The Day I Realised Our Near-Miss Reporting Wasn’t Cutting It

If you’re anything like me, you’ve seen your fair share of near-misses across the production floor. Thankfully, nothing serious happened, but every single near-miss is a crucial lesson waiting to be learned. I’m embarrassed to admit that back when we were relying solely on manual reports and paper forms, these close calls used to fill me with dread rather than encouragement for improvement.

Let me paint you a picture: imagine it’s a chaotic Wednesday morning on the factory floor. An employee narrowly misses a collision with a forklift. No injuries, but hearts are racing, and the adrenaline is palpable. The employee catches their breath, heads into the office, grabs a clipboard—and that’s where the drama begins. I noticed a familiar look on their face: frustration mixed with annoyance at yet another tedious task. That clipboard could very well have had ‘ignore me until later’ stamped onto it in bright red letters. Surely, health and safety shouldn’t feel this daunting or, worse still, ignorable?

Manual Reporting: Necessary Pain or Barriers to Real Improvements?

It didn’t take long for the penny to drop for me. I realised that manual near-miss reporting, while necessary at the time, was adding more friction than function. Employees were tasked with handwriting forms, chasing down busy managers for signatures, and filing the reports away in overloaded cabinets, rarely to be seen—or remembered—again.

I confess that at first, I thought my people were simply disengaged or, worse yet, lazy. I quickly learned that wasn’t the case at all. Truthfully, the manual reporting process we’d put in place wasn’t easy or intuitive and didn’t contribute meaningfully to the daily flow of work. This was my moment of clarity: if a safety process is more cumbersome than helpful, people will inevitably resist it or shortcut it. After all, everyone’s goal is to be productive, efficient, and safe, not bogged down by paperwork dramas.

Let’s be clear—safety reporting is essential, but if the tools and processes we provide slow down our people or deter their engagement, it’s defeating the entire purpose. Manual reports created unnecessary delays and miscommunications, allowed crucial details to fall through the cracks, and painted an inaccurate picture of our overall safety culture. Yes, it was embarrassing to realise this—but acknowledging it was an essential first step.

Why Automating Our Near-Miss Reporting Changed Everything for Us

After accepting that our existing manual process was becoming part of the problem, we explored ways to automate near-miss and incident reporting. I’ll be honest, investing in new technology—incident reporting tools and safety report automations—wasn’t something we did lightly, especially when team productivity and morale were potentially at stake.

However, the transformation that followed was genuinely eye-opening. Implementing a digital health and safety automation system allowed our team to quickly and easily record near-misses from any device on the shop floor. Instead of clipboards ignored in a corner, we created a simple, user-friendly mobile app that made reporting fast, intuitive, and painless. Suddenly, reporting a near-miss was less an inconvenience and more an empowering responsibility.

We quickly saw more comprehensive near-miss reporting. Employees, recognising that their input was valued and easily actionable, began to report more often and with greater detail. Automating the system didn’t overwhelm us with excessive paperwork; quite the opposite—it gave us actionable visibility into potential risks before they turned into serious incidents.

This shift was not just logistical—it caused a subtle but powerful change in mindset. Now employees saw health and safety processes as supportive, collaborative, and productive rather than bureaucratic annoyances. Reports became conversation starters, opportunities, even moments of team pride, rather than dreaded chores.

The True Long-Term Value of Streamlining Health and Safety Processes

The change didn’t stop at improved reporting—we saw genuine long-term improvements in how our workforce perceived safety overall. Our improved reporting data now helps management spot trends quickly and implement proactive changes rather than simply reacting to incidents after they occur. Because automated reports feed immediately into dashboards and analytics tools, leadership became more informed and confident in making better health and safety decisions more rapidly.

Crucially, automating near-miss reporting empowered our employees by placing safety firmly into their daily workflow. It eliminated the friction of outdated systems, allowing them to contribute easily to a safer workplace. Our once-reluctant team members became active advocates for safety. They took ownership of their roles in keeping themselves and their colleagues safe, leading to fewer near-misses—and critically, fewer actual accidents.

If there’s one positive takeaway I’ve learned from this experience—beyond the value of automation—it’s the power of respectful reflection. Sometimes, we must swallow our pride and take a hard look at our established habits and practices. If a system or mindset doesn’t serve your people positively, have the confidence and humility to improve it. Implementing automation gave us more than just faster reporting—it gave our team a lasting confidence in the value of safety itself.