In 2017, it took organizations 66 days on average to fully contain a data breach. Nearly 50 per cent of HR professionals said their company experienced a workplace violence incident at some point in the past. There were nearly three million nonfatal health and safety incidents reported by private industry employers in 2017.

These are all examples of incidents affecting workplaces and all of them must be addressed. A strong process, and an incident management system (IMS) to help, makes it easy to contain, investigate and report on workplace incidents.

Download the free eBook to learn how Case IQ can be used to assess workplace incidents and resolve or escalate issues.

Why Use an Incident Management System?

There are four main goals of any incident management process. The first is to ensure safety. The second is to restore services back to normal as quickly as possible. The third goal is to minimize the adverse effect of an incident on business operations. And the fourth is to do all of this in a standardized, consistent way.

One of the easiest ways to meet all fourth goals is by incorporating an incident management system into your existing procedures. A configurable, adaptable system is an essential part of effective incident management.

Features to Facilitate Communication

Look for a system that facilitates communication and information-sharing. Large-scale incidents can require the help of several employees from several teams. Depending on the incident, the response might require help from human resources, public relations, IT, health and safety and others.

You'll want an incident management system that updates in real-time. Time is of the essence for incident management and instant communication is vital. The IMS should be able to send out alerts, notifications and reminders in real-time to maximize collaboration.

Read the case study to learn how built-in email has helped improved communication for Prairie State College.

Technology to Support Collaboration

To effectively manage an incident, you need access to as much relevant information as possible as quickly as possible. The right IMS will be accessible from anywhere at any time. A tool with a single, shared, searchable database that contains all of the incident data, including evidence and interview notes, is necessary.

The system should also have role-based access. With this feature, employees from any team or department can help respond to and address incidents without compromising confidential or sensitive information.

Documentation to Lessen Liability

The ideal incident management system will automatically create a date- and time-stamped log of all activities that can be exported as a report and shared as necessary.

A complete audit trail showing who did what and when is an important feature to have should you ever be audited, brought to court or asked to prove compliance.

An incident management system with this feature also serves an educational purpose. Detailed activity logs are informative in post-incident reports, highlighting steps that need adjusting or streamlining.

Reports to Identify Risks

The best incident management systems on the market offer one-click summary reports of incidents for improved trend analysis and risk management.

i-Sight (now Case IQ) provides an easy-to-use report builder so you can create flowcharts, line graphs, bar graphs, pie charts, heat maps and many more report types by dragging and dropping the fields onto a report template.

Learn more about Case IQ's features here.

Graphs, charts and other visuals can help you connect similar incidents, identify high-risk areas, prevent future incidents and increase operational efficiency.