Over the last year, SignOnSite has collaborated with Industry Leaders such as Buildcorp, Form BD, Shape Australia, Southbase Construction & Unispace to understand the opportunities available when swapping out paper for digital permits.

Together, we developed a built-for-industry solution that could improve safety, compliance and operations called Permits Workflow.

Permits Workflow is SignOnSite's Mobile App, that gives workers, subbies, and supervisors a way to manage the entire end-to-end permit process. Permits are requested, managed, and issued from any location on-site, all on mobile.

Permits are then stored in the cloud and can be retrieved at any point in time. This allows everyone to keep up to date on permit status and retrieve history with a tap of a finger.

When Industry Leaders put Permits Workflow to the test on their sites, they identified 7 key advantages, including:

1. Safer Worker Behaviours
2. Greater Participation
3. Meeting & Staying Compliant
4. Faster Auditing
5. Improved Operations & Productivity
6. More Tool Time
7. Lower Software Costs
   
   

1. Safer Worker Behaviours

Permits Workflow helps to de-risk the chances of a safety incident occurring. It does this by prompting workers to complete safety checks before, during, and after high-risk work.

Suppose your company wants to ensure that all combustible materials are relocated before hot-works commences.

In this case, Permit Workflows requires a worker to relocate the combustible materials before requesting a permit and provide photo evidence that the safety check is complete.

2. Greater Participation

One of the main problems with paper permits is – they just aren't used properly by workers. This is because workers have to put down their tools and go to the supervisor's office to fill in paperwork.

Workers are more likely to request a permit with Permits Workflow because:

• They can do it on the device they choose to use every day
• The process is simple and easy
• The safety checks are interactive
• They don't need to move from their physical location to make a request
• The app is entirely free for workers to use.
• 1 in 3 Australian workers already know how to use the app.
  
  

3. Meeting & Staying Compliant

SignOnSite research has found that only 10% of paper permits meet compliance standards. So when companies are audited, they are unknowingly ending up in situations where they have approved permits for unsafe work.

Permits Workflows has the checks and controls that the permits process needs. For example, workers cannot request or close a permit without completing the safety checks first (all with photo evidence). 

4. Faster Auditing

Permits Workflows has the checks and controls that the permits process needs. For example, workers cannot request or close a permit without completing the safety checks first (all with photo evidence).

Permits Workflow is a comprehensive document management system. So every permit ever requested, approved, or rejected leaves an audit trail.

You can extract an audit log of any permit created or drill down further into time logs and photo evidence. In addition, permits are stored in real-time and retrieved instantly, whenever required.

5. Improved Operations & Productivity

On average paper, permits take 30 minutes to be approved.

There is so much time wasted by the time it takes a worker to go to the site office, request the permit, ensure all safety checks are completed and get the permit approved. (And that's if the worker even decides to make the request).

Permit Workflows accelerate this process. It does this by making permits accessible wherever the internet is.

Workers no longer need to leave their work location to request a permit and should do this from any device they choose.

So workers spend less time on the sidelines and more time on the tools.

6. More Tool Time

Imagine your company is issuing 400 permits a week (Which is standard for a Tier 1 & 2 builder) you could be losing up to 12,000 hours of productive time on your sites.

With Permits Workflow, you could reduce this by 83%. That's because digital permits can ease the process to just 5 minutes.

7. Lower Software Costs

Permits Workflow is a free mobile app for an unlimited amount of workers. This means that you will only have one software licence for your entire workforce (even as your workforce grows).