Article appeared in Master Builder, May 2008

All building firms, no matter how small have a duty of care to their employees and the general public. Many might see this as an irritating distraction to an already busy workload but building companies have a legal obligation to demonstrate that they take their responsibilities seriously and that they have done as much as is reasonably practicable to safe guard their employees, subcontractors and general public. That’s the law.

No health and safety software product can prevent accidents on site but it can go a long way to make sure you are managing the risks through the use of comprehensive assessments and inspections and are able to prove to the relevant authorities that you are taking your duties seriously There are numerous benefits to using good health and safety software.

Firstly, you don’t need to be a health and safety expert yourself as software often has built in knowledge bases of the likely tasks and risks involved on site.

Secondly, by inputting your job details into the software it will cut down the time it normally takes to produce all the health and safety paperwork by hand – and a lot cheaper than a health and safety consultant.

Thirdly, great health and safety software will be updated with latest regulations automatically so you have it covered without having to worry about it!

Fourthly, you can prove to the likes of the HSE as it’s written down that you are doing all you can to prevent accidents on site…software is massively cheaper than an HSE fine!

HEALTH & SAFETY XPERT

Making sure that building sites of small and medium sized building companies are safe has risen up the agenda with the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) now making thousands of random site inspections every year. With the number of deaths on construction sites rising by a massive 28% to a total of 77 workers in 2007 – and more than half of these deaths happening in the refurbishment sector - the need to comply with the latest regulations and make sure that building sites are safe from the outset has therefore become of paramount concern.

As a result and to refl ect the changing demands of health and safety on site HBXL launched their latest version of Health & Safety Xpert (version 3) to simplify the tedious process of completing the endless paperwork associated with health & safety. Developed in partnership with leading industry health and safety professionals, Health & Safety Xpert is an easy to use software package that will save massive amounts of time producing crucial health and safety documentation legally required under current UK law. It has been designed to save builders huge amounts of time, quickly guiding them through the crucial paper work that’s required under current UK law, including the Health & Safety At Work Act 1974 and Construction Design Management (CDM) Regulations 2007.

Joanna Mulgrew, marketing director at HBXL said: “Despite the reasonable intentions of health and safety legislation, the net result appears to be a mountain of paperwork for the jobbing builder. It is often very difficult for businesses to know where to start so what the software does is simplify the process of producing all the right documentation for a project and give confidence to the builder that they are covered.

“Health & Safety Xpert helps encourage an active approach to health and safety and signifi cantly cuts down the time spent doing paperwork. Simply enter what you are building into the software and it does the rest. It prints Health and Safety policies, Risk Assessments and COSHH Assessments, Construction Phase Health and Safety Plans, Site Inspections, F10 forms and many more essential documents.

“The significance of completing this paperwork (and then actively using it!) cannot be underestimated. Non compliance can mean massive fines, site shut downs or even prison sentences. If the worst should happen and you find yourself being questioned by a court of law, it therefore pays to be able to demonstrate your company’s compliance to a rigorous health and safety code.

“Principal contractors and duty-holders must have the relevant health and safety policies and risk assessments in place. If they don’t they could find themselves under the scrutiny of the HSE. Anyone working on any building site should look out for hazards and take time to control the risks as best they can. Health & Safety Xpert goes a long way to help manage such risks and reduce the number of accidents.

“There is virtually no typing required saving huge amounts of time that would otherwise be spent sorting out the paperwork. Equally, users of our EstimatorXpress estimating software can import their estimate into Health & Safety Xpert (through X-connex data sharing technology) which automatically generates the appropriate documents based on the detail of the job.”

Joanna concludes: “A major benefit of Health & Safety Xpert is that its constantly updated for you with new regulations so you have the peace of mind that you are complying with latest regs and are covered.”

Click here for more information about Health & Safety Xpert