Using Artificial Intelligence to Interpret and Predict ESG Initiatives
I think there is a misunderstanding in today’s world regarding what AI is and what it can do. The latest trend is generative AI, a form of artificial intelligence capable of generating new content. This can be seen from things like ChatGPT, which can write entire novels when given a prompt on a particular subject, or DALL-E, which can create amazing images. Not every AI falls into this category, though. Other types of AI, such as predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms, are also relevant. This distinction is helpful in realizing that AI cannot independently generate completely new ideas; AI models are trained on existing data and patterns. Recognizing this fact will help set realistic expectations for what AI can and cannot do. It will not create an unknown product that the world has never seen.
“If the hot new fad is AI, surely there must be some way to incorporate that into our current business to make us more efficient.” The answer is yes! AI algorithms can analyze large datasets to identify trends, assess environmental impacts, or evaluate organizational social governance practices.
AI can make all aspects of your company’s environmental, health, and safety goals more efficient. You can leverage current AI tools with no platform by feeding it your data and asking for suggestions on improvements. For example, you can train generative AI with your current accident data. With a few of the correct prompts, it can generate a safety plan to help improve worker safety or perhaps identify vulnerabilities you haven’t even thought of.
In the future, AI will not only interpret existing data but also predict our future goals. Using predictive analytics and AI-driven forecasting models, we can anticipate environmental risks, forecast resource demands, and predict social trends. Looking further into the future, I can envision a scenario where workers wear AI components to help them identify hazards, prevent injuries, or even maximize their productivity.
There are some drawbacks to AI that also need to be considered. Ultimately, the predictive models are only as good as the data given to them. Companies are also responsible for protecting private individual data. It’s essential to make sure the data is high-quality and ethically handled. Companies must have a transparency and accountability policy regarding sensitive data.
AI technologies will have a positive and profound impact on sustainability, social responsibility, and corporate governance, and I encourage you to begin researching how AI data-driven models can help your company right now.
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Proactive Steps That Can Prevent Workplace Incidents
Most people are familiar with the basic regulatory requirements facilities must meet under their respective reporting regimes. Many of these requirements involve documenting incidents AFTER they occur and then performing risk or root cause analysis to drive potential change in the workplace. There is no doubt these are important steps in creating a safer workplace culture, but what if you could have a safer workplace before waiting for something bad to happen?
This is where the concept of a behavior-based safety program comes into play. Programs like these are setup so that you can identify unsafe conditions and behaviors and perform risk analysis operations on them; thereby eliminating potential accidents before they ever occur.
What would this look like in practice?
Observations
Having a daily observation program in place to monitor workers during the day for five minutes can have a huge impact. A simple observational program can be easily formed and effortlessly repeatable. Those small observational data points can then be combined to provide trends to safety managers to see if there are changes necessary to the safety program.
Checklists
In this instance, employees are provided with a checklist of things to do to operate efficiently and safely in their environment. This can be anything from lockout/tagout procedures, work procedures and/or training manuals for specific equipment operation. Having clear-cut directions simplifies tasks and makes them much safer.
Goal Setting
Establishing identifiable safety goals to work towards can also make your workplace safer. Everyone is familiar with the typical “days without incident goal”, but there are many other achievable victories to be had. Reducing the number of days with PPE infractions is an example. Combining goals with small incentives will eventually save money by helping to reduce incident costs, lower insurance costs, and prevent the loss of productivity.
This may seem like a lot of work to prevent something that may not even happen, but I promise it is worth the time and effort to set up a system to automate these tasks. To help, Cornerstone has built systems that manage these elements and can provide templates and startups to get a new, more proactive safety management system off the ground quickly and easily.
Not only does Cornerstone have the applications to easily manage all this data, but we have the expertise and knowledge behind all our systems to provide insights, offer advice and guide our users in the right direction. All of this combined has saved our customers time, money, and lives. That’s the ultimate end goal of any safety system: to provide a productive work environment for employees and see them all go home at the end of each shift safely. We are proud to provide our clients with the tools and knowledge to help make that happen.
Joshua Sampia is the Director of Product Development. He is responsible for the applications development team at Cornerstone, ranging from web-based and mobile applications to device management for safety and environmental compliance and applicability.
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OSHA Form 300A Compliance
Form 300A is the summary of work-related injuries and illnesses occurring at your facility during the previous year. Employers are required to post this information at their location from February 1 through April 30 of the following year.
Just like Tier II compliance, summaries are required for each individual plant or facility under your management. Separate logs and summaries should be maintained at each site.
One of the more recent developments, however, is that summary information must be submitted to OSHA through their online portal if your facility meets certain size and industry requirements. For more information regarding requirements for industry, you can use OSHA’s FAQ website here: https://www.osha.gov/injuryreporting .
The rule requiring establishments with over 250 employees to submit the entire 300 Log and not just the summary was amended and is no longer required; however, facilities must continue to maintain those records and are required to provide them to an inspector upon request.
So, how can Cornerstone help?
Our Incident Management program will not only help you accurately collect and maintain incident information, but it can also provide customization and control well beyond OSHA’s generic spreadsheets and manual collection. It will also keep backup archives so this information can never be lost.
All facilities are required to submit information through the OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA) website. Cornerstone can help by automatically generating files in “.csv” format to upload to the OSHA ITA program to save you time entering the summary data for every single facility. Even for a single facility, it is much more efficient to upload the csv file rather than manually entering the data.
In addition to proving a summary to comply with reporting requirements, the program will automatically generate the “.pdf” files necessary for display at the facility. Again, this is not a reporting requirement, but is required for compliance.
This is just a fraction of the benefits an incident management system can provide. Most importantly, it can help drive a healthier and safer workforce while also easily keeping you in compliance with electronic recordkeeping requirements.
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Go Beyond Recordkeeping with an Automated Employee Training Tracking System
Maintaining accurate training records is important for many reasons including compliance with federal, state, and local laws, conformance with quality standards, as well as improving worker safety and overall productivity. However, many companies continue to rely upon spreadsheets and cumbersome manual processes to track employee training. It is important to ensure a solid process is in place for tracking and maintaining training records. Without such a system, vital training may be missed, leaving employees either unsafe or unqualified for their positions. In addition, your organization may be cited for non-compliance if a regulatory agency performs an audit, and the required data cannot be retrieved.
Develop a Process for Tracking and Maintaining Records
We have been asked by clients numerous times how they should manage training information to help ensure their team is more productive, capable, and safe. The most effective way to track training is to use an automated system to manage the information and tasks involved in the process. A system such as this may be incorporated into a Quality and/or Worker Health and Safety Program to ensure all training requirements are met and the necessary data is captured to maintain certifications and/or OSHA compliance.
Typical Training Data to Track and Record
What should you keep track of, and what is the most effective process? Although organizations may have unique recordkeeping needs, training tracking systems commonly include the following information:
Training required for each role
Frequency of each training type
Completion and refresher dates of training
License and certification validity
Training course materials
Course assessments
Employee evaluations
What tasks can be automated?
Assignments of training based on an employee’s role
Rescheduling of refresher training, as needed, based on the frequency of requirements
Notifications to employees who require training
Easily accessible records of evidence in the event of an audit
Training class rosters
In addition to automating all of the required tasks for training tracking, metrics such as training effectiveness and course assessments can be accessed. Other performance indicators, like how often licenses or qualifications lapse, or the percentage of employees trained, can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of your training program.
Additional Benefits of an Effective Training Tracking System
In today’s business climate, one of the most important benefits of a training program is attracting, training, and retaining employees. You can leverage training tracking to see where employees are deficient and train them in the areas needed. Furthermore, if employees are not continually learning, it may prompt them to look elsewhere for opportunities that foster personal growth.
In short, using automated training tracking tools will help managers become more efficient with their training efforts, which promotes safety, increases job satisfaction, and creates a more educated, skillful, and productive workforce.
Further Information
Cornerstone offers Training Tracking software that helps users capture and retrieve the necessary information to remain current and compliant with applicable regulatory requirements. Our software automates the training process with features such as email reminders, mass scheduling, and monitoring the completion of courses. Contact us to discuss integrating this Training Tracking system into your operations.