Supporting Safety Officer Responsibilities Professionally With Timly

Who Can Become a Safety Officer?

The obligation to appoint a safety officer is laid down in the regulations of the German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV). According to §20 DGUV Regulation 1, this is mandatory in companies with more than 20 employees. The number of employees to be selected depends on the specific circumstances.

Criteria are:

– the presence of accident and health hazards in the company

– the proximity of the safety representative to the employees in terms of space and time

– a technical proximity to the field of employment

– the total number of employees

This means that only an employee from one’s own field of expertise who is regularly on site can be considered to fulfil the tasks of a safety officer.

Safety Officer: Salary and Training

In contrast to the activities of occupational physicians and occupational safety specialists, the tasks of a safety officer are voluntary. The person from the company’s own workforce ensures compliance with the necessary regulations during the performance of normal activities and raises awareness of possible accident and health hazards. For example, one of the tasks of a safety representative is to ensure that the prescribed protective devices and personal protective equipment are made available to the workforce.

It is also part of a safety representative’s duties to represent the interests of employees in the area of occupational safety, but also to work towards the implementation of appropriate regulations to prevent work-related health hazards. The safety representative must also be provided with the training necessary to perform the assigned tasks.

Is a Safety Officer Authorised to Give Instructions?

An authority to issue instructions within the scope of the tasks of a safety representative does not result from the DGUV regulation. However, compliance with DGUV Regulation 1 is mandatory in companies. Violations are in most cases administrative offences. The safety representative is basically not intended as a control body, but as an advisor. He is to take a holistic view of measures to prevent occupational accidents and diseases in the company and point out safety-related deficiencies.

This is where Timly’s inventory management software comes in. Ultimately, all work equipment can be recorded in it. Important information is stored directly in the profile of an asset, such as safety-relevant instructions for handling machines. The link to the digital personnel file in Timly, in which information about employees and their qualifications is stored, enables the safety officer to have a comprehensive view.

This applies not only to the proper condition of tools, but also, for example, to the training required and the proof of driving tools.

Safety Officer Responsibilities: Tasks and Organisation

The concrete implementation of the tasks of a security officer with Timly can be exemplified well by the very complex requirements in the care sector. Timly implements its inventory solution according to the software-as-a-service concept. The actual application runs on a cloud server.

It goes without saying that it is secured according to the latest technical standards. The provider guarantees GDPR-compliant data processing. Accordingly, the very sensitive network in a practice or clinic does not have to be opened to the outside. Nevertheless, authorised employees such as the security officer can access the data stock anywhere. He only needs a terminal device with Internet access.

The profiles for assets to be recorded are flexible and can be filled with the information required in each individual case. Documents such as test certificates from the Safety Technical Control (STK) or the Medical Technical Control (MTK) can be stored directly in the profile of an inventory item. They are thus available for inspection at any time.

For easy access to information, Timly provides an inventory app optimised for smartphones and tablets. This can be used to call up the stickers with QR codes of the recorded items, which serve as identification features. Each item has a maintenance calendar that notifies responsible persons and, if desired, the security officer of upcoming appointments.

There is absolute transparency for all employees regarding the work equipment used. The simple possibility to check the maintenance condition of a medical device is the ideal prerequisite for fulfilling the tasks of a safety officer.

Safety Officer: Training Easy to Prove

Considering operational safety always includes personal information about the workforce. Are the required qualification certificates available? Do refresher courses have to be offered for certain activities? To be able to answer such questions for accident and occupational disease investigations, a structured filing of relevant facts is important.

Timly offers a special training management software for maintaining a digital personnel file. This allows necessary qualifications and certificates to be verified at any time. The calendar function is used to manage personal appointments. Before assigning employees to specific tasks, managers can check whether the necessary personal requirements have been met.

Security Officer Tasks: Edit PDF via Mobile Device

As a rule, the implementation of occupational safety and health measures must be documented. Here, digital recording and processing of forms as well as checklists are useful. The inspection of machines for safety-related deficiencies and other measures to ensure occupational health and safety can be filed with Timly directly with the end device used.

Imported, fillable PDF forms are suitable for this purpose. In this way, a permanent history of the inspections carried out is created.

With a Focus on the Health Care Sector

Employer’s liability insurance associations in various specialist areas often publish guidelines and forms that deal, for example, with risk assessment in special areas of work, such as nursing. Here, a distinction is made between hazards in the context of outpatient or inpatient care, but also in other specialist areas such as veterinary medicine.

Due to its universality, Timly is suitable for providing cross-thematic information. In this way, responsible persons can support their own employees who take on the tasks of a safety officer.