A worker is injured on the job every seven seconds. On average, companies take 73 days to contain a data breach. Millions of people experience workplace violence every year, with industries such as healthcare, social services and retail at high risk of an incident.

Incident management software (IMS) streamlines the incident resolution process, protecting employees, patients or customers and your organization's financial and reputational well-being.

Download our free eBook for more details about managing incidents with software.

Who Needs Incident Management Software?

A wide range of teams and departments can benefit from incident response case management software. This technology helps track and investigate incidents in:

• Corporate security (e.g. break-ins, data breaches, workplace violence)
• Health and safety (e.g. accidents, injuries, exposure to dangerous substances)
• Loss prevention (e.g. burglary, shoplifting, employee theft)
• Brand protection (e.g. trademark violations, counterfeiting, IP theft)
• Human resources (e.g. harassment, discrimination, corruption)

Read our overview to learn more about how incident management software can help you track incidents, accidents and issues.

How Does Incident Management Software Protect Workplaces?

Better Compliance

When something goes wrong, it can be hard to remember the steps you need to take to comply with laws such as HIPAA and OSHA. Choose incident management software with built-in forms, customized to your organization's needs. You'll reduce your risk of forgetting a form, filling in the wrong form or completing a form incorrectly.

IMS can also reduce your liability. Pick software with a date- and time-stamped log of case activities showing who did what on a case and when. A detailed, sharable timeline can come in handy if you need to prove compliance or are audited or taken to court.

A secure platform with role-based access ensures you comply with data security laws. By limiting what each team member can view, you reduce the risk of sensitive information being exposed to unauthorized users.

Not sure if you're documenting incidents properly? Download our free incident report template to streamline the process.

Risk Management

Monitoring risks is a key part of incident tracking and management. When you uncover your vulnerabilities, you know where to focus your corrective and preventive efforts.

Use IMS with a report-building tool to create graphs, charts and heat maps to identify areas of risk. With one-click, you can conduct trend analysis and connect similar incidents based on criteria you set, such as location and type of incident.

Faster Resolutions

When an incident occurs, there's no time to waste. Choose a web-based, mobile-friendly platform that allows you to open a case anywhere, anytime. You can log incidents right away from off-site locations, as well as add notes and details to the case without waiting to get back to the office. This reduces time spent on administrative tasks so employees can resolve incidents faster.

IMS that keeps incident information in a centralized location boosts efficiency, too. Rather than having to seek out evidence, details and files from various places, everything employees need to work on an incident file is in one place for quick retrieval.

To ensure employees stay on task, choose incident management software with alerts, notifications and reminders. Team members will be reminded when tasks are coming due, ensuring your incident resolutions stay within an acceptable timeline.

In addition to the software's built-in intake mechanism, you may wish to integrate with your existing incident notification system. Whenever someone logs or reports an incident, the software automatically creates a case file. Managers can then assign tasks to team members so you can get to work resolving the incident right away.

RELATED: Workplace Accident Investigations: The Definitive Guide

Better Collaboration

Often, incident response requires multiple teams (e.g. HR, PR, IT, health and safety, etc.) to collaborate. To make it easier, incident management software allows access roles to be set so that team members can log into the case. This allows for easy information sharing and communication whether the employees sit next to each other or work in different countries.

IMS with real-time updates lets employees see what other team members are working on. "Task complete" notifications let employees know the case is ready for the next step, helping the resolution process move faster.

RELATED: What to Look for in an Incident Management System

Incidents require careful, timely and thorough responses. Using incident management software ensures you resolve the incident quickly while staying compliant with laws, and can even boost your preventive efforts.