MOBILE AUDITING – LENDING A HELPING HAND TO YOUR EMPLOYEES

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We all live in a modern era. People generally prefer to use cloud storage and digital technology in their day to day life. Gathering information on paper forms can be simpler compared to the usability and speed of the mobile audit application.

Also, using paper forms may be too complicated and disorganized. It can take a lot of time to search, which may be very frustrating to employees. To make it more efficient and quick, mobile auditing helps in inspection in an organized manner.

 

WHY ONLY MOBILE APPLICATIONS?

Using paper forms to work may be a time-consuming way; instead of that, laptops and desktops can be more efficient. But, there is a higher possibility that you won’t be carrying your laptop or desktop with you every time. Considering that case, a mobile application is built for inspection because mobile phones are portable, and used by almost everyone. A mobile application for auditing and inspection can bring more productivity and minimize the consumable time.

THE BENEFIT OF MOBILE AUDITING

A smartphone can be useful to gather information anywhere and anytime. The following are several points that mention the benefits of mobile inspection and auditing:

  • Easy to Use: Mobile auditing is performed on a mobile application that has user-friendly software.
  • On-Demand Access: Users don’t have to search for data at several places and spreadsheets.
  • Checklists: Preloaded checklists and forms related to marketing and products are available. These templates make it easier for employees to work.
  • Work From the App: Companies can assign tasks to employees and keep track of their actions and progress.
  • Connect the Field to the Office: Since mobile phones are easy to carry anywhere, an employee can update the fieldwork on the mobile application from anywhere at any time.
  • Capture Images: A person can also capture the image of the work’s confirmation.

HOW CAN IT BE HELPFUL IN THE POST-COVID SCENARIOS?

During this pandemic situation, companies may be worried about the safety of employees. Industries such as healthcare, transportation, and food production need inspections and audits in weekly intervals. Mobile auditing application provides various checklists and forms for:

  • Washing and sanitizing workspaces
  • Intake forms (screen clients before entering the site)
  • Safety and hygiene audits
  • Vendor inspection forms

BARE-IFY has hospitality audits for COVID-19, so it allows a company in tracking activities to be 100% sure about a safer workspace. There will be higher possibilities that post-COVID consumers will only buy from brands that are concerned about safety and hygiene.

BARE-IFY – THE BEST FIELD INSPECTION APP

BARE-IFY powered by Pulse Tech is the technology that resolves all the challenges faced by a company in inspecting, auditing, and storing the data. It is a user-friendly platform that your work team can easily access. It has the following benefits:

  • This mobile audit application allows a store or office team to start inspection immediately.
  • It has preloaded checklists. These are necessary for a business (however, it also allows users to customize the checklists). The preloaded checklists contain forms for Covid-19, infrastructure, visual merchandising, marketing, and products.
  • It allows the user to select the industry type such as automobile, retail, medical, banking, etc. It reduces the time complexity. This simply means the work which needs an hour to complete can be easily done within a few minutes.
  • It allows you to assign and track various tasks for your employees. Assigning tasks in just a few clicks can reduce the time, and tracking their activity enhances productivity. BARE-IFY makes the company’s environment more efficient and enjoyable.
  • It allows you to assign major actions to the employees. “The more the actions completed, the more will be the improvement in sales and performance.”
  • It has an advanced dashboard for data analytics.

The features of BARE-IFY that always make it a front runner are:

  • Automation
  • Analytics
  • Action tracking
  • Scale/ Efficiency
  • Accountability

The BARE-IFY mobile audit application should be considered as a replacement for paper forms. It has an effective dashboard that provides accurate information. It maintains the data in an organized way. BARE-IFY is easy to set up, accountable, cost-efficient, and highly configurable. You can customize your forms and dashboard. If your business needs to be more efficient, then BARE can help you to do so.

SAFETY AND SUSTAINABILITY: THE EMERGING PILLARS OF WORK CULTURE

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One of the popular buzzwords quoted in corporate investor meets and annual reports in recent times have been ‘Sustainable’.

Over 93% of CEOs see sustainability as necessary for their company’s future. Sustainability has moved from being just an ‘add-on’ into ‘that’s how we do things here.’ 

 

The same goes with safety; organizations find their financial, social, and environmental risks, obligations, and opportunities better met when focused on safety in workplace culture. So how are these two parameters – safety and sustainability shaping the next-gen workplace cultures? In this post, we dive into this question.

WHAT DOES SUSTAINABLE CULTURE MEAN?

Sustainability and culture are increasingly used interchangeably or together in corporate narrative, despite both words having different connotations.

The World Council on Economic Development perhaps gives the most cited definition of sustainability – practices that “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland, 1987).

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) says: “Sustainable organizations strive to balance the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit to achieve long-term success and viability.”

Hence, a sustainable culture means businesses are managing the ‘triple bottom line.’ This includes making decisions that take financial, social, and environmental risks, obligations, and opportunities into account.

This means, accounting for environmental and social implications in business reporting is not enough. Sustainable businesses produce jobs, healthy ecosystems, and strong communities. Sustainable enterprises thrive in healthy economic, social, and environmental systems.

Companies across the world are aggressively chasing sustainability goals to become carbon neutral, among others. To do that, companies often focus on establishing sustainable cultures in the workplace.

For instance, one of the world’s biggest sports-tech companies, Nike, launched its Reusable Dishwasher Program, encouraging its employees not to buy or bring disposable lunch containers to work. As a result, Nike cut single-use containers (cups and bottles) by 16,000 pounds per quarter, and by the end of the year, trash per employee was down 11.5 percent.

Another notable example of how global companies harness workplace culture to attain sustainable goals is the case of chip-giant Intel. The company reportedly allows compensation to their employees who uphold recycling ethos on campus. As a result, E-waste bins populate the company’s California campus, where employees are encouraged to dispose of their old electronics for recycling. The result? Intel can recycle 75% of its total waste and is reportedly one of the world’s most sustainable-minded corporations.

Safety and Sustainability: Two Sides of a Coin

At their core, safety and sustainability concepts are geared towards the same objective – preserving resources. And when it comes to safety, the resource that is in question is the human workforce. An organization cannot be called sustainable if it does not focus on protecting the health and safety of its employees.

Some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by member countries at the landmark United Nations Summit in 2016 specifically deal with employee health and safety. These goals pertain to protecting labor rights, promoting safe workplace conditions, managing hazardous chemicals, etc.

OSHA has also been instrumental in promoting these guidelines and standards to ensure sustainable practices and reporting to protect the interests of workers.

SAFETY AND SUSTAINABLE CULTURE: HOW CHECKLISTS CAN HELP?

Almost every organization has a number of industry-specific health and safety risks that they need to take care of. Many companies put multiple guidelines and SOPs in place to mitigate and tackle each of these risks. However, it is quite a daunting task for an organization to ensure that these norms are being adhered to across all units.

This is where BARE can help. The BARE-IFY Audit App is an advanced safety compliance and auditing tool is an audit and inspection platform with robust incident reporting mechanisms and super user-centric UI. With our intelligent checklists and state-of-the-art mobile applications, ultra-modern interface, and fast team adoption, you can seamlessly implement and monitor your organization’s safety policies and procedures.

Our pre-created, easy-to-use, and logic-infused checklists make safety and sustainability compliance easier. Through the app, you get a 360-degree view of all your business operations and can take corrective actions against any safety violations in real-time.

The application offers industry-standard safety, which means large organizations’ sensitive and mission-critical data are in safe hands. Pulse also integrates seamlessly with your existing interface and is 100% mobile-ready.

Some stats to support BARE-IFY’s excellence in meeting safety & sustainability goals are:

  • 23% environment impacts reduced
  • 33% sustainable goals boosted
  • 73% risks minimized by fewer incidents
  • 9-hours saved in each inspection

As the quote goes – “Safety does not happen by accident,” to preserve one of the most valuable resources of your organization, i.e., your workforce, additional steps need to be taken. Only then will your organization prove to be sustainable and resilient in the true sense.

IS YOUR RESTAURANT’S PIE OF REPAIR COSTS INCREASING DAY BY DAY?

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Any business has to incur a mix of fixed and variable expenses. If you are running a restaurant business, you will have expenses like salaries and rent that you incur irrespective of the number of open days and customers’ footfall. Expenses on food item purchases, however, would vary on the scale of business. 

 

When it comes to repairs and maintenance, a certain amount of it is expected in any business. Items like your kitchen equipment and air-conditioning will go through regular wear and tear. However, when these expenses occur too frequently, you need to sit up and take notice.

You look into the expense trend, sift out the avoidable ones from the unavoidable ones, and look for ways to avoid them to the extent possible. Here is a coordinated approach that you can adopt to keep your restaurant repair cost within the tolerable limit:

BUDGET AND ANALYSIS

Excessive costs erode a business’s profitability, sometimes to an alarming degree. It is always worthwhile to update budget figures and take stock of the restaurant’s various expenses. Depending on the equipment’s age, warranties available, number of items that need repair, etc. an estimate of the repair costs can be made. A detailed list of all these items should be in place, along with the maintenance requirement against each of them. Some of these items would be under warranty; some covered under maintenance contracts while the rest would need one-time repairs. After that, a regular analysis of the expenses incurred and noticing deviations between budgeted and actual costs ensure prompt identification of unexpected expenses. The expertise of service providers like Pulse comes handy in such workflow management and helps increase the business’s profitability.

MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS

Repairs in a restaurant may be required for kitchen equipment, refrigeration, plumbing, and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment. By entering into maintenance contracts for these items, you can successfully reduce your long-term operating costs. Inking annual maintenance contracts puts various scheduled maintenance in place, which prevents breakdowns and subsequent losses. These contracts help you avoid large expenses that you would otherwise have to incur. In order to manage these contracts, you can use Pulse’s “Track and Assign Actions” feature.

INDUSTRY STANDARDS

As a thumb rule, repairs of 1-3% of the overall budget is considered tolerable. However, depending on your location and industry, you should find out how your peers are doing for repair costs. This acts as a useful benchmark in understanding and budgeting your restaurant expenses. Probing into industry standards will also enlighten you about the restaurant’s best practices that can further streamline your day-to-day operations.

STAFF AWARENESS

It is not practical to remind employees of rising expenses without doing your homework. But with an updated budget in your hand, maintenance contracts in place, and knowledge of the industry, you are better equipped. The next step would be to sensitize your staff about the various practices that can reduce the need for repair. It could be by encouraging simple daily practices like avoiding unnecessary use of equipment, following standard operating procedures (SOP) while using them, and educating them about early warning signs of malfunctioning equipment. Notably, Pulse provides checklist-based inspection processes that can be customized and put in place in your restaurant operations.

OPTIMIZING LAYOUT

In a customer-facing service like a restaurant, the layout is important for various reasons. An attractive layout can woo more customers, improve the ambiance, simplify operations, and minimize expenses. Smart layouts can minimize air-conditioning, reduce the preparation time in the kitchen, and even reduce breakages. A congested layout, on the other hand, generally leads to more cutlery breakages, while a haphazard seating arrangement can increase the consumption of utilities and their wear and tear. Similarly, improving the kitchen set up can reduce the pressure on equipment and the workforce and improve efficiency.

CONCLUSION

With a focused approach towards your restaurant’s repair costs, you can keep better control over your restaurant expenses. And by adopting standardized processes and regularly monitoring and auditing the spending patterns, you can be better prepared to meet your restaurant’s repair and maintenance needs.

The BARE-IFY Audit App is an advanced safety compliance and auditing tool is an audit and inspection platform with robust incident reporting mechanisms and super user-centric UI. By making your company’s incident reporting process more straightforward, you’ll reduce the time your employees spend in reporting incidents and automatically cut back on opportunistic mistakes.

Pulse also offers ready-to-use checklists for multiple industries so that you can stay on the top of your compliance game and reduce the chances of incidents.

THE NOT SO HIDDEN COSTS OF IGNORING QUALITY CONTROL

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All organizations, irrespective of their industry, have a vision. This vision is often fueled by the organizations’ financial position. An effective quality control system ensures  that a company’s financial position is strong and helps it ascend the trajectory of success. This also assists businesses ensure customer satisfaction, build a strong brand image, and improve their processes.

 

If a business is content with its financial position, and is least bothered whether its product will be viable 50 years down the line, then the quality management system in this scenario is redundant. It is rendered useless if the organization does not have an aim to leave a legacy behind, or to create a long-lasting brand.

However, in the scenario where an organization aims to grow its market share, and create an impression on its customers as well as investors, then a quality management system becomes a vital tool in its arsenal. Experts advise that once you are aware of the quality management system, do not spend a day without it. Take advantage of this system to be a step ahead of your competition.

An effective system of quality management has 8 important principles:

  1. Strong leadership
  2. Customer focus
  3. Process approach
  4. Involvement of people
  5. Continuous improvement
  6. System approach
  7. Creating value for suppliers, clients, and the company
  8. Decision-making based on actionable insights

In the absence of a formal quality management system, a majority of the organizations lack most of these key principles or elements. Unless these 8 principles are employed in unison, organizations will not be able to realize the entire benefits of the quality management system. Employing a few of these principles, and ignoring the rest will not assist an organization bring about efficiency in its processes.

RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH IGNORANCE OF QUALITY CONTROL

Here are a few examples of partial engagement of the quality management process, and the risks faced by organizations:

  • The absence of a continuous improvement system hinders the growth of a product, and causes it to lag behind its competitors who continue to improve and enhance the functionality, and quality of their products. An effective quality management system identifies deficiencies in a product, and, at the same time, ensures that the products delivered to customers are defect-free. A continuous improvement system can alleviate the manufacturing costs of an organization by reducing the number of defective products. It can also assist in increasing the production via refinement and continuous analysis of the manufacturing process.
  • The absence of a customer satisfaction system will encourage customers to look out for other options, and organizations which value their needs and requirements. An effective quality management system needs to have a continuously improving customer satisfaction program at its core. An organization that does not value customer satisfaction is liable to lose customers to its competitors who respond positively to the demands of customers.

In today’s hyper-competitive world, the  products that will win the hearts of consumers will be the ones that continuously improve their quality. Such products will continue to garner a larger audience, thus reducing the market share of its competitors.

  • The absence of a document control and management program will hinder the growth of an organization, as it will lack a formal point of initiation. An effective quality management system lays down the requirements of periodic review, approval, and development of procedures that govern the organization’s operations and processes. In the absence of detailed documentation, the workforce has to operate as it deems fit, with a not recognized method of product control, and no accountability.

Employees who leave the organization after working for long terms take vital information with them, which leaves other employees clueless, and the business in jeopardy. Without documentation, it becomes impossible to pinpoint the cause of defects in the processes, thus making it highly difficult to employ corrective actions. This incurs the company extra costs, as they may  have to scrap the entire process anytime.

CONCLUSION

An organization can be affected adversely in the absence of a formal quality management system. It can also prevent a business from attaining new contracts, and collaborating with top-tier companies. An effective quality management system requires the suppliers of a certain business to have a defined quality control system of their own. When companies adhere to the guideline mentioned in the quality management system, they expect their suppliers to comply with the same.