Mobile & Paperless Operations During A Global Pandemic

Mobile & Paperless Operations During a Global Pandemic

Working Towards Ending the Spread of COVID-19

March 30, 2020 | Daniel Gerow

The Government of Alberta has mandated mass gathering restrictions outlining the reduction of gathering sizes to 15 individuals. Law enforcement agencies have been granted full authority to enforce these public health orders and fines can be issued for failure to comply.

Amidst the current global COVID-19 pandemic, “Essential Services” businesses continuing day to day operations in a safe, responsible manner may seem like an insurmountable task. Your first concern will always be the health, safety and well-being of your employees and the general public; additionally, you are still required to remain compliant with all existing provincial and federal Occupational Health & Safety standards.

Abiding by the new and existing mandated standards provides numerous challenges, none more apparent than;

Virus transmission through traditional paper form use and collecting.
Managing increasing amounts of data created by the increased number of safety meetings / toolbox talks.

1. Traditional Paper Forms & Virus Transmission

The use of paper-based timecards and safety audit / inspection forms can increase the risk of virus transmission exponentially. Paper forms change hands from field workers to supervisors and on to office administration; not only is this practice incredibly inefficient but the virus can be passed from individual to individual without direct human interaction / contact.

Hand manually punching a time clock illustration.

Creator: jj_voodoo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Copyright: jj_voodoo

2. Safety Meetings & Toolbox Talks: Limited Attendees Means More Meetings

You’re the site supervisor in charge of a job site with 300 full-time employees; 150 on the dayshift and 150 on nightshift. Company mandates state, daily Toolbox / Safety Talks are to be held to identify any potential workplace hazards and outline all safe work practices.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, TWO meetings were conducted per shift, 75 individuals per meeting, for a total of FOUR Toolbox / Safety Talks each day. With the current gathering restrictions in place, a maximum of 15 individuals / meeting, it means you will now need to preform TEN meetings per shift, totaling TWENTY Toolbox / Safety Talks per day. This increase not only affects the how you manage employee job placement / hours, but the increased number of meetings means a drastic increase in the amount of data that needs to be collected, reviewed and approved.

Mobile Safety Software and Paperless Time & Labour Solutions

With the uncertainty COVID-19 has brought the world and the increased amount of work required to ensure the safety of your employees and the general public, it only makes sense that a mobile data collection and management platform can help streamline workflows, helping to eliminate process bottlenecks.

Mobile & Paperless Operations Mobile & Paperless Operations

Nektar, a cloud-based, mobile data collection and management platform allows companies to complete their, traditionally paper-based, Safety and Time & Labour forms / logbooks / timesheets on a tablet or mobile phone; effectively eliminating virus transmission through direct or secondary human contact. Eliminating the spread of COVID-19 is the most important objective in the world today, however, the increase in overall operational efficiency a company is able to gain by implementing a mobile data collection and management platform simply cannot be ignored.

With the excess Safety Meeting / Toolbox Talk data created by the limitation of mass gathering numbers, an easily implemented mobile data collection and management solution would be a welcome aid to most companies. The learning curve associated with Nektar’s platform is nearly non-existent; most of your field staff will know the ins and outs of the Nektar app within 10 minutes of use. The ease of use encourages continued use and will translate into your supervisors spending less time filling out traditional, paper safety forms / documents making for more streamline and efficient Safety Meetings / Toolbox Talks.

Summary

In closing, Nektar is not COVID-19’s vaccine and we do not want to appear as if we are trying to capitalize on the dire situation the world is in; that said, the essential businesses that remain open need to operate differently now then they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Modifying your operations to account for these situational changes will usually mean more work, more work means more time and greater expenses. Nektar is presenting its platform in hopes that we are able to use our technology to help other business work through these uncertain times.

4 Comments

Mark Steen on April 1, 2020 at 9:37 am

Does your product work offline?
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- Daniel Gerow on April 1, 2020 at 10:22 am
  
  Hi Mark,
  
  Thanks for your question! Yes, the Nektar platform can operate offline. Our offline functionality allows for full data collection and sync when a Wi-Fi or cell signal is in range.
  
  Check out the rest of the features and functionality here: https://www.nektardata.com/features/
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Stephen Bower on April 1, 2020 at 9:21 am

I know I’m not too interested in sharing a pen or safety form with anyone for the short term. Can you help with that?

Also, how long does it take to get setup and running?
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- Daniel Gerow on April 1, 2020 at 10:19 am
  
  Hi Stephen,
  
  Thanks for the comment! Yes, we can eliminate the need for pen and paper. All signatures and communications can be captured digitally. With regards to implementation, generally we have our clients up and running within a couple weeks.
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Mobile & Paperless Operations During A Global Pandemic