Two-thirds of British workers want their bosses to invest in health and safety technology to make workplaces safer, according to new research.
68 per cent of employees believe digital聽health and safety solutions would help companies become more compliant and manage the safety of staff more effectively.
A survey of 2,000 employees, which was conducted by award-winning data capture聽app provider WorkMobile, found that 37 per cent of staff think operations manuals and employee handbooks should be digitalised to make them easier to access and read.
19 per cent believe digital employee handbooks would save businesses a lot of time and money when it comes to managing health and safety policies, making for greater compliance.
Worryingly, of those who were given safety guidance by their employer, 13 per cent said their company鈥檚 handbook has never been updated since they first received it, mainly due to the time needed to update paper versions.
But it鈥檚 not just bosses who are failing to be health and safety compliant – almost half of employees (43 per cent) are failing to read the health and safety policies and procedures, even when their employer has supplied them.
The answer to this problem lies in technology, as 64 per cent say they would be more likely to read their manuals if they were provided in a digital format.
The survey was conducted as part of WorkMobile鈥檚 鈥榃ork Safe鈥� report, which looks at the current state of health and safety in the UK and where improvements need to be made to protect workers.
Colin Yates, chief support officer at WorkMobile, said: 鈥淭o make sure workers can operate safely and compliantly, they need to be provided with the correct guidance on how to do so.
鈥淥f course, monitoring who has received the information, who has read it and whether it鈥檚 up-to-date can be challenging 鈥� especially given that legislation often changes and new employees are regularly brought into businesses. It can be hard to keep up.
鈥淏ut workers are recognising that policies aren鈥檛 always up-to-date and sometimes aren鈥檛 even properly communicated with staff.
鈥淣ow they鈥檙e demanding a more effective alternative to paper-based handbooks that will keep them safer 鈥� and they believe the answer lies in technology.
鈥淲e鈥檙e increasingly moving towards a paperless office, yet health and safety seems to be lagging behind when it comes to innovation.
鈥淗owever, switching to a digital form of safety documents is extremely simple and can save businesses a lot of time and money – and headaches.
鈥淲ith digital signatures, they鈥檒l be able to check who has received the information and who has read it, making for greater compliancy.鈥�