Why is a strong notification system crucial?
Of course, if you want to improve, you have to know what to improve. How do you collect reports on anything and everything? Which reports should you focus on? Which ones have priority and why? Which improvements will achieve the most progress in a short period of time? Which improvement suggestions are structural and which reports need to be addressed immediately? So on and so forth.
A good analysis of everything you can change and improve starts with setting up an easy-to-use reporting system. By this we mean that you should have something that all your colleagues can use to do their reporting with pleasure and ease. After all, simplicity and convenience are the keys to a reporting system that works perfectly.
An accessible system of notifications
An accessible system of reports provides you with the information, which you can use to make improvements. The more reports you receive, the more opportunities you have to improve. But with this increased data flow also comes the need to analyze reports. Because before you know it, you can't see the forest for the trees.
To begin with, it is helpful to have a good understanding of what notifications there are. Therefore, we have created an overview for you.
1. Security notifications
You are responsible for the safety of your employees. Safety is a basic need and a fundamental right of the people who work for you. Therefore, safety-related reports should always be a priority. What to report here:
1. Hazards - conditions that can lead to accidents, such as loose cables, leaks, electrical insecurity and sharp parts sticking out.
2. Accidents - events involving injury or damage.
3. Near misses - incidents that did not cause injury or damage but could have done so.
4. Safety violations - Violation of safety procedures (think failure to wear PPE or failure to install safety gates), machinery and equipment that has not been properly inspected.
5. Emergencies - the really big emergencies, such as fires or explosions.
2. Quality notifications
These reports have to do with the quality of your products, services, processes and systems. There are a lot of opportunities for structural improvement in this category. So that's super interesting.
1. Complaints: customer and supplier dissatisfaction with your products and services.
2. Deviations: manufacturing defects or deviations from specifications, standards and processes.
3. Nonconformities: when a product, service or process does not meet stated requirements or applicable laws or regulations.
4. Improvement proposals: ideas or suggestions for improving the quality of products, services and processes.
3. Sustainability and environmental notifications
These are all notifications that deal with the impact of your business activities on the environment. This category may contain urgent reports, for example because they involve hazardous substances. Sometimes these reports come from the vicinity of your company, for example in the case of noise or odor nuisance. It is important then to know that something is a problem, so that you can take measures or at least communicate with the reporter.
1. Environmental incidents: consider spills of hazardous materials, as well as air or noise pollution.
2. Waste management reports: improper storage, accumulation or handling of waste.
3. Ideas for resources: or energy savings - reports often made by experienced employees and concerned customers.
4. Sustainability complaints: reports made in relation to your company's environmental performance.
4. Operational notifications
This category consists of very practical reports, often of disruption to processes.
1. Failures: failure or malfunction of machines, equipment, processes and systems.
2. Logistics problems: reports of undelivered or partially delivered shipments or delays. Also consider storage problems, such as goods stored too hot, too cold or too moist.
3. Capacity issues: reports that deal with too few people and resources.
4. Optimization ideas: ideas and suggestions for making processes smarter or better, for example.
5. Personnel-related reports
All reports related to the health or behavior of your employees.
1. Occupational accidents: in case of injury, caused by an incident at work.
2. Inappropriate behavior: this includes, for example, discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment.
3. Occupational health problems: all reports of physical or mental health hazards.
4. HR ideas: suggestions for improvements in work processes, training or working conditions.
Compliments: positive feedback about colleagues, teams or supervisor
6. Customer and supplier notifications.
These reports generally come from external stakeholders. So these are also important because they give a picture of how all your efforts are appreciated in real life.
1. Customer complaints: dissatisfaction with products, services, processes and customer interactions
2. Compliments: positive feedback from customers, which is very nice to share with the concerned person or department in your company.
3. Supplier complaints: problems with deliveries, communication or cooperation.
4. Supplier suggestions: Ideas for improving collaboration or processes.
7. Innovation and improvement reports
Reports focused on process improvements and new opportunities and ideas. These types of reports also often come from engaged employees and customers. You might consider encouraging these reports, such as by highlighting or rewarding a "report of the month.
1. Innovation proposals: ideas for new products, services and business models.
2. Process improvements: suggestions to make existing processes better or more efficient
3. Cost-cutting ideas: ideas and ways to reduce costs without losing quality
4. Digitization ideas: proposals to use technology and IT for performance improvement.
8. Communication and collaboration notifications.
Reports related to internal and external communication and cooperation.
1. Miscommunication: problems caused by unclear or incorrect communication
2. Collaboration problems: Difficulties in teamwork or with outside parties.
3. Feedback on internal communication: suggestions or complaints around newsletters, intranet or other internal communication channels. You can additionally think about feedback on everything around internal meetings.
9. Financial reports
Reports related to financial issues, incidents or processes.
1. Fraud cases: suspicious financial transactions or irregularities.
2. Cost overruns: All about budget management and especially budget overruns.
3. Financial improvements: ideas to streamline financial processes or realize savings.
10. Mic Reports (report incident client).
Reports related to health issues and incidents.
1. Fall incidents: Someone trips
2. Forgotten actions: such as forgetting a seat belt on a wheelchair user
3. Medication: Administering the wrong (dose) of medication.
4. ECD: A non-working Electronic Client Record (ECD).
5. Infections: Acquiring an infection.
A digital notification system
There are not many companies that consistently collect feedback on all the aspects mentioned. Sometimes this is because it is just a lot or because each column in a company is made responsible for its own quality management and therefore for collecting feedback and improvement suggestions. Many departments don't have time for this or simply have a different focus.
The quality manager is the designated person for organizing a holistic feedback model. Therefore, that person is often the one who read this blog article to the end.
That quality manager does need a good set of instruments to collect, analyze and process feedback into improvement measures. The quality manager also wants to be sure that improvement measures are picked up and implemented. Because only when improvement measures are fully implemented can we speak of improvement.
Why ISO2HANDLE's notification system?
The notifications component of the ISO2HANDLE platform provides everything a quality manager needs to effectively manage and process all of the notification categories listed above. From easy reporting via your smartphone to automatic root cause analysis and follow-up of those reports. From solid analysis of those reports to advanced dashboarding so you can see where you stand. And from automatically setting out tasks and workflows for reports to automatically monitoring whether reports and improvement measures are actually being taken up.
Want to learn more about the power of notifications in ISO2HANDLE? Then send a message so we can contact you.
