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3 Reasons Why You Should Automate OSHA Reporting

By Adrian Bartha
Last updated: March 22, 2018
Presented by eCompliance.com
Key Takeaways

Benefits of safety software.

Reporting incidents to OSHA is a legal requirement for most companies and involves a significant amount of documentation. OSHA requires 301, 300 and 300A forms for each recordable incident that occurs. Furthermore, even if your company hasn’t had an incident within the last year, OSHA still requires you to fill out an OSHA 300A form. Using a pen and paper to do internal incident reports and OSHA 301, 300 and 300A forms takes a significant amount of time and takes away from the time safety professionals can spend improving the safety of their organization. Now, more than ever, safety professionals should be considering to change from the status quo of pen and paper to a safety software system that automates the OSHA 300 log reporting process.

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Here are the top three reasons why you should make the change to automated OSHA 300 reporting:

Increased Accuracy on OSHA 300 Forms

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Handwriting can be difficult to read at the best of times. With OSHA 300 reporting, not only does an OSHA 301 form need to be filled out after a major incident occurs, but an OSHA 300 and 300A form must also be filled out and submitted to OSHA at the end of the year. If your safety professional writes poorly on your internal incident report, you could run into major problems filling out your OSHA 301, 300 and 300A forms. Using software, safety professionals can conduct incident reports electronically, which eliminates the possibility for illegible handwriting. Certain software providers will also allow you to automate the OSHA 301 form after completing the incident report, and later, also automate all of your OSHA 301 forms into OSHA 300 and 300a forms. This way, you can rest assured that the data in your incident forms is legible and that all of your OSHA 300 log forms will contain the correct, accurate information.

Better Due Diligence for Storing OSHA 300 Log Forms

OSHA requires that all OSHA 301, 300 and 300a forms be kept for 5 years after the incident has occurred. Paper records and documents can easily get lost or damaged, especially over a 5 year period. While documents stored in company servers can be safer than paper documents, they are also subject to risk. Servers can break down or be stolen, and all that data can be lost. When you store your safety data in the cloud, not only can you rest assured that the data won’t be lost, but it can also be instantly accessible from any mobile device, tablet or laptop computer. Not only is your data safer in the cloud, but if you are ever asked to provide your older OSHA documentation, you can easily and instantly access it using cloud software.

Save Time

The final and most important reason to automate your OSHA 300 reporting is because it saves so much valuable time. Filling out three separate forms for the same incident, while being completely necessary for OSHA, is insanely time consuming. Filling out these forms, filing them and sending them to OSHA takes up a considerable amount of your safety professional’s time, which could be better spent on value added tasks and actually reducing the risk your organization faces. By choosing to use software, safety professionals only need to fill out one electronic, customizable incident report. After, they can automatically generate these OSHA 301, 300A and 300 forms based on the information included in the original incident report. Not only can you automate these OSHA forms, but you can also send the forms directly to OSHA with a click of the button. All of the stress of OSHA reporting can be alleviated using software and your valued safety professionals can spend less time doing paperwork and more time doing what they do best, keeping your workforce safe.

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For a safety software provider that allows you to automate your OSHA 300 reporting process, please visit: http://www.ecompliance.com/osha-300-reporting-soft…

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Written by Adrian Bartha | Chief Executive Officer

Adrian Bartha
Adrian Bartha is the CEO of eCompliance, which he joined in 2012 after experiencing first-hand how a workplace incident affected a power and utilities company which he led as a member of the Board of Directors. Previously, Adrian was an investment professional for a $5 billion dollar private equity firm investing in energy, construction, and transportation infrastructure companies across North America. When Adrian is out of the office, he can be found riding his futuristic motorcycle and wearing his RoboCop helmet.

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