Inventive applications of innovative technology solutions can fundamentally change workflows, worker safety, and real-time decision making

 

The connected worker paradigm delivers immense value to the organization. It introduces layers of engagement, insight, and connectivity that allow companies to connect more richly with their employees, change workflow management, processes, and make critical decisions in real time. Connected worker technologies have evolved considerably and now bring with them data, dynamic insights, active awareness, and gamification tools that can reshape the company’s culture and the safety of its people. In a word, this is the technology that makes the organization smart – and smart industry is the future.

 

In a recent analysis around the concept of ‘smart quality,’ McKinsey highlights the value of performance management metrics and the use of digital to unpack quality across every team member. Achieving this cultural commitment to quality service and work requires that employees are engaged, involved in quality work, and aligned with the quality culture of the company. These are complex boxes to tick – building a company culture connected to worker sentiment and output requires consistency and commitment across every level of the business, not just the top down. And this requires that employees feel that they have ownership of their roles and their outcomes.

 

The Gamification Key

One of the ways in which companies can unlock team member commitment and engagement is through the concept of gamification. Using methodologies traditionally associated with games – reward-based actions – companies can shift team member mindsets through active tasks, goals, and rewards. In the context of connected worker solutions, this requires the organization to implement incentives that encourage people to meet specific goals or follow certain mandates. For example, every time a team member uses the app to report a hazard or highlight a potential problem, they are allocated points. These points then tally up over time, and employees earn awards or prizes.

 

If the company uses a connected worker application capable of connecting with their daily activities and behaviors, this has proven to deliver positive outcomes for both users and the company. Research has shown that gamification can help motivate employees, increase involvement in the organization, and provide employees and managers with access to better tools for learning and applying practical learning outcomes.

 

Connecting to people

Connected worker applications also deliver immeasurable value when bedding down essential safety processes and protocols within the company. Consistent training, reminders, and gamification objectives enhance the user’s situational awareness, essential for complex and hazardous working environments. Workers need to know what’s happening around them all the time, particularly across the following six elements:

 

• The Worker – people are the organization’s most valuable asset, so ensuring that incidents are minimized, risks are reduced, and processes are aligned with best safety practices is essential. The connected worker platform uses the data provided by the worker to embed robust protocols and practices that put safety at their heart.
• The Activity – risk changes all the time. Weather, unexpected failures, and unplanned events can all impact the risks workers face at any given time, in any given location. With the connected worker platform, constant awareness and real-time data updates can significantly reduce the risks and protect people undertaking hazardous activities.
• The Location – location is central to risk management as every site has its weather patterns, risks, and uncertainties. With a connected worker platform that ensures clear communication across people and sites, companies gain visibility that can transform productivity and safety.

 

 

 

• The Materials – managing hazardous materials and environments requires that people be protected, processes followed, and systems are operational 100% of the time. With connected worker platforms and data providing real-time insights to the right people at the right time, companies can catch issues before they become unexpected events.
• The Assets – data is a crucial cog in the connected worker wheel that can provide operations with clear visibility into the situational risks they face to make better decisions or prepare prescriptive guidelines and ensure that assets – people and systems – are protected.
• The Training – from gamification to rewards to ongoing skills development, the connected worker platform can fundamentally change how employees engage with the business, their roles, and the regulations. This plays no small role in minimizing risk and transforming worker actions in times of crisis.

 

The Value of Connections

At least 80-90% of fatalities in industrial environments are claimed to be caused by worker error. How can it be worker error if you are not providing your employees with a true and current picture of the risk they are facing? This can be addressed, the situation changed, using smart technologies, detailed real-time information and data-driven approaches. With the connected worker platform, companies can use digital workflows that evolve dynamically across sites, people, and situations for up-to-date insights and decision-making. This speeds up information sharing and can equally be used as a knowledge resource that helps workers share their own experience and expertise across the company. Experiences and expertise that can save a life, improve a process, and drive an ethos of continuous improvement throughout the organization.

 

And, perhaps even more importantly, by having access to a fresh and relevant source of insight, protocol, and information, workers are never sent into a site blind. They have all the information they need to make the correct decision at their fingertips. This significantly reduces the risk of accidents and increases engagement because workers feel that they have value, that their contributions have value. It also transforms an organization into an intelligent ecosystem powered by insights, data, people, and processes that are sustainably implemented, managed, and used to minimize risk and maximize potential.

 

The Excellence of GOARC

The GOARC Connected Worker solution is a native mobile phone application that provides workers with access to real-time information 24/7 that includes insights into facility conditions and can provide users with online assistance in real-time. The solution has also been designed with a gamification feature to promote safe behavior and motivate workers to remain compliant, aware, and safe. The platform turns the smartphone into a comprehensive operational and safety platform.

 

Organizations can use the platform to empower their workers with connected insights and information that loops back to decision-makers to create a holistic ecosystem of data and engagement. This means that complex situations can be resolved rapidly and with worker safety as a priority. Workers can use the platform to report hazards in real-time, which is of immense value in ensuring that issues are dealt with correctly and at speed. The GOARC Connected Worker platform closes the gaps that often exist between the workers on the ground and decision-makers. It provides users with a digital view of facility activities in real-time and ensures that the business can fully realize the potential of its data, so workers sit at the heart of safety and operational excellence.