We’ve said it before and it remains true: the construction industry is an inherently dangerous business. According to 2019/20 figures, the sector recorded the highest number of fatalities of any industry, and the second highest rate of injury.

However, focusing on the top-level statistics overlooks a fundamental truth: that comparatively few workplace accidents happen truly without warning. All too often they’re the end result of a trend, or they become possible thanks to a blind spot in safety culture or supervision. Each year, lives could be saved and life-changing injuries avoided if we could better identify the conditions, oversights and company cultures that allow people to get hurt.

Without doubt, the most important pillar in driving down workplace accidents is to fully record and investigate them, along with the incidents and near-misses that often precede them. As we’ve written before, the accident triangle theory suggests that any near miss could be a warning of a potential accident. It’s essential to capture and analyse data – and act on the insight to prevent something worse.

The construction industry takes this seriously, and many employers do it well, but the same is less true in the specialised world of asbestos management. Historically, it’s something we’ve been rather poor at.

Across all industries, a culture of continuous improvement demands that any accident, incident or near-miss is recorded so that lessons can be learned. Recording should be mandatory, and any barriers to it should be removed: that’s the philosophy behind Assure360 Incident.

Incident exists precisely to minimise the barriers to recording safety incidents in the workplace. Providing a simple and intuitive interface, it improves record keeping. With the Assure360 dashboard, it helps provide the analysis and insight that organisations need to improve.

Now, we’ve improved the app itself, with a refreshed interface and a raft of other features. Chief among these is that, like Paperless before it, Assure360 Incident 2.0 is now available on Android.

Other major improvements include:

• Multiple photographs – a full picture of an incident can be recorded for later review and investigation
• Close out notes for action taken on site – encourages proactive site behaviour to prevent the near-miss from becoming an actual incident
• Record of the PPE worn at the time of an incident – completing the picture for senior management
• Instant upload to the Cloud Compliance system
• Actions automatically assigned to the safety team. Email alerts notify the team so actions can be reviewed, and health and safety investigations undertaken if needed

Above all, we’ve focused on making Incident 2.0 as streamlined as possible. By making incident and near-miss reporting easy, our aim is to help you make it quick and comprehensive. Why not download Assure360 Incident now, and start strengthening your health and safety culture?