C.-area woman who suffered extreme health problems immediately after a pest control technician sprayed a flea treatment in her home. During months of recuperation, she researched the chemical that had been used.

“First I found the pesticide label online, with its information about using the product properly,” she wrote in The Washington Post. “What this told me was that the technician had not given me enough information. The label instructs users to cover all food-processing surfaces, utensils and exposed food prior to spraying. We hadn’t been told to do anything like that.”

She detailed other mistakes that the technician made in both the application of the product and his communication about the product to her — mistakes egregious enough to cost a pest control company thousands of dollars and to expose it to a big liability risk.

And while it’s important to be fully transparent about the possible negative effects of products you’re using, it’s just as necessary to manage customer expectations.

Not every treatment works the first time. And even if it does, some pests can easily return, especially if property owners aren’t educated about how to do their part in preventing recurrences. For example, most people know that keeping a clean home is an important step in preventing bugs and rodents. But most don’t know that moisture also attracts pests, so fixing a leaky faucet and making sure downspouts direct water away from the home are important actions for the homeowner to take as well.

How effectively do your techs communicate?

The U.S. EPA recommends that consumers should not hire a pest control company that doesn’t detail a pest control plan. That plan should include: 

  • Pests to be controlled 
  • The extent of the problem 
  • Active ingredient(s) in the pesticide chosen 
  • Potential adverse health effects and typical symptoms of poisoning associated with the active ingredients 
  • Form of the pesticide and application techniques
  • Non-chemical alternatives available 
  • Special instructions to reduce the property owner’s exposure to the pesticide
  • Steps to take to minimize pest problems in the future

Make sure your techs are providing all of this information, plus cost estimates, in writing. Have the customer sign this document to confirm their receipt. And be aware that today’s health-minded consumers will still have plenty of questions, including:

  • What’s known about the health effects of exposure to the substance you propose to use, especially for kids?
  • Will it hurt my pets? 
  • Will I have to leave my home? 
  • Should I throw away all my food? 
  • For how long will the substance be active or potent in my home or garden? 
  • What natural or non-chemical treatments might be available instead?

Step 3: Communicate frequently

Sustaining ongoing contact with employees in the field is a big part of any business that’s always on the move. You should meet with each of your techs regularly — once a week is best — to review their experiences on the job.

Review all the reports they have filed prior to those conversations. In addition to detailed pest control plans and summaries of treatments they provided at each customer site, those documents should also include brief customer satisfaction surveys that your techs should be administering to customers at the end of each service appointment.

Have a list of questions ready for staff during each of these conversations. 

These might include:

  • What was the highlight of your week, and why? 
  • What was the most difficult thing you dealt with this week? 
  • What surprised you this week?
  • Were any of your customers particularly challenging to deal with? How did you handle it?
  • Tell me about any difficult pest-management issues that you handled this week.
  • Was there anything you confronted this week that you felt under-prepared for?

Ongoing contact with employees in the field is a big part of any business that’s always on the move.

In short, your conversations should focus on both the technical side of your techs’ work, as well as the people management side. 

Step 4: Make it easier on your techs by going digital

In the past, one of the most difficult aspects of managing mobile pest-control employees has been the sheer volume of paperwork that they generate. But today you can maintain electronic versions of all the critical documents they need on smartphones or tablets. This lets you take command of just about every data point in a service cycle, and easily capture detailed information that can improve everything from pest-control plan development to compliance with EPA rules on pesticide storage to accurate billing. 

The days of a technician having to keep a file box of essential forms in his van are over; everything can be accessed, updated, and saved electronically to a centralized database, making management infinitely easier. That makes it easier for your techs to complete necessary documents while relieving them of the burden of having to keep track of paperwork themselves.

Consider, for example, the typical series of pest control plans and reports a technician or supervisor is charged with maintaining. The traditional approach might be to pull out a paper file for each of these required documents, sit behind the steering wheel with a clipboard, and complete

Everything can be accessed, updated, and saved electronically to a centralized database, making management infinitely easier.

each page by hand. Some techs might even wait until they were back at the home office and make that paperwork an end-of-day (or worse, wait-until-tomorrow) priority.

Now, however, a company manager can give techs a suite of mobile apps, specifically tailored to the information management needs of your company.

Integrated pest management strategies are key

Today, dealing with unwanted pests means a lot more than simply spraying poison or setting traps. Integrated pest management strategies have become the cornerstone of the business. These strategies detail not only the plan for eradicating pests but also for preventing their return.

It makes sense that technology should stay in step with that strategy, and even improve its execution. Any solid pest control pro knows that implementing an effective integrated pest management strategy is going to differ from pest to pest. That’s why you should have a good checklist to help select the right pest-specific strategy, and then make sure you follow it to the letter can save time and keep efforts on target.

Make your employees — and company — tech-savvy 

Electronic records management is also an important part of your communication with your techs — and their communication with customers. You can more easily recall and review your techs’ documentation when those documents are stored electronically, and you can both review key documents together during your conversations. 

And when your tech is on-site at a customer’s property, he or she can easily use a phone or tablet to retrieve all of that customer’s records. That makes it simple for the tech to remind the customer of what’s been done so far and what still needs to be done, while at the same time entering any new information.

Finally, be sure that your staff is delivering invoices to your customers at the time of service appointment. And as we’ve explained previously, while it’s your option to accept payment later, there’s really no reason that your techs can’t process payment on the spot.

You’re already ready 

Think about the number of employees you have who already use smartphones and tablets. According to Pew Research, 77 percent of Americans own smartphones. It just makes sense that you take advantage of a booming trend in technological usage to better run your pest control company, improve worker performance, and optimize profitability.

Today’s business-based mobile apps, whether ready-made or custom-built for your specific needs, are giving pest control pros unprecedented control over everything from schedule coordination to chemical compliance concerns to customer billing and outreach. GoCanvas offers 220 mobile apps specific to the pest control industry, each one designed to eliminate excess paperwork and provide a more effective means of workforce management. You can try any or all of them for free for a full 30 days — plenty of time to see what kind of impact an optimized mobile workforce can have on your business.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: Three Strategies to Help Mine Operators

Three Strategies to Help Mine Operators

Introduction:

From the nightly news to online articles, stories of mining fatalities and injuries show up prominently in the media — and remind us that despite stricter safety regulations, tragic accidents still happen. Of course, if you own and operate a mine, you don’t need the news to tell you the risks. You see them firsthand every day and want to do all that you can to keep employees safe.

With this concern, though, comes a need to grow your business — and keep it afloat in the global marketplace during tough economic times. This conflict has led some mine operators to gloss over certain safety measures and even underreport injuries, according to the Office of the Inspector General’s 2014 audit of the United States Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

The audit identifies more than 9,000 unreported injuries from 2000 to 2012, resulting in more than $1 million in missed penalty fees. “Mine operators benefit from having low rates of reported injuries/illnesses,” the audit states. “High rates of injury or illness can increase workers’ compensation expenses and may single out mines for increased enforcement by MSHA.”The audit may have called out mine operators for underreporting, but it also raised a red flag on MSHA for doing little to hold mines accountable. As a result, the pressure is on for MSHA to develop and implement more stringent measures when operators do things like underreport or fail to comply with safety regulations. Mine operators are going to have to step up their game when it comes to safety — and will no longer be able to ignore MSHA’s requests for documents like employee medical and personnel records, or to put off paying delinquent fines, as many have done in the past.

Joseph Main, the assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, puts it bluntly in an interview: “Mines operating today face a whole different set of enforcement challenges and tools if they decide they’re not going to comply with the Mine Act. We do not wait for them to rack up fines before we do something these days like we did in the past… And we’re screening on a routine basis.”

Be ready for MSHA inspections — 3 strategies

What can mine operators do to be ready for MSHA’s new requests and inspections?

To help you better prepare for quarterly MSHA safety inspections, this eBook offers three practical, budget-friendly strategies you can use to streamline how you run your safety program and improve your results. It provides solutions especially for operators of small-to-mid-size mines, who are most at risk of failing to meet MSHA’s standards.

What puts smaller mines at risk?

Unlike large-scale operations, small-to-mid-size mines typically lack the bandwidth for an internal team of safety specialists to manage training and ensure that regulations are met in a timely fashion. The burden falls primarily to you, the operator, with a few other employees supporting your efforts. That’s why you need a safety program that not only protects your workers but also maximizes your time and keeps your costs down. Here are a few strategies to get started.

Chapter 1: Make Full Use of MSHA

For years, MSHA was known for its hard-to-navigate website and scarcity of resources. But that’s starting to change, with efforts underway to help mines meet compliance. As a mine operator, when you shift your mindset to consider MSHA less of a regulatory body and more of a partner, a lot can happen.

MSHA’s standards are vast, but the organization targets certain regulations based on injury, illness, and fatality trends. As a mine operator, you need to take these focus areas seriously. Since 2010, when MSHA rolled out its multi-phase “Rules to Live By” initiative, the focus has been on preventing fatalities and catastrophic accidents, which are most often associated with:

  • Falling from elevated surfaces 
  • Roof and rib falls 
  • Operating mobile equipment (in both surface and underground mines) 
  • Performing maintenance (particularly in coal mines) 
  • Failure to lock, tag, or try electrical equipment 
  • Being struck by mobile equipment (in both surface and underground mines)
  • Blocking against motion

MSHA inspectors, when they show up at your mine, whether on a surprise or routine visit, tend to pay close attention to standards associated with these hazards. To help mine operators ramp up safety in these key areas, MSHA has released a number of tools and resources, some available for free on its website, and others available for purchase through a catalog. While these tools are designed with mine operators in mind, they also aim to help MSHA intervene when mines fall short, and ultimately better enforce the Mine Act.

Recent additions, launched in February 2015, include two online tracking tools:

1. “Rules to Live By” Calculator 

This tool helps mine operators track compliance over time, compare current and past violations, and determine whether their safety efforts are making a difference in their outcomes. Operators can also see how they stack up with mines nationwide, and monitor their risk of being flagged for a pattern of significant and substantial (S&S) violations. If they are identified for S&S violations, then MSHA can step in with additional enforcement, as stipulated by the pattern of violations provision enacted by Congress. 

2. Underground Coal Mine Examination Tool/Part 75 Exam Rule Calculator

Coal mine operators can use the web tool to track compliance with standards related to the highest-risk hazards for their miners. Standards covered here include methane, ventilation, roof control, combustible materials, rock dust, and equipment guarding — all part of MSHA’s 2012 final rule on Examinations of Work Areas in Underground Coal Mines for Violations of Mandatory Health or Safety Standards.

If you’re not already familiar with the resources rolled out in earlier phases of “Rules to Live By,” then familiarize yourself with what’s available, and use the information to focus and fine-tune your safety program. Resources for phase one and phase three focus on fatality prevention, while phase two concentrates on preventing catastrophic accidents, particularly those relating to fires and explosions.

Chapter 2: Implement a Self-Audit Program

One of the best ways to prepare for an MSHA inspection is to get in the habit of conducting regular self-audits. By law, the employee you designate as a competent person is required to inspect working conditions on every shift.

Self-audits, however, allow you to evaluate your entire operation on a deeper level. With a strong self-audit program, you learn to view your mine from the vantage point of an inspector and can see firsthand what’s working and what’s not — all in time to take corrective steps before MSHA comes knocking.

How do self-audits work?

Essentially, a self-audit walks you through the main areas MSHA inspectors will evaluate when they visit your mine while prompting you to consider whether or not you meet compliance. Self-audits typically don’t cover every single standard, but they do touch on key parts of an inspection. These include:

  • Mandatory safety policies – Necessary safety policies range from the competent person you designate to handle emergencies to your traffic control rules and hazard communications and signage.
  • Records and examinations – The required records span from accident, illness, and injury reports to proper documentation for all independent contractors, material safety data sheets (MSDSs), and records of routine inspections on machinery and equipment.
  • Fire prevention – This includes proper on-site equipment for fighting all stages of a fire, records of routine inspections of fire extinguishers and hydrostatic testing, and appropriate storage of oxygen cylinders, explosives, and waste materials.
  • Electrical – Assessments in this area involve the setup and maintenance of fuses and circuit breakers, guarding lights, grounding, insulation on wires and cables, lockout/tagout procedures, and transformation enclosures.
  • Loading, Hauling, and Dumping – This covers everything from backup alarms, brakes, window construction, and seat belts on mobile equipment to berms at dumping locations, loose slopes, dust control, and road cleanup.
  • Machinery and Equipment – Included are conveyor warnings, guard construction, guarding against falling or flying materials or moving machine parts, and high-pressure hose safety chains.
  • Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and Practices – PPE encompasses the use of glasses, hard hats, foot ware, noise, scaffolding, fall protection equipment, general housekeeping, passageways, dust overexposure, access to toilets, and more.

What self-audit format works best? 

The list of what you need to evaluate is extensive, and using a self-audit form or checklist can help immensely. Checklists enable you to move efficiently from assessing one item to the next — without overlooking any part. While paper checklists have long been the industry norm, mobile checklists are now available at an affordable price, and many mine operators are making the change. What are the advantages?

With mobile checklists, you can save the data you gather to a secure, password-protected server in the cloud, without having to key in information from a paper form manually. This saves labor and time and makes your process less prone to careless errors.

It also allows you to more easily analyze your data. For instance, you can compare audits over weeks or quarters. You can track outcomes as you change or implement new safety measures. Most importantly, you can identify problem areas and trends much more quickly.

Given the broad range of areas to assess, many operators use multiple checklists — versus one very long one. You can create a checklist for each of the seven self-audits listed above. Likewise, you can provide your team (from miners to safety specialists) with checklists that align with their area of expertise or work.

MSHA, unfortunately, doesn’t offer a reliable self-audit tool. You can use some of their resources as a starting point, such as this Safety and Health Audit for Aggregate Operators in Surface Metal/Nonmetal. Keep in mind that you’ll need to tailor your form to your own operation and make sure it complies with MSHA’s latest regulations and focus areas. This self-audit for aggregate operators, for instance, was created in 2004 and doesn’t include the revised hazard communications standards from 2012. So you can’t rely on it as an effective self-audit guide.

How can you turn a paper form into a mobile app?

Once you finalize your paper form or checklist, you can easily create mobile versions. This process used to be costly and cumbersome, but advances in technology now make it easy. At Canvas, for instance, mine operators from around the world use our platform to convert paper to mobile forms. Many of our existing mobile apps relate specifically to MSHA inspections and help operators in various fields, from crushed stone to coal, conduct effective self-audits.

Chapter 3: Create a Culture of Safety

Compliance with safety and health standards is the responsibility of mine operators. While MSHA supports education and outreach efforts to assist the mining industry in improving mine safety and health, MSHA is charged with ensuring consistent and strict compliance with safety and health standards and expects operators to foster a culture of zero tolerance for violations in their operations.

— MSHA, “Rules to Live By”

MSHA makes it clear: as a mine operator, the responsibility falls on you to ensure a safe workplace for your miners. Yet establishing a “culture of zero tolerance for violations” can’t happen alone. It involves bringing your team on board, too.

As a leader, you hold enormous sway in how your team thinks about and approaches safety. When you value and prioritize safety in your workplace, your team also prioritizes it, and this is essential to meeting compliance in a tightly regulated system. Why? Safety isn’t just your job — it’s everyone’s job. You can’t be in all places at once, and you need your entire team committed to following your mine’s safety policies and procedures. That’s the only way to take your safety program to a new level.

How can you create a culture of safety?

There are several things you can do to establish an overall culture of safety that infiltrates all aspects of your operation. These include:

1. Set a positive tone when you discuss safety in your workplace.

As mentioned earlier, shift your mindset to view MSHA as a partner, not as a governing body intent on issuing citations. Keep in mind that you can reach out to MSHA for advice on any safety concerns. MSHA, by law, cannot penalize you — it can only help. Also, know that the tone you establish will trickle down to all levels of your workforce, so it’s in your best interest as a mine operator to take a positive and proactive approach.

2. Involve and empower your employees.

Your employees can only be invested in safety if they’re actively involved in the process. As a mine operator, realize that all employees want and need to play meaningful roles. Invite them to contribute in key ways to the safety and health of the operation. Tap into miners’ hands-on experience on the frontlines of the mining industry, and empower them to help you craft a strong safety program.

3. Take training and education seriously.

It’s hard to prevent safety violations if you can’t recognize them. Training and education are core parts of any safety program, and in mining, not knowing is one of the greatest hazards. Make sure you meet MSHA’s training requirements for every employee, from your new hires and independent contractors to your experienced miners in need of refresher training. Tools like mobile apps can help you and your team keep track of training dates and certifications, and ease the labor and time involved in managing training requirements.

What can a “culture of safety” do for your business? 

Making safety a priority can do a lot not just for the health and well-being of your miners but also for your business. As a number of studies show, including this 2014 coal mining study, mine operators who put safety first end up with “a more productive and profitable mining operation, … [and] higher levels of worker morale and job satisfaction, which in turn improves employee retention.” The report found that this “holistic view toward improving worker safety education and safe work practices is a sound business investment that pays dividends for long-term success.”

What Are Your Next Steps?

Meeting MSHA compliance is a tall order, especially considering everything else on your plate. As a mine operator, it’s up to you to develop a highly efficient safety program that leaves no stone unturned. Don’t try to do it all on your own — involve employees from all ranks of your operation; utilize the growing set of tools and support that MSHA offers; and develop and hold fast to an effective self-auditing program.

You can make it easier on your organization by utilizing time-saving technology. Start by implementing a program for your business that includes a series of self-audit mobile apps. Then develop a plan for your team to use the apps regularly to keep your operation compliant and up to date on all MSHA rules and regulations.

Going mobile can be easier and more affordable than you may realize. Chances are, many of your employees already use mobile apps outside of work. There are many mobile apps and cloud-based programs designed exclusively with mine operators and miners in mind, and they’re easy for even technology newcomers to use.

In today’s competitive mining marketplace, every minute counts. If you operate a small-to-mid-size mine, you’re up against some tough hurdles. You need budget-friendly solutions to boost your efficiency and make safety compliance more manageable. At Canvas, we offer more than 200 mobile apps created by and for mine operators and managers. Browse or customize our existing apps. Create your own custom apps from your existing paper forms — in a few clicks. Or just send us your forms, and we can convert them into apps for you.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

Schedule a demo
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eBook Content: Become an HVAC Industry Leader: 5 Steps to Heat Up Your Business

Become an HVAC Industry Leader: 5 Steps to Heat Up Your Business

Introduction:

When it comes to businesses enjoying a surge in demand, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is definitely, pun intended, a hot industry. Consider, for instance, that the HVAC industry held steady, even as the construction sector took a heavy hit from the economic recession. During the recession, from 2009 to 2014, revenues in HVAC grew at an average rate of 2.4 percent a year, while revenues for housing construction fell to record lows, according to an article by ACHR News, which summarizes findings from IBIS World.

As the housing market bounced back, that demand continued to grow. From 2014 to 2019, the HVAC industry grew by 2.9 percent. “As more homes and commercial structures are built, and require HVAC system installations in turn, demand for industry installers and technicians will increase strongly,” ACHR reports.

But this news comes with some pressure. To grow your business, you have to keep up with constantly changing technologies. You need to find, train, and retain capable installers and technicians, and stay up to date on the latest building and environmental regulations — all while delivering efficient, high-performance solutions that your customers have come to expect. This eBook offers five steps to help your company get ahead in the HVAC industry.

Designed with owners and operators of small to mid-size HVAC businesses in mind, the steps are practical and budget-friendly — and ultimately can help you grow your bottom line.

Step one: Stay on Top of Trends in Energy Efficiency

Going green is more than a catchphrase these days. The boom in alternative energy sources, roofs boasting solar panels or gardens, and the push for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification make understanding energy efficiency and environmental impact a requirement for an HVAC business. This affects everything from building materials and power sources to refrigerant types and heat sources.

For newly constructed buildings, LEED certification is an increasingly sought-after designation. LEED-certified buildings are designed and built in ways that save natural resources, use clean renewable energy, and create a healthier environment for the occupants.

When the time comes to select and install an HVAC system in a LEED building, clients look for natural refrigerants, programmable thermostats and humidistats, and similar innovations. Other tools that are helping HVAC go green include:

  • On-command hot water re-circulators 
  • Thermally driven air conditioning 
  • Ice-powered air conditioners 
  • Dual fuel and geothermal heat pumps 
  • Energy analysis software

Did you know?

HVAC systems can do a lot to curb energy use. But, did you know that something as simple as painting a shingle roof white can reduce summer roof surface temperature by as much as 80 degrees? This step alone can cut cooling bills by 10 percent or more.

Resources and tools

If you find yourself involved in a LEED project, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) can help project managers, techs, and clients understand what’s involved in green building (and heating and cooling) projects. The SBA’s website offers several resources, including guides and resources from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency 

EnergyStar also provides energy efficiency resources for small businesses, commercial buildings, and plants, including:

Beyond government resources, there are technological tools helping companies stay on top of energy trends. Mobile apps, for instance, can make it easier to track how well an HVAC system meets energy efficiency standards or stay on top of routine tasks like maintenance. Some come in the form of detailed checklists, much like paper checklists but accessible from your smartphone or tablet and created for specific projects.

Step two: Keep Up With Evolving Compliance Regulations

Sure, you have plenty to do managing your business, from haggling with suppliers to keeping customers happy. Yet, you also have to keep up with OSHA requirements. These ever-evolving requirements can be challenging to track, so making a habit out of checking up on the latest OSHA HVAC news is a must.

From proper handling of ammonia-based refrigerants to preventing Legionnaires’ disease, HVACrelated regulations can go beyond the safety and installation standards expected in a construction or renovation project.

In addition to meeting OSHA’s general safety and health provisions, (e.g., personal protective equipment, fire prevention, scaffolding specifications), remember that HVAC professionals are required to adhere to indoor air quality standards adopted by your state. As the EPA explains, these can include:

  • Ventilation 
  • Air distribution and filtration 
  • Moisture and humidity control

Even if you think you’re being diligent, don’t assume a regulation that has been in place for decades won’t ever change. A growing body of research on indoor air quality, energy efficiency, and environmental impact has increased the understanding of both energy use and building occupant health — and has led to new priorities and regulations that you can’t ignore.

For example, in March 2015 the EPA announced the release of new and approved refrigerants to replace ozone-depleting substances with climate-friendly alternatives. The EPA maintains a list of approved and phased-out refrigerants as part of its Significant New Alternatives Policy (SNAP) Program and encourages anyone in the HVAC industry to review it regularly to stay on top of the changes. Already, between 2015 and 2019, the EPA released several updates that specify safer substitutes, newly prohibited alternatives, and revised use conditions for certain refrigerants.

Likewise, in 2017 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released a final rule to establish new energy conservation standards for central air conditioners and heat pumps. These changes relate to split-system, single-package, and space-constrained air conditioners and heat pumps. If your company installs these systems, make sure you understand the new regulations and train your team to follow the installation guidelines.

Overlooking updated regulations can cost you in delays, project restarts, penalty fees, and even the loss of business due to an irate customer. In many ways, you can’t afford to make compliance and keeping up with regulations an afterthought.

Step three: Streamline Operations and Make Your Business Efficient

Whether you manage a modest family business or have dozens of techs and installers on staff, your responsibilities involve everything from standard HVAC services to billing and business development. You have to maintain distributor and supplier relationships, maintain company equipment and vehicles, and ensure your staff is up to date on professional training and certifications. You also have to stay on top of licensing and issues relating to your insurance policies.

With so many responsibilities on your plate, operational efficiency is critical — and requires a lot more than returning phone calls or keeping track of who’s out to lunch.

Today advances in technology can help HVAC business operators take command of and coordinate diverse demands like marketing, job dispatching, OSHA compliance, and customer billing. Technology is the ingredient that sets the exceptional HVAC company apart from the merely capable.

How, exactly, does technology help? According to McKinsey & Company, “Process digitization means moving away from paper and toward online, real-time sharing of information to ensure transparency and collaboration, timely progress and risk assessment, quality control, and, eventually, better and more reliable outcomes.” More companies are equipping personnel with smartphones and tablets, using specialized mobile apps allowing employees to access client files, coordinate service calls, share data, and plan and implement marketing campaigns based on acquired business intelligence.

For HVAC companies, these tools can especially improve things like work order management and job dispatching efficiency. Improving these areas translates directly to customer satisfaction, and ultimately customer retention.

Step four: Exceed Customer Expectations

You’ve heard the cliché: the best customer is a repeat customer. You keep a customer coming back by providing a positive, value-added experience. Your sales team, techs, and installers give the first impression of your business. They meet with customers face-to-face, earning the trust it takes to close a deal, and interacting with them, sometimes on a daily basis, for installations, maintenance calls, or emergency service.

Your field staff needs to know the importance of a positive first impression. Showing up on time for scheduled appointments is a given. But even the most technically competent professionals can overlook something as basic as clean uniforms and vehicles, and crisp personal presentations.

Insist that everyone on your team has a professional appearance that matches their professional ability. Combine presentation with an ability to communicate in a clear, friendly manner to customers, and you’re bound to see customer experience ratings soar.

Go the extra mile

The key to consistent customer satisfaction is a team that shares your dedication to customer service. It’s as good for long-term business as it is for building your reputation. If a tech takes some extra time, for example, to really explain how a repair was made, he or she has the opportunity to follow up with a quick pitch about why routine maintenance would have probably saved a lot of trouble and expense. Selling a service package just makes sense right then and there — and may bring in extra billings when delivered by a courteous professional.

Put another way, a staff trained to go the extra mile is an unbeatable way to build revenue. Recent research even suggests that strong customer satisfaction is responsible for increasing revenue in many industries by as much as $1 billion. Realize your company’s true potential by making improved customer service a priority.

Beyond a verbal commitment

To reap benefits, you have to do more than just say you’re committed to customer satisfaction. You have to find out what your customers actually think of your work and team. How can you get this information? Sure, you can call customers and ask, but people are busy — and don’t usually want interruptions during the day.

A more thorough and professional approach is to conduct a customer satisfaction survey. While many HVAC companies send surveys one or two weeks after the service, the best time to get feedback from customers is when the job is fresh on their minds — right after your techs wrap up.

Equipping your techs with mobile devices and apps can make that possible, and allow you, the owner or operator, to receive feedback in real-time. For instance, this mobile customer satisfaction survey is tailor-made for the HVAC industry. It can give you valuable, timely insight on how well your team performed its job. If the service was sub-par, you want to know that sooner rather than later. With mobile surveys like this, you can see the responses before your techs even pull out of the driveway or parking lot.

Step five: Modernize Your Business

Heating and air conditioning companies have been around, well, since heating and air conditioning units. While innovations in heating and cooling have transformed the climate control and comfort industry by light-years, too many of today’s businesses operate using yesterday’s business management practices.

If you’re one of them, how can you catch up?

One of the simplest, most practical steps is to start using mobile communication and interaction. Most of your staff probably already own mobile devices like smartphones or tablets, so training will be minimal. And your team will be able to achieve what wasn’t possible before. As the company ARISTA put it in a blog post about HVAC, there are several areas where mobile technology just makes it easier to get the job done right. These include: 

  1. Faster access to customer service history
  2. Ability to check and cross-check parts inventory
  3. Improved work-order accuracy 
  4. Secure mobile payment processing 
  5. Reliable monitoring of techs in the field

How can you get started? 

The transition is not as difficult or expensive as you might expect. Plenty of mobile apps are on the market to help small to mid-size business owners, but a better place to start is with mobile apps developed especially for the HVAC industry. These apps can help you streamline industry-specific tasks like load calculation, system configuration, system check-and-charge, parts lookup and ordering, and more. They also let techs take payment on the spot.

By giving your team the ability to perform these tasks at their fingertips (instead of back at the office), you’re improving you team’s accuracy, speeding up orders, and slashing turnaround time — all of which translates to the ability to serve more customers with more consistency and satisfaction.

Unlike some technologies, which are costly and cumbersome to learn and implement, mobile apps are easy and affordable to put in place. At GoCanvas, for instance, we can turn your existing paper forms into mobile apps — or you can do it yourself in a few short steps.

You don’t have to do it all at once. Just select the work orders, reports, or checklists you use most often. Then see how going paperless saves time and trouble, and puts you well on your way to a modern workplace.

Stand Out as an HVAC Leader

The five steps outlined here might sound straightforward and sensible. After all, prioritizing customer satisfaction has always been a business objective. And happy customers are the result of competent professionals who deliver standout service.

Though exceptional customer service is essential, reaching the next level in HVAC requires more. It takes:

  • A commitment to compliance, and being among the first to know when regulations shift 
  • Streamlining your operations and improving efficiency 
  • Empowering your workforce with mobile communication, data access, and billing 
  • Keeping up with the latest HVAC trends and innovations

As the owner or operator of an HVAC company, the time to move your business to the head of the pack is now. The HVAC industry has remained strong and steady, even during the economic downturn. As the economy rebounds, an industry seemingly immune to recession is bracing itself for an even more demanding workload.

There is the potential for plenty of work for today’s HVAC contractors, and lasting success for those who can stand apart with exceptional, modern service and performance. With the right combination of tools, technology, and training, your company can secure just that.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: OSHA’s HazCom Standard: 6 Steps to Compliance

OSHA’s HazCom Standard: 6 Steps to Compliance

Key Takeaways

  • The deadline for having a HazCom program in full compliance was June 2016
  • Be sure to read up on the new standards, and designate at least one employee to be your HazCom point person 
  • Preparing a written HazCom plan doesn’t need to be complicated or lengthy. It just needs to describe how you’re going to communicate the hazards to your team 
  • Your manufacturers and suppliers are required to properly label. But once chemicals arrive at your facility, ensuring that they remains properly labeled becomes your responsibility 
  • New HazCom standards require manufacturers or suppli ers of hazardous chemicals to prepare and send an SDS with the shipment. If you receive a chemical without a data sheet, call and request one right away. 
  • The training requirements of HazCom 2012 are not just about providing information and training, but ensuring that employees understand that information (and could require materials in other languages). 
  • The cloud and mobile apps are key to increasing productivity and morale, and preventing high turnover and workers’ compensation expenses.

Introduction

Pesticides, cleaning supplies, diesel fumes, solvents, and paints — chemicals are everywhere in the modern world. So much so that no one really knows how many chemicals exist in our homes and workplaces.The Chemical Abstracts Service 

The registry (CAS) tracks registered chemicals, and the numbers are staggering. According to the CAS’s latest count, more than 93 million chemical substances exist in the world, with the number climbing daily. Countless industries depend on the safe and effective use of chemicals in industrial processes. With the use of powerful chemicals comes equally powerful responsibility. This was made clear by the major revisions the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) made to its Hazard Communication Standard (HazCom) in 2012. As OSHA put in the press release announcing the changes, the new standard will benefit United States employees by:

  • Reducing confusion about chemical hazards in the workplace 
  • Facilitating safety training and improving employees’ understanding of hazards 
  • Classifying chemicals according to their health and physical hazards
  • Establishing consistent labels and safety data sheets for all chemicals made in the U.S. and imported from abroad

But the benefits don’t stop with employees: They extend to business owners and employers too. Why? The new regulations make training and safety requirements less complicated and time-consuming for U.S. companies. 

The Department of Labor (DOL) predicts $475.2 million in enhanced productivity, along with a $3 million cost savings to employers. The new standard also aligns with the one developed by the United Nations and adopted by dozens of countries worldwide. This move is expected to lower trade barriers and make it easier for companies to work together outside their domestic markets. 

With these benefits, though, come harsher penalties for not complying. In 2014, for instance, U.S. companies paid more than $3 million in HazCom penalty fees. The number is expected to rise, given that improper labeling and other HazCom violations are considered easy targets for inspectors. 

If you own or operate a business that produces, transports, utilizes, or disposes of hazardous chemicals, you need to develop and implement a HazCom program that complies with the new standard. The deadline for full compliance of the new standard is coming — June 2016. You can’t put it off any longer.

To help, this eBook walks you through six essential steps to an effective hazard communication program that will meet the requirements of HazCom 2012. It also shares strategies for small-to-mid-size businesses for a streamlined HazCom process.

With planning and the right tools, you can make your HazCom program a real business asset, one that not only boosts employee morale and improves productivity but also contributes to your bottom line.

Step 1: Know the standards, designate responsible staff

OSHA makes clear that you need to consider several factors when developing or updating your HazCom program. Start by visiting OSHA’s website and downloading a copy of the full Hazard Communication Standard. If you own or operate a small-to-mid-size business, also download and read OSHA’s “Small Entity Compliance Guide for Employers That Use Hazardous Chemicals,” an easy-to-digest guide published in 2014 by the DOL. 

Once you understand the new standard and how it differs from previous regulations, nominate a member of your leadership team to serve as your HazCom point person. This person will have to become familiar with the changes and take responsibility for the implementation and management of the program. Work with your point person to select staff members to be responsible for different aspects of your HazCom plan. 

This may not be possible if your company has limited bandwidth. Then, your point person may need to manage the entire program alone. If possible, however, utilize the expertise of your team for a divide-and-conquer approach to your HazCom program. 

One way to divide the work, for example, is to designate an employee to manage or help with each of the following:

  • Written hazard communication plan 
  • Labels and other warnings 
  • Safety data sheets 
  • Employee information and training

Step 2: Prepare a written HazCom plan

By law, if your employees produce, transport, utilize, or dispose of hazardous chemicals, you must create not only a HazCom program but also a written plan that describes how you’re going to communicate the hazards to your team. Writing down your plan keeps you in compliance and helps you figure out how to keep employees updated when various scenarios come up such as:

  • New information about the health hazards of chemicals in your workplace becomes available 
  • Government regulations shift 
  • You fine-tune or adjust your safety measures 
  • Before employees are exposed to a new chemical

This may sound like a lot to cover, but as OSHA explains in its guide for small businesses, your written plan “does not need to be lengthy or complicated.” The primary goal is to, “help ensure that compliance with the standard is done in a systematic way and that all elements are coordinated.” Essentially, your plan needs to:

  • Identify the chemicals in your workplace 
  • Describe your use of labels and other warnings 
  • Describe your use of safety data sheets 
  • Explain your approach to educating and training employees

Start with what’s obvious: a comprehensive list of all the hazardous chemicals in your workplace. Make sure the list includes both the formal product and chemical name. For many businesses, identifying chemicals is challenging. Assess your workplace closely, especially if you haven’t been keeping track. 

Also, know that chemicals aren’t just liquids — they can take many forms, including solids, gases, vapors, fumes, and mists. Tools like mobile apps can help you track the chemicals in your workplace. In fact, some apps are designed specifically for this purpose. 

In the next three sections of your written plan — labels, safety data sheets, and training — document your approach to these core areas. Be sure to include who on your team will manage the process and how you’re going to handle occasional chemical exposure that happens outside of ordinary work routines.

Step 3: Learn and shift to the new labeling system

Labels typically serve as the first sign of alert — and are an important part of your HazCom program. The 2012 Hazard Communication Standard shifted labeling requirements in a way that makes it easier for employers to comply. It created a downstream approach, which puts the onus on the manufacturer or supplier to properly label each chemical. 

Accurate information is essential when dealing with hazardous chemicals. So, never remove a label from a shipping container. Under the new regulations, the manufacturer or supplier’s label needs to include the following:

  • A product identifier, which is the chemical name(s) designated by the manufacturer.
  • A signal word, such as “danger” or “warning,” to alert employees of the hazard (Note that danger is reserved for higher-level hazards, while “warning” is used for lower-level hazards). 
  • At least one pictogram that relates to and signals a hazard (e.g., a skull and crossbones for acute toxicity or a flame for flammable gases).
  • Relevant hazard statements that describe the risks in a few words (e.g., Toxic if inhaled; May cause cancer; or May mass explode in fire).
  • Any precautionary statements about how to avoid adverse reactions or improper handling (e.g., Do not smoke when using this product or Wear eye protection).
  • Name, address, and phone number of the manufacturer, importer, or other responsible party.

Once a chemical container arrives at your facility, ensuring that it remains properly labeled becomes your responsibility. If you transfer chemicals from a shipping container to a workplace container, take care to label it accurately, with the information above prominently and legibly displayed.

Under the new regulations, you can choose to add supplemental information to your label. Some companies, for instance, include information from third-party labeling systems, such as the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) or Hazardous Materials Identification System (HMIS). 

OSHA warns, however, that the numerical ratings used in some outside labeling systems differ from the ones used in HazCom 2012. So if you add information from another system, make sure the rating system matches that of HazCom 2012 to avoid confusion.

The information on your label needs to be in English. But, if your employees do not understand English (or have a limited understanding), HazCom 2012 requires you to translate the label information in a language they do understand.

Step 4: Maintain safe data sheets

Safety data sheets (SDSs) provide detailed information on a specific hazardous chemical. They must be set up and maintained for every hazardous chemical in any workplace. Furthermore, they must be easy to access by your employees, and stored in a place employees can find quickly while working their shifts. 

Just as with the new labeling system, the new HazCom standard requires manufacturers or suppliers of hazardous chemicals to prepare and send an SDS with the shipment. If you receive a chemical without a data sheet, call and request one right away. Manufacturers and suppliers are also required to send an updated SDS each time new, significant information about a chemical becomes available.

Comprehensive information

Data sheets cover a broad range of topics — all related to the single product. Mandatory information on an SDS includes:

  • Identification of the chemical 
  • Hazard(s) identification 
  • The composition (or ingredients) of the chemical 
  • First-aid measures 
  • Firefighting measures 
  • Accidental release measures 
  • Handling and storage 
  • Exposure control/personal protection 
  • Physical and chemical properties 
  • Stability and reactivity 
  • Toxicological information

In addition, an SDS will sometimes come with information about regulations, proper disposal, ecological concerns, and how to transport the chemical.

Creating and maintaining an SDS database

It’s up to you, the employer, to decide how you want to compile and store your SDSs. Some companies print and collect every SDS in a series of binders kept at various known locations, such as work trucks or break rooms. Increasingly, companies create digital SDS databases in the cloud. Then, they use mobile devices and apps to make the information readily available — literally on hand at the work site. This mobile checklist, for instance, allows employees to easily check protocols as they work, with out having to stop and flip through a binder. 

Consider a construction worker about to enter to confined space with potential toxic levels of vapors and gases. With a smartphone or tablet, the employee can check the hazards — and learn what precautions to take — on the spot. Having to leave the work site just to find a paper version takes more time. When on tight deadlines, workers might decide to skip that step, putting their health and your business at unnecessary risk.

Step 5: Educate and train your employee

Keeping your employees up to date on the hazardous chemicals in the workplace is another focus area of HazCom 2012 and a critical part of your overall HazCom program. Any employee working with hazardous chemicals must understand the potentially harmful side effects, appropriate protective measures, and where they can go for additional information — all before they start working with any hazardous chemical. 

The training requirements of HazCom 2012 are two-fold: providing information and conducting training sessions. To fulfill the requirement on providing information, give your employees written and visual materials that explain these three things:

The overall requirements of the Hazard Communication Standard

  1. Where and to what extent hazardous chemicals exist in the workplace
  2. Specific information about your own HazCom program, including where and how employees can access information

As your systems and information shifts over time, keep your employees updated and informed in ways they can digest and understand.

Training requirements

Training, on the other hand, needs to take place face-to-face and be more interactive. According to the new requirements, mandatory training areas include:

  • Methods to detect the presence or release of a hazardous chemical in your work area (e.g., odors, visual cues, monitoring) 
  • The physical and health hazards of chemicals in the work area, including simple asphyxiation, combustible dust and pyrophoric gas hazards, as well as hazards not otherwise classified 
  • Measures employees can take to protect themselves from hazards (e.g., appropriate work practices, emergency procedures, and personal protective equipment available on site)

The details of your hazard communication program, including a thorough explanation of how to read and interpret labels and safety data sheets, how employees can access this information, and the chain of contact within your organization so employees can contact the right people quickly in case of a concern or emergency. 

An essential part of your training program is that your employees understand the hazards and risks, know how to protect themselves, and how to respond in an emergency. If you have employees with limited literacy skills, speak little or no English, or need special accommodations, you will need to adapt your materials and training for employees. Utilize OSHA’s resources for non-English-speaking employees, such as the Spanish version of its website, as well as translated versions of some educational materials and publications across these languages: Chinese, Korean, Nepali, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.

Step 6: Streamline HazCom with technology

Creating a HazCom program is not a one-time requirement. It’s an ongoing obligation, particularly as more chemicals enter our workplaces, and as researchers and scientists learn more about potential side effects. Employers are responsible for training and informing their employees in a way that they can understand. To borrow OSHA’s catchphrase, HazCom 2012 gives workers not only the right to know but also the right to understand.

When new chemicals are brought in, when processes or procedures change might affect how chemicals are transported, used, or disposed of, these are ideal times to re-evaluate your HazCom program. Even if your work environment hasn’t changed, it’s important to assess your program at least every quarter. Only then can you be prepared when an OSHA inspector comes knocking.

Set up an efficient and smooth system

HazCom training can feel like a big task — and is certainly an important one. With the right resources and tools, you can streamline how you develop, manage, and implement your HazCom program. 

Today’s increased regulations make it hard to get by on older methods like paper forms, filing systems, and checklists. These methods might be ingrained in your workplace, but they take time and often require a staff person to manually key in information from the forms to a computer. Cloud-based platforms and mobile apps can speed up and simplify the process. They can even lower the likelihood of something critical slipping through the cracks. 

At the same time, these technologies empower your employees to work as a team and play a more active role in their own health and well-being. Both are key to increasing productivity and morale, preventing high turnover, and workers’ compensation expenses. In today’s highly competitive marketplace, these cost-savings make a real difference. If you aren’t using technology in a way that saves you time and money, know that your competitors are — and you need to catch up. 

Going mobile and switching to the cloud are far easier and more affordable than many people think. In all likelihood, the majority of your employees already use mobile apps in their personal lives. At Canvas, we offer close to 200 mobile apps that help employers and employees monitor and manage the use of hazardous chemicals in the workplace. 

Browse or customize our existing the apps in our Application Store. Create your own custom apps from your existing paper forms — in a few clicks. Or just send us your forms, and we can convert them into apps for you.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

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eBook Content: OSHA’s Construction Safety Regulations

OSHA’s Construction Safety Regulations

Introduction: OSHA’s Construction Safety Regulations

The construction industry tops the list when it comes to workplace injuries and fatalities, even with tightened safety regulations over the years. Workers in the transportation/material moving, construction, and extraction industries accounted for nearly half (47.4%) of fatal occupational injuries in 2020, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA).

Many of these deaths resulted from what OSHA calls the “Fatal Four” construction hazards. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2021 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries presented the following statistics on Fatal Four events across all occupations:

Falls 850 Up from 805 in 2020
Struck by object or equipment: 473Up from 468 in 2020
Electrocution: 152Up from 126 in 2020
Caught in/between: 143Up from 142 in 2020

With the death toll among construction occupations stemming largely from noncompliance with safety regulations, OSHA has committed itself to minimizing these fatalities, partly by ramping up its penalty fees.

In 2023, OSHA’s maximum penalties for serious and other-than-serious violations (with “other than serious” referring to a violation that causes injury but not death) increased from $14,502 to $15,625 per violation. The maximum penalty for willful or repeated violations (defined as those that risk employee health or safety) increased from $145,027 per violation to $156,259 per violation. In the tragic event that an employee’s life is lost, violations become criminal offenses and can carry fines of up to half a million dollars.

From electricians to pipefitters, construction workers of every stripe need to know their helmets from their high-impact boots. Most are aware of the risks and appreciate an employer who puts worker safety at the top of the priority list. It’s good for morale and productivity, and it’s the only way to shore up your profit line.

The bottom line? A safe workplace saves lives and saves money. 

This eBook walks you through the most common (and costly) hazards in the construction industry. It provides budget-friendly tips and strategies so you can manage and stay ahead of the requirements.

What You’ll Learn:

  • Information about frequently cited violations
  • How to prevent the most common hazards
  • Methods and tools to help you comply with inefficient, budget-friendly ways

Chapter 1: Prioritize the Most Common Construction Hazards

Construction sites are full of hazards, from improperly used nail guns to dangerous materials like silica and asbestos lurking in old structures. While you can’t dismiss a single safety aspect on your site, you need to use your time wisely — and prioritize the hazards that cause the most harm. Read on for tips to help you stay on top of the Fatal Four. 

Falls

Over the past few years, fall prevention has been a top focus area of OSHA. It’s not surprising, given that falls cause more fatal and nonfatal injuries than any other safety hazard. In fact, falls from elevations composed about 13% of all fatal workplace injuries in 2021.

As a result, OSHA has launched major initiatives to raise awareness about injuries and deaths by falls — most of which are entirely preventable.

One initiative is the National Safety Stand-Down, an annual event that started in 2014. The first Safety Stand-Down reached more than 1 million construction workers, who set aside time during the work day to learn about fall hazards and prevention.

How does it work?

“Companies can conduct a Safety Stand-Down by taking a break to have a toolbox talk or another safety activity, such as conducting safety equipment inspections, developing rescue plans, or discussing job-specific hazards,” OSHA explains on its website. Employers who participate then provide feedback to an OSHA forum and earn a Certificate of Participation.

Taking part in a Stand-Down will not only help you improve your safety measures but also send the message to your workers that you care about their health and well-being. This message is crucial and can go a long way in helping your workers take extra precautions to follow safety protocols.

Want to hold your own Safety Stand-Down event? Prepare with these three sources from OSHA:

  • Resources to Prepare for a Successful Stand-Down
  • Stand-Down Frequently Asked Questions
  • Highlights From Past National Safety Stand-Downs

Other ways to prevent falls

Of course, participating in a Stand-Down isn’t the only way to prevent falls. It’s critical to evaluate your entire workplace. When you do, pay special attention to the most common causes of fall-related injuries:

  • Unprotected sides, wall openings, and floor holes
  • Improper scaffold construction
  • An unguarded protruding steel rebar
  • Misuse of portable ladders

Create a fall-protection policy and train employees to set up and always use the proper fall-arrest and fall-protection systems. For more in-depth resources on fall prevention, OSHA has many educational and training resources to help you learn more.

Struck-By Hazards

“Struck-by hazards” aren’t always obvious. Many are hidden, making them easy to overlook. While working high on scaffolds, for instance, the risks are more obvious than while walking across the work site after a shift — a prime time for “struck-by” accidents to occur.

Three-fourths of all fatalities in this category involve heavy equipment like trucks or cranes. Other common causes of struck-by injuries include falling or flying objects and constructing masonry walls. 

When are workers at risk?

Workers are at risk anytime work is being performed overhead, whether on a scaffold or crane; anytime they’re around power tools or other equipment that can emit a flying, falling, swinging, or rolling object, such as a nail gun or chipper; and anytime they’re in the line of vehicles or traffic.

To prevent struck-by hazard injuries, adhere to what OSHA considers basic safety measures in this area:

  • Wear hardhats 
  • Stack materials and secure tools to prevent them from sliding, falling, or collapsing 
  • Use protective measures such as toeboards and debris nets 
  • Wear safety goggles, glasses, or face shields 
  • Inspect your tools and all components of your equipment regularly
  • Ensure that all workers have proper tool training 
  • Avoid working beneath loads being moved by a crane 
  • Post warning signs and set up barricades around all hazard areas 
  • Do not exceed lifting capacity on cranes

In addition, familiarizing yourself with struck-by-hazard examples and protections can help you avoid common hazards in your workplace that you might not otherwise consider.

Electrical Hazards

Working with electricity is complicated, so stories abound about electricity-related accidents on construction sites — and the enormous penalty fees and damaging lawsuits that follow.

Each year, an estimated 350 people die from an electrical-related injury. Electrical hazards on construction sites can cause shock, explosions, and traumatic injuries like burns, and electrocution. Often, electrical work takes place in elevated environments (e.g., cranes, scissor lifts, cherry pickers), so it comes with the added risk of falls.

As new technologies emerge and change how we use electricity, the job of electricians is growing more challenging. Electricians have to read and interpret mechanical drawings and electrical specifications; form and test circuits; pull wires through conduits; install fiber-optic systems; and more. The complexity of the work makes ongoing electrical training and assessment a core part of any safety program.

OSHA makes it clear that workers can’t be anywhere near an electrical circuit unless properly protected. The most common causes of electrical injury include:

  • Contact with power lines 
  • Lack of ground-fault protection
  • Missing or discontinuous path to ground
  • Improper equipment usage 
  • Improper extension cord use

To avoid putting your employees at unnecessary risk, make sure they all understand the basics of how electricity works.

For a quick overview of how to prevent the most common causes of electrical injury, OSHA’s e-learning tool for construction breaks down dense information in clear ways. Also, bookmark and become a regular reader of EC&M (Electrical Construction and Maintenance), a publication that provides up-to-the-minute electricity-related news, safety guides, tips, and some fun quizzes (like this one on metal conduit grounding) to keep your skills sharp.

Each year, an estimated 350 people die from an electrical-related injury. 

Caught-In/Between Hazards

Caught-in/between hazards makes us cringe. They involve being pinned between heavy Equipment, machinery, and materials — essentially any kind of moveable or immovable object that causes employees to get pinched, squeezed, suffocated, or crushed.

You want to do everything you can to prevent caught-in/between accidents, which are among the most gruesome of construction site tragedies. They involve horrific things like trapping a body part in a machine rotator; being smothered under the soil as a result of a cave-in; getting crushed between a semi-trailer and a dock wall; or drowning in sewage that wasn’t properly diverted or controlled.

Common causes of these types of incidents include the use of improperly guarded heavy equipment, machines, or power tools. Situations, where a piece of heavy equipment has rolled over and puts an operator at risk, fall into this classification as well. Any vehicle using a rollover protective structure (ROPS)—such as earth movers, pickup trucks, and dump trucks—is typically subject to regulations specific to these kinds of hazards.

Excavation sites and trenches where soil tends to be unsteady pose high risks for caught-in/ between accidents. Excessive rain, heavy wind, or even vibration from trucks and equipment at the construction site can increase the risk at these sites by making the ground prone to shifting.

You can prevent a caught-in-between tragedy at your construction site with these tips and more from GoContractor:

  • Identify the hazards on your site that present risks.
  • Provide workers with the proper personal protective equipment (PPE).
  • Inspect and maintain all of your equipment regularly.
  • Never use equipment without ensuring that all safety guards are in place 
  • Avoid loose clothing, which can get caught in equipment 
  • Maintain a safe distance from machinery that you’re not operating, and stay outside of the swing radius of equipment 
  • Make sure the operator can see you at all times
  • Use barricades and warning signs 
  • Keep a safe distance when materials are being moved overhead

Of course, preventing caught-in/between accidents varies by worksite. It’s up to you as an employer to put a solid prevention plan in place.

Chapter 2: Stay on Top of Regulations

There’s plenty to pay attention to with the Fatal Four safety hazards alone. This complete list of the most commonly violated OSHA standards includes additional areas you will need to assess and stay on top of, from machine guarding and respiratory protection to hazard communication.

Knowing and abiding by every risk relevant to your work presents a serious challenge, but the high safety stakes and legal ramifications make compliance mandatory. These tips can help you ensure compliance:

1. Utilize the Federal Register

Keep up with OSHA regulations by checking the Federal Register, which publishes standards as they are adopted, along with any corrections, insertions, deletions, and amendments. Sign up for an annual subscription through the U.S. Government Publishing Office.

2. Set up a safety steering committee

You want to involve and use your staff in your safety program as much as you can. One way is to create a “safety steering committee” made up of your employees. Consider excluding anyone in a supervisory or managerial role from joining the committee, and limit it to your hourly employees.

This gives your hourly employees a chance to voice safety-related concerns and ask for clarification on safety matters. Have them meet regularly as a group to discuss safety and contribute ideas for improving your overall safety program.

3. Get organized

Keeping up with OSHA regulations and training your employees to follow suit involves many steps and is time-consuming. Given the broad range of areas to track and protocols to implement, it’s not uncommon for something to fall through the cracks.

Treat your safety program like you treat your operations. If your construction company is small to mid-sized, print out a copy of OSHA’s Small Business Handbook. It’s full of practical, budget-friendly strategies that can help you comply without breaking the bank. It also includes handy templates and forms—such as self-inspection checklists and an action plan worksheet—to help you take a systematic, organized approach.

While the OSHA Small Business Handbook is useful in many ways, it lacks advice on what technologies and tools can streamline your approach to compliance. The forms provided in the handbook are all paper-based, and as the next part of this eBook explains, there are far more efficient and effective ways to track and manage safety.

Chapter 3: Embrace Technology to Make Compliance Easler

Today, technological innovations have emerged to help construction professionals keep up with relevant OSHA regulations more efficiently. Tech-savvy employers and workers are using specialized mobile forms on their tablets and smartphones to address and meet safety protocols. The forms are essentially mobile versions of the old paper forms used to track compliance, but they come with far greater uses.

A supervisor might, for example, use a mobile fall protection checklist to review and answer questions about guardrails and confirm that they’re in place or to find out whether personal fall arrest systems need to be in use. Similar forms exist for electrical safety considerations, rollover protective structures, and everything from cranes and conveyors to concrete.

Make a case for change

Whatever the construction job type, equipment, and work environment, there’s a good chance you’ll find a mobile form built to make OSHA compliance easier to manage—but your team may need some help making the switch. According to the 2021 JBKnowledge Construction Technology Report:

  • Respondents reported spending only 1% of their annual sales volume on IT. 
  • More than 90% of respondents reported using smartphones for work on a daily basis. 
  • Construction companies most commonly use mobile devices in the field for daily reporting, taking photos/videos, time management, and safety management.

“Some may argue that construction is a low-margin industry so there isn’t money to invest in IT,” the report noted. “The truth of the matter is: It is a low-margin industry because of the lack of investment in innovations and IT. Many contractors see double digits in profit increase because of their investment in technology.” 

When paired with cloud-based platforms, mobile forms make it remarkably simple to collect data, control transactions, and manage business practices.

In general, the construction industry has been reluctant to embrace the benefits of IT. However, builders are now beginning to be dragged into the 21st century by the need to collaborate more closely with their more IT-savvy colleagues, the architects, and engineers responsible for the ideas behind their work.

Another positive effect of moving your business information to mobile is the serious reduction in paperwork. Consider, for example, the traditional way of managing OSHA compliance, which involves reviewing regulations, working up paper checklists, and making and circulating copies to the right people. All it takes is for one person to forget their copy of a required form, and your compliance process could be delayed by days.

Give everyone access to shared documents and checklists via their smartphones, and see how much faster and smoother the compliance process goes. Saving time means saving money — and that’s a plus in any economy.

Don’t let compliance slip

The reason for OSHA’s many compliance guidelines boils down to this: keeping your workers safe. No company wants to invite the injury or death of an employee to incur fines and penalties or be taken to court.

Don’t be intimidated by the need to keep up with regulations or the demands of creating an effective safety program. Use mobile technology to ease the burden and take your safety program to a new level.

GoCanvas offers hundreds of mobile forms created by and for construction workers and designed specifically with OSHA regulations in mind. To learn more, request a demo today.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

Schedule a demo
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eBook Content: 4 Ways Big Data is Transforming Oil and Gas

4 Ways Big Data is Transforming Oil and Gas

Chevron calls it the “i-field.” BP has the “Field of the Future” and at Shell, it’s the “Smart Field.” Whatever you call it, the digital oil field is a huge opportunity for oil and gas companies. 

Introduction

The digital oil field has been described as a place where “all the components integrate and communicate as well as your body does.” A place where computers constantly analyze data sent in by hundreds of sensors to determine conditions of wellheads, pipelines, and systems, and continuously adjust flows to minimize downtime. 

IHS Cera estimates that digital oilfields could reduce operating costs by 25 percent, and increase production rates by up to eight percent — all in the first year of deployment. “It’s pretty sweeping,” Paul Siegele, president of the Energy Technology Company at Chevron, told MIT Technology Review. “Information technology enables us to get more barrels out of each asset.”

HS Cera estimates that digital oilfields could reduce operating costs by 25% & increase production rates by up to 8% in the 1st year of deployment.

Of course, big data brings along its own challenges. The more data you have, the more you have to store, process, and analyze. For example, BP uses Distributed Acoustic Sensor technology to better understand sand contamination in wells in Azerbaijan; the data from just that project is already occupying 2 petabytes, which is about 2,000 times bigger than the average consumer hard drive. As the cost of sensors goes down, companies are installing more and more, which leads to more data. Further, communication technology to transmit data from the field has improved — now you can look at data via your cell phone or other handheld device.

Big data is being used to improve exploration, pinpoint precise locations of reserves, prevent downtime and/ or risks to the environment, and even recruit and train employees.

As long as oil and gas companies can solve the (manageable) challenges of storing and processing big data, they can’t go wrong. Big data is being used in the energy industry to improve exploration, pinpoint precise locations of reserves, prevent downtime and/or risks to the environment, and even recruit and train employees.

In the following chapters, you’ll learn how oil and gas companies in all stages of production are harnessing big data.

Chapter 1: Exploration

Drilling a new deep-water well costs more than $100 million, so nobody wants to be drilling in the wrong place. That’s where data comes in. Shell Oil, for example, is using special sensors to take not a few thousand readings of seismic waves — the distortion of which can be a clue that oil is nearby — but a million or more, giving a much more accurate handle on “what lies beneath.” 

It’s a lot of data. One raw seismic dataset, according to Analytics Magazine, can use hundreds of gigabytes of data — and even more after processing and interpretation. But it is worth it; this data “vastly improves the picture of the Earth’s subsurface, and removes the need to drill a multi-million dollar hole… to ‘explore’ what is in the rock.” 

The push for more accurate exploration is why oil companies like Chevron are heavily investing in imaging technology to create maps of energy deposits thousands of feet below the ocean’s floor. “In this business… whoever images the best wins, because if you see it first, you’re going to get the lease, and if you see it better, you’re going to do a better job of managing the field,” Mark Koelmel, general manager of the earth sciences department at Chevron, told the Wall Street Journal. 

The push for more accurate exploration is why oil companies like Chevron are heavily investing in imaging technology to create maps of energy deposits thousands of feet below the ocean’s floor.

Further data on weather, soil, and equipment can help companies predict the success of drilling operations. Recovery rates can be improved by giving all this data to reservoir engineers in a self-serve format, via their handheld devices.

Chapter 2: Maintenance

Drilling equipment is built to sustain the wear and tear from working in harsh conditions, but that doesn’t mean it will last forever. Today, much oil and gas machinery is fitted with sensors that can compare a particular piece of equipment’s performance — motion, vibration, current, pressures, temperatures — with the average, meaning that a computer program can flag if something is acting abnormally and needs to be replaced. Or a program can determine how reliable a particular machine is in certain circumstances and predict what conditions cause it to fail more or less often. 

Big Data can provide not just historical analysis but predictions for the future. Dale Sperrazza, the marketing director for Landmark Software & Services, says that automation “will be critical to optimizing operations in a safe, efficient manner, particularly in ultra-deepwater exploration. Given the expense of rig day rates, as well as the engineering requirements and need to address safety and efficiency in operations, companies are doing ‘whatever they can’ to prevent downtime.”

Big Data can provide not just historical analysis but predictions for the future.

Here’s an example: Chevron engineers in Houston monitor analytics from places as far away as Kazakhstan and Colombia. In Chevron’s Sanha Field off the coast of southern Africa, the staff noticed a problem with a gas-injection compressor that showed subtle signs of overloading. Once alerted, operators there fixed the problem and avoided a potential loss of millions of dollars in downtime. The analytics have now made it possible for Chevron to develop an automated early detection system based on the symptoms observed at that site. 

Big data isn’t just used to predict equipment blowouts before they happen; the same sensor data can also be used to push equipment to the limit. If an oil company can safely drill 10 feet faster per minute, that lowers costs and drives profitability, Sperrazza notes. 

With data gleaned from sensor technology, maintenance can be more accurately planned in advance. If you know when a machine is expected to fail or needs servicing, you can better plan for these events (and even reduce the on-hand inventory of spare parts). 

Of course, although sensors and remote monitoring are making engineers’ jobs a lot easier, equipment often still needs to be inspected in person. Technology can help there, too. Instead of using paper forms and lugging large binders to a remote job site, a mobile form on a ruggedized tablet can eliminate a lot of the hassles of creating and filing paperwork.

A digital drilling rig inspection checklist can provide an exhaustive list of conditions and checkpoints to help ensure that blow-out preventers (BOPs) are safe and properly maintained.

Digital checklists can make this work easier and more effective. A drilling rig inspection checklist, for example, can provide an exhaustive list of conditions and checkpoints — covering accumulator units, gauges, choke manifolds, and more — to help ensure that blow-out preventers (BOPs) are safe and properly maintained. Or use a mobile form to ensure that your drill floor area — covering such aspects as tong lines and IR components — is inspected consistently and thoroughly. All data that is collected is immediately saved to the cloud and can be accessed in real-time.

Chapter 3: Health, Safety, and Environmental Compliance

Blowouts and spills don’t have to be inevitable, and real-time data analysis is going a long way toward keeping the upstream oil industry safer.

Keeping employees safe and maintaining environmental compliance isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing from a cost perspective. Most oil and gas firms have between 15 and 25 zero-margin days due to accidents, according to the Oil & Gas Financial Journal, resulting in “enormous” losses. As these days mount, so do costs. 

But now, sensors can detect drilling anomalies in real-time, helping engineers make decisions faster about whether to shut down if necessary. 

As oil and gas production pushes into deeper waters and more untapped frontiers, the risks increase with the unpredictability of the environment. So companies must do everything they can to predict problems before they occur.

Keeping employees safe and maintaining environmental compliance isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing from a cost perspective.

A few years ago, a Chevron field off the coast of Brazil spewed 3,000 barrels of oil due to an unanticipated pressure spike. The company was hit with a criminal lawsuit even after a $150 million settlement. A Chevron executive says that spills like this will become less likely as it implements its i-field program across the company. In addition to sensors monitoring motion, vibration, pressure, etc., data from weather and the number of workers on site can be correlated and analyzed to find trends. 

Fracking is also an area where big data can help. The practice is under fire from many quarters for its heavy water use and the potential for chemical leakage. But, according to RigZone, by analyzing data from underground sensors, oil companies can use less fracking fluid more efficiently, as well as minimize the number of invasive exploratory wellheads. 

Ensuring health and safety compliance will use more and better sensors, but will still require humans to look at the big picture, make inspections, and synthesize information.

Many components of oil and gas drilling need constant monitoring — either by humans or computers — and mobile technology (in the form of digital forms and checklists) helps foster real-time data collection, summarization, analysis, and sharing — leading to better outcomes.

Operators, contractors, and subcontractors in the field can use mobile forms to monitor everything from asbestos exposure to naturally occurring radioactive materials, allowing them to create a safety program that will prevent illness and injury and keep oil and gas drilling workers safe.

Chapter 4: Improving Employee Training and Retention

The global oil and gas industries are facing a “dire” talent shortage, due to strong job growth and the impending retirement of a huge sector of the employee pool. The industry growth for Mining and Geological engineering industries will slow to 2% from 2021-2031, notably below the average national growth rate.

Mining and Geological engineering industries will slow to 2% from 2021-2031.

Many coming into the oil and gas workforce are brand new to the industry. So once an oil company makes a good hire, it wants to get that employee quickly up to speed, then hang on to him/her. 

Big data can actually help here as well, by providing more effective employee training — which leads to better retention. A Society of Petroleum Engineers Survey found that 53 percent of oil and gas workers would consider leaving an employer if training wasn’t provided, according to RigZone. 

Big data can help by providing more effective employee training which leads to better retention. 

First, you need to ask: “How well are my new hires prepared to work for us?” You can start by using digital tests and checklists to monitor an employee’s proficiency. Then the real power comes in aggregate when you compile all of your new hires’ responses. Are newbies consistently coming in unprepared in a particular area? What patterns can you discover that will reveal whether your new hires need extra preparation on certain topics? 

Thanks to the data gleaned through training offered in digital format, you can also get a handle on how your employees are interacting with the training content you provide. Are they clicking on every page, or are they skipping sections?

Knowing how employees are interacting with a carefully designed training program will help you improve it — and the effectiveness of your employees. 

One oil company may have employees all over the world, so big data also gives you the ability to combine siloed data to see trends. “Who are the best employees? Why is their performance so impressive? How can that be emulated elsewhere?” 

One Australian company is taking this to the logical extreme. Woodside, an energy firm, has signed on to use IBM’s Watson (the computer software most famous for winning Jeopardy! in 2011). Watson offers a product called “Lessons Learned” which the company says will help improve operational processes and include more than 30 years of collective know-how. In other words, all those hacks and tricks stored inside one employee’s brain are now accessible to the whole company, and searchable using natural language. 

Of course, another way to improve employee performance is to give them tools that provide safety tips and training right from their mobile devices. From there, it’s an easy step to monitor, recognize, and reward employees who use the forms the most frequently. 

Thanks to the data gleaned through training offered in digital format, you can also get a handle on how your employees are interacting with the training content you provide.

Conclusion: Looking to the Future

The amount of information and intelligence that can be gathered today is already impressive, but collecting data is only going to become easier and easier. With billions of dollars spent annually on seismology R&D, sensors will only become smaller and cheaper. With handheld mobile tools making it easier for you to take notes and log information in real-time, the amount of data you can collect will continue to grow. This means that your challenge is not only in collecting data but in making sense of it.

As RigZone says, oil and gas companies will have to think not “What can we do with this data,” but, “What could be done if the right data were available?”

Data tells a story — one that can help with planning, operations, and your company’s bottom line.

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

Schedule a demo
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Orange County Waste & Recycling Improves Safety with GoCanvas

Making a Dangerous Job Safer—While Saving Weeks of Wasted Time

Orange County Waste & Recycling Company Overview  

Orange County Waste and Recycling handles all municipal waste collection and processing in a county of over 3 million people. Heavy machinery is the backbone of what they do, with 10 to 15 large machines running at multiple locations every day, resulting in over 15,000 inspections over just a couple of years. With employees numbering in the thousands, OCWR has a huge responsibility to both its community and workforce to keep its processes timely, organized, and safe.

Jeff Southern, Safety Culture Deputy Director at OCWR, had overseen the growth of the business over his 34 years of experience. As Deputy Director, Jeff is responsible for developing safe, standardized work practices and identifying workflow issues that could impact safety and efficiency. Jeff realized that OCWR was losing entire workdays verifying data through pen-and-paper processes and updating analytics dashboards manually.

Originally, Jeff engaged GoCanvas as a means of “removing paper, clipboards, and pens from the field to move to a digital workspace,” but eventually found that these expansive digital datasets could be leveraged to show other inefficiencies as the company grew. OCWR now depends on GoCanvas to manage equipment inspections, enforce compliance with training logs and near-miss reports, and keep employees safe. 

The Background

When GoCanvas started working with OCWR in 2019, Waste & Recycling was the fifth most dangerous industry in the United States. With thousands of employees operating heavy machinery at multiple landfill sites across Orange County, OCWR depends on accurate, timely data to keep its crews safe. Some of the forms and datasets integral to OCWR’s workflow include:

  • SPOT (Safety Performance Observation Talks) Checks
  • Near-miss reporting
  • Equipment Inspections
  • Equipment Training Logs

The Problem

As OCWR has grown over the years, increasingly important and complex tasks were still managed with pen-and-paper forms that needed to be filled out, scanned, emailed, and manually entered into rudimentary analytics programs. OCWR was losing hundreds of work hours per year manually verifying data and working to standardize mission-critical operating procedures. Using Excel and inferior business insight tools, OCWR was experiencing:

  • Labor-intensive data consolidation periods of up to 8 hours per week.
  • Multi-day turnarounds for critical inspection paperwork.
  • Outdated accident and near-miss reporting leaving crew members vulnerable while information from the field was interpreted and cataloged.
  • Static datasets that needed constant oversight, obscuring existing inefficiencies instead of presenting proactive solutions.

Without dynamic ways to input and track data, OCWR was spending entire workdays simply wrestling with paperwork. As a result, processes intended to keep their crews in the field safe were presenting added clerical problems, keeping staff busy while adding little valuable insight into their workflow.

The Solution: A revamped workflow and new opportunities for data management from GoCanvas

Jeff and his team took the first step in getting control of their workflow by reaching out to GoCanvas to help eliminate paper forms and adopt a digital format. What started as a simple goal to go paperless, however, soon lent itself to more in-depth analysis—and potential opportunities to cut out time-wasting processes completely.

  • Customized Forms

The initial changes focused on replacing digitizing their existing forms, populating them with relevant inputs like lists, specific verbiage, etc. As an administrator, Jeff designed many of these forms for ease of use by his team members in the field, including options like simple drop-downs to pre-populate standardized information.

  • Automated Data Management

As OCWR began to adopt the new forms, Jeff soon realized they were sitting on a mountain of internal data that could be organized and displayed in ways that simply weren’t possible before. Instead of hours spent filling out, transporting, and verifying paper forms by hand, data integration tools from GoCanvas meant that OCWR could monitor and leverage crucial business insights as fast as it took to for any of their team members to submit a form, no matter where they were. 

  • Real-time Insights

With real-time analytics dashboards, OCWR began to implement new processes like employee training logs that display levels of compliance in a simple percentage, and high-visibility graphics detailing threats to worker safety by priority. Suddenly, the data that OCWR used to spend hours simply verifying was providing new, proactive ways to work quicker, safer, and smarter.  

The Outcomes

Using GoCanvas, OCWR now has datasets that actually work for them, resulting in:

  • Approximately 8 hours per week (10.4 work weeks per year) saved without the need to manually verify data. 
  • Real-time oversight of equipment inspections—changing what used to be a 2-day turnaround time to one that’s instantaneous.
  • Employee-specific training logs that reliably count hours trained on each piece of equipment for increased accountability and a straightforward competency progression.
  • Standardized SPOT checks that account for site-specific safety protocols and connect field crews with the main office instantly.

OCWR now depends on GoCanvas’ Custom Form Builder and Analytics as the basis for their new workflow. Jeff and his team consider their biggest wins to be reformatting their most complex forms into an auto-populated digital format and addressing more safety concerns before they can cause accidents. Crucially, Jeff also credits GoCanvas for more efficient SPOT checks and near-miss reports to move the needle on overall workplace safety. 

Ready to Rethink How You Work?

OCWR’s story is unique—but its problems aren’t. GoCanvas has helped a variety of businesses across multiple industries transform their safety processes and rethink their efficiency, ultimately saving them money. Why not do the same? Reach out to one of our experts today to kickstart your process revolution.

Schedule a demo

Recording: Compliance Made Easy – Digitizing Your Safety Plan

Compliance Made Easy:
Digitizing Your Safety Plan

Webinar Overview:

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Job Safety Analysis

Webinar Overview:

Listen to Melissa Cihla Meyer, GoCanvas’s Senior Director of Customer & Product Marketing, as she discusses what goes into a successful JSA, including best practices that will ensure a risk-free workplace.

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Three people in hard hats looking at a tablet.

Smarter, Faster, Safer: Improving Safety Compliance with Mobile Technology

Compliance, there are many ways we talk about it. A necessary evil, a chore, a struggle, or a critically important part of business. We all know how crucial it is, helping save…

Read the eBook
Woman reviewing information on a tablet.

Your Guide to Waiver Forms — Examples and Templates

Waiver forms are a type of legal protection used by businesses to reduce their liability and risk. This type of agreement between a business and its customers is used…

Read the Blog
Closeup of a handshake.

Duotank Transforms Business Processes with GoCanvas

Duotank is a bag-in-tank alternative to the traditional keg beer system. The aseptic tank environment enables breweries to maintain the quality of their beer after it leaves…

Read their Story

Connect with an Expert Today.

We’ll help you put together the right solution for your needs.

Let’s Build A Plan Together

Recording: EHS Strengthen Your Safety Plan with Actionable Data

Strengthen Your Safety Plan with Actionable Data

Webinar Overview:

Your safety plan should be a top priority, but it’s easy to let things slip to the wayside, exposing yourself to physical threats and steep fines. Listen to Brent Nieder, GoCanvas’ VP of Product and Innovation, as he walks you through how easy it is to automate your safety processes and keep threats at bay.

Check out even more resources

Three people in hard hats looking at a tablet.

Smarter, Faster, Safer: Improving Safety Compliance with Mobile Technology

Compliance, there are many ways we talk about it. A necessary evil, a chore, a struggle, or a critically important part of business. We all know how crucial it is, helping save…

Read the eBook
Woman reviewing information on a tablet.

Your Guide to Waiver Forms — Examples and Templates

Waiver forms are a type of legal protection used by businesses to reduce their liability and risk. This type of agreement between a business and its customers is used…

Read the Blog
Closeup of a handshake.

Duotank Transforms Business Processes with GoCanvas

Duotank is a bag-in-tank alternative to the traditional keg beer system. The aseptic tank environment enables breweries to maintain the quality of their beer after it leaves…

Read their Story

Connect with an Expert Today.

We’ll help you put together the right solution for your needs.

Let’s Build A Plan Together
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