How to Digitally Manage Your Permits to Work Process

How are you currently managing your Permits to Work? Are you on the manual side or the digital side of managing the Permit process?

Are your Permits being completed in triplicate on a pad and the forms are being completed to different standards throughout the organisation? – Does this all sound familiar? – You don’t know if the Permits are being returned, and your Permits are attached back together and stored in a box or cumbersome filing system, and you’re just praying you’ll never be asked to provide a copy of it by an auditor or worse, following an incident!

Or, does this sound more familiar? You can log into a system to produce the Permits (with signatures) relating to the work, along with the associated documentation relating to the work AND the details of the inducted workers. Plus, your system enables you to complete real time audits and capture the information against the work being undertaken enabling you to show your due diligence and compliance.

I don’t know about you, be we prefer the option to digitally manage your Permit process, to ensure any high-risk tasks are made safe. However unfortunately, we know a lot of organisations are manually managing their Permits to Work either on paper, in filing cabinets, or spreadsheets, making managing and tracking permits and healthy and safety compliance very risky and problematic.

We want to help by discussing all that you need to know about Permits to Work and how you can manage them digitally in your permits process.

What is a Permit to Work?

Permit to Work is a documented management system to ensure work is done safely and efficiently. Mostly used in hazardous industries but also used for known hazardous tasks across all industries.

The tasks covered by a permit-to-work are usually those of high risk which require specialised training. Examples of such work are:

• Work in confined spaces.
• Electrical work especially on high voltage systems.
• Hot work such as welding or burning.

What is a Permit to Work process?

Permits to Work can only be authorised by certain member of staff to carry out high-risk work at a specific time and place, providing that the procedures detailed in the permit and any referenced documents are followed. Before any Permit to Work is put in hand there must be a request for a Permit to Work made, that request must be granted, and then a notice of a Permit to Work is to be then published and then issued before any work can be allowed and started.

An effective Permit to Work process means you can gain the control and have a formal method of working through the required documentation and efficiently manage the Permit to Work forms. The essential components of a permit-to-work Process include:

• A safety/work instruction which sets how the job is to operate and clearly define who may authorise jobs and who is responsible for specifying and implementing the necessary precautions.
• Permit-to-work form
• Informing the contractor or subcontractor carrying out the work of the exact location, nature and extent of the job, the hazards involved and the precautions to be taken.
• Ensuring a hand-back of the Permits and check the job has been completed compliantly.

Why you need an efficient Permit to Work system?

Permits are a vital part of preparing for the safe completion of high-risk activities. Permit to work involves procedures that authorise certain people to carry out specific work within a specified time frame. It sets out the precautions required to complete the work safely, based on a HSE risk assessment and is therefore a core element of safe systems of work. Whether you are working in a confined space or carrying out dangerous electrical work, you need a documented procedure that details the precautions required to complete the work safely.

Managing permits can present many challenges. Relying on paper permits that are copied and passed around lead to them becoming lost or unavailable when you need them. This can also complicate your handover process.

How can you digitally manage Permits to Work?

We’ve been working on our Verature Contractor Compliance System, to help you and your team simply create and manage permits to work more efficiently to make those high-risk tasks safer.

Using Verature you can keep track on all issued permits and passes. You and your team can gain access to your permit templates quickly while with a click of a button to create, edit, share, send, store and even track your permit to works around your site.

Creating and managing your permits to work has never been easier!

Here is how using Verature’s Electronic Permits to Work can make high-risk tasks safer:

• All types of permits, tailored to your existing paper permits issued electronically for signature – removing the need for paper.
• Quickly and easily produce electronic permits with full approval and signature audit trail between site host and contractor.
• Ensures contractors are trained to conform with issued permits and hazards and controls are understood.
• You handover and sign off is evidenced and tied into your contractor projects giving full visibility on all compliance areas – inductions, RAMS, company compliance and the final piece in the process – electronic permits.
• Establishes a clear process and information checklist to comply with HSE Permit to Work guidance.
• You can undertake real-time audits of the work that is being carried out and see if health and safety standards are being maintained.
• PLUS, Verature’s permit mapping helps you visualise where high risk works are taking place on your sites – helping you to avoid clashes and mitigate potential risks.

Our Permit to Work tools that contribute to your overall contractor compliance needs is just another reason why our Verature Contractor Management System has been providing the control, visibility, and compliance to businesses in both the private and public sector.

We can help significantly and quickly with our Verature Contractor Management Systems, the system deals with; Health and Safety Questionnaires, Insurances, Expiries and Renewals, Risk Assessments, Method Statement, Tracking of Permits to Work… helping save lots of time and paper chasing.

We have seen some amazing results from our Verature Systems. Verature Contractor Management System is a leading safe system of work for the management of your visitors, workers, contractors, and subcontractors. Automating your time-consuming contractor management processes with a straightforward, easy to use system to ensure contractors arrive safe, work safe and stay safe across your multiple locations.

“Verature has been absolutely brilliant to enable us to streamline and align our processes and continue working collaboratively with our contractors.”

Barrie Duncan, Works Manger, University of Strathclyde

Align your contractors and subcontractors with your health and safety and compliance procedures minimise risk and empower your team to champion safety in the workplace.

Book a demo now to find out more about our Verature system.