Australia
Penny Brinsley, Account Director at SWG, is featured in the April edition of PFM to share advice on how a work permit solution can help with compliance.
A large part of ensuring health & safety standards are maintained comes down to having the appropriate compliance checks in place. In more dangerous environments, having a succinct system that ensures all work is being completed to regulatory compliance standards keeps workers safe and provides accountability for all workers at all points of a project.
A work permits solution offers clients access to all working permit information in one place, including audit history chains for buildings and appliances. Workers must provide the correct permits and have them approved before beginning their tasks, enabling them to complete the job correctly and in line with compliance regulations. Having this system in place prevents delays and guarantees all jobs are being undertaken by workers with the correct specifications.
From the health and safety perspective, this gives organisations peace of mind that only specifically trained and accredited individuals are undertaking work on their sites. A work permits solution also ensures accountability at all stages. When integrated with a CMMS system, it necessitates sign-off at every stage for work to be able to continue and keeps a digital record. It will allow only those with certain authority the ability to sign-off more serious site work and can set up a multi-stage approval workflow in line with FM-related tasks and services. This enables strict health and safety compliance as the organisation remains completely in control of the work taking place at their building. This keeps teams safe, avoids disruption, and provides visibility of workers’ relevant health and safety accreditations.
Additional accreditations for each worker can also be added in conjunction to their work permit, for example, if work was taking place in an education facility with young children, the workers DBS check can be attached to the work permit before approval is granted. SWG’s work permit system is integrated with SFG20, the recognised industry standard for building maintenance specifications, ensuring best practice maintenance regimes. The module is built into SWG’s existing CMMS software, QFM, offering users complete visibility of the permits process (from initial request to the approval and allocation of permits). QFM Permits to Work functions in line with ongoing and planned maintenance activities and provides full auditing and reporting capabilities to ensure standards are consistently monitored and met.
