If an accident has happened once, it can happen again

The IA system is a web-based system for information about the working environment and also one of Afa Insurance’s preventive areas of activity. The story began back in 1994. A new agreement was reached between the parties in the paper and pulp industry.Issues regarding the working environment were discussed, and the need for a more complete picture of the working environment and its challenges was needed, beyond just the information obtained through one’s own company.

“We compete with price, quality, and delivery times. Let us not compete with working environement” was the parties consensus, Lars-Gunnar Lindberg reports.

The system was completed in 1997, and other industries quickly became interested. In the early 2000s, the steel and metal industry, mining industry, and sawmill industry were added. Today, the IA system is present in over 40 different industries. It is available in over 40 different languages and is used by more than 6 000 different organizations with a total of about 1.8 million employees in Sweden alone. Over the years, approximately 16 million incidents have been registered in the system.

The IA system is primarily developed to manage deviations in the workplace environment. However, the product is not limited to that. It can be used to manage deviations in a variety of areas such as quality, environment, property, and safety, as well as to capture improvement suggestions within the organization.

The process in the system is simple:

• An event occurs or a risk is observed in the workplace.
• All employees can report events through a joint account or via the IA app.
• The responsible person and the safety representative receive an email notifying them that an event has occurred. The event appears on the responsible person’s To-Do list.
• The responsible person completes and confirms the event and appoints an investigator, who receives information via email about their responsibilities and when the investigation should be completed.
• The investigator finds out why the event occurred and may perform a risk assessment.
• The responsible person decides on actions and determines who will be responsible for implementing those actions.
• The user company determines when it is time to conduct the follow-up. At that point, it is verified that the measures taken have had the desired effect.
• When the follow-up is marked as complete, the status of the event is set to Completed.

Incidents can be reported via computer or tablet, as well as the IA app. Information about what has occurred and what actions have been taken then becomes available to all companies within the same industry. Of course, information about the person in question and which company within the industry are excluded. In this way, similar incidents can be avoided in other organizations, and anywhere within the original organization!

A new feature this year is that companies can report positive observations. This is about making things visible that works well in the workplace. A positive observation can be, for example, a working method that facilitates for colleagues, a solution that prevents accidents, or something in the work environment that increases comfort and security. A positive development is also that 40% of the logged incidents are proactive, meaning that a risk has been observed and measures taken before anything serious occurs. ●

Completely in line with the original idea of the system!

More information in english is available here:
IA-systemet