Using a Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) system can help your organisation comply with health and safety regulations in the workplace. It provides a centralised view of an organisation’s facilities and assets, allowing day-to-day management of workplaces through recording, accessing and sharing health and safety-related information such as fire safety, hazardous substances and employee activities.
What is a CAFM system?
A CAFM system modernises what was traditionally a patchwork of data and information manually captured as paper-based records, in spreadsheets and on building blueprints. Before the introduction of CAFM, employees and managers had to juggle a disjointed collection of diagrams, paper records and offline filing to record information about a workspace.
A CAFM system is an online platform that efficiently stores and links data and information to provide an overview of an organisation’s assets, from office chairs and workshop layouts to fire exit locations and hazardous materials stores.
The result is a flexible platform that different teams within an organisation can use:
- Facilities teams – CAFM systems support workplace planning and managing physical assets and resources. It can be used, for example, to plan floor layouts and assess workspace efficiencies.
- HR teams – CAFM systems can be used day-to-day by employees to maximise workspace effectiveness, such as managing meeting room availability, handling bookings and monitoring employee location, which helps track lone workers such as engineers working offsite.
- Compliance teams – The centralised, accessible approach to record-keeping allows documentation such as risk assessments and compliance reports to be stored and managed, supporting compliance requirements.
- Health and safety teams – A CAFM is a useful tool to store information relating to health and safety, such as fire exit door locations, the location of hazardous materials and substances such as on-site undisturbed asbestos, and management of maintenance teams, including informing workers of workplace hazards and potential risks.
A CAFM can be used alongside other Software as a Service platform such as a learning management system (LMS) to offer a holistic view of a business’s compliance, activities and risks. Our SHINE LMS platform is an example of a cloud-based LMS that is SCORM compliant.
How CAFM software can help with health and safety compliance
A CAFM system can be configured to support organisational compliance in several ways. While it can be deployed for day-to-day facilities support, such as booking meeting rooms, it offers managers and persons responsible for health and safety compliance and risk management useful functionality.
Centralised procedure documentation
Different teams across different sites may require access to site-specific procedures and policies, and that’s where CAFM’s centralised document storage is useful. Procedures such as who and when to notify when maintenance works are being conducted, for example, through to accessing building regulations, ensure that teams working on different sites remain compliant.
Hazardous materials
A CAFM can play a vital role in supporting compliance with Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH). Locations of hazardous materials can be centralised and made accessible to workers, along with documentation on handling procedures. Locations and information on PPE equipment requirements, along with handling records, can be stored and produced for risk assessment and compliance purposes.
Lone and remote workers
Lone workers, including maintenance and facilities employees, can be a fact of life for some organisations, for example, electrical and telecommunications engineers working across sites. Equipping lone employees with connected mobile devices such as tablets can enable a CAFM system to be accessed as needed.
A CAFM system allows workers to access relevant information such as handling procedures. Employee accidents can also be recorded, and support teams are instantly notified via a CAFM messaging system if a worker is harmed.
Risk management
A CAFM is a dynamic system that brings together project tools such as tasks, SLAs and PPM schedules relating to compliance-dependent activities. This means organisation risk management and assessments can be monitored, tracked and duties allocated to employees.
Supporting documentation, such as health and safety checklists, can be linked to conditional tasks so your organisation can show a clear audit trail for compliance. Documents can be attached to premises plans, such as checking and maintenance schedules for fire extinguishers and emergency exits.
Alerts and notifications
A CAFM system isn’t passive. It allows notification triggers to be attached to tasks and events. This provides teams with up-to-date statuses of compliance issues, such as reminders to perform equipment checks. Employees can record tasks as completed, including uploading relevant documents such as photos and completed checklists.
