BeSMART.ie - Business electronic Safety Management And Risk Assessment Tool

• Over 86,000 businesses and users who have registered or completed a safety statement / risk assessment for their business
• Over 1.44m individual hazard risk assessments completed

(Figures March 2022)

BeSMART.ie is a easy to use resource that consists of four simple steps

1. Choose your business type
2. Work through the hazard assessments that will populate automatically and which are tailored to the users business type
3. Consult with your employees
4. Manage your completed risk assessments, edit, share and complete action items

Our main goals that we would like to see our customers achieve from the use of BeSMART.ie are;

• A reduction in accidents
• A reduction in administrative burden for business
• To simplify understanding of the health and safety requirements
• To empower business owners and their employees to manage health and safety effectively
• To enable business owners to comply with the legislative requirements
• To reduce the financial cost of creating a safety statement and risk assessment

How to Use BeSMART.ie

‘BeSMART.ie’ (Business electronic Safety Management And Risk assessment Tool) is a free on-line resource that empowers small businesses to prepare both written risk assessments and safety statements which are tailored specifically to their workplaces.

BeSMART.ie Design

Design

We completed the last minor update of the site in 2019 and we have updated the look of the website to include responsive design for use on portable devices while keeping the same easy to use four step process while also simplifying the registration process.

•We added construction and agribusiness to the BeSMART.ie platform in 2015

•Currently there are 330 business types on BeSMART.ie along with over 522 risk assessments covering the following sectors;

• Other Business - 258 business types covering the following sectors e.g. hospitality, healthcare, transport, retail, manufacturing
• Construction - 39 business types e.g general builder, blocklayer, plumber, solar panel installation, painter, scaffolding. Users will also be able to develop a Construction Stage Health and Safety Plan from a template which is available if they are appointed as a Project Supervisor Construction Stage (PSCS)
• Agribusiness - 33 business types e.g. agricultural contractors, pig farming, stud farming, farrier

Safety Statements

Under Irish legisltation all businesses including the self-employed must have a Safety Statement for their business. Safety Statement templates have been developed for;

• Small Business / Agribusiness
• Construction

You can download the Safety Statement including your risk assessments for your business type in both RTF (Rich Text Format) or PDF. If you want to edit the document we recommend using the RTF option.

Risk Assessments

Registered users will now be able to;

• Edit new risk assessments
• Where risk assessments have been updated by us you will get a note in your My BeSMART saying that hazards have been updated since you were last here, thereby ensuring that you are kept up to date with any changes
• Rename risk assessments
• Add in an extra control or further information in relation to a hazard
• Hover text will print with the controls so all relevant information will be available in your Safety Statement
• You will be able to work and edit more than one risk assessment at a time
• The entire hazard database from all sectors is available in the My BeSMART Management Screen. Here you can view hazards by sector or print and include in your safety statement
• Controls which you said were not applicable and the reason why will be recorded and the information available in the My BeSMART Management Screen
• Hyperlinks and pictures can now be included in risk assessment control information

Consultation

Step 3 is a very important step in the BeSMART.ie process. It is critical that employees are involved in the risk assessment process and that they are consulted on all matters relating to health, safety and welfare in the workplace. To emphasis the importance of this step we have developed a short animated video to help users understand the importance of this step

Step 3 Consultation

Social Media

Links have been provided to the Health and Safety Authority's main social media channels on the homepage

• YouTube
• Facebook
• Twitter

HSALearning.ie

The Health and Safety Authority has developed a range of online e-learning course that covers many sectors and hazards in workplace. We have produced some e-Learning courses for business owners which are free and easy to access.

Courses which have been developed include;

• Business Start Up
• Chemicals
• Asbestos Awareness
• Construction
• Transport
• Education

Website: hsalearning.ie

‘BeSMART.ie’ is easy to use 4 step process.

1. Select your business type
2. Risk assessment. Based on the business selection, hazards applicable to that particular business type will pre-populate. The user must simply answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to controls that populate with the hazards which are specific to their business type.
3. Consult with your employees on hazards that may affect them.
4. Complete. The system will also develop an action list where ‘no’ was said to any of the controls with the option to assign a person and date to close out an action. On completion of the process the user is able to download an editable output document in RTF or PDF that is tailored specifically to their needs in that it contains a Safety Statement and risk assessments which are specific and unique to the particular business type.

Effective safety management is known to reduce accidents: it’s estimated that 15,000 workplace injuries occur per annum in the Republic of Ireland in small business where > 1 employed. Employers cost per workplace injury in manufacturing is estimated at €9,000; in retail it is estimated at approximately € 3,000.

The benefits of using ‘BeSMART.ie’ are to:

• Reduce Administration Burden – for the initial target group including retail, hospitality, services and manufacturing with approx. 140,000 businesses employing less than 50, it is estimated that the administrative burden is €156m. An average of 65% of businesses within these sectors have not undertaken risk assessments or prepared safety statements. It is estimated use of ‘BeSMART.ie’ can potentially save these sectors €67m.
• Increase Guidance & Support for employers in the small business sector
• Simplify Management of Health & Safety
• Improve staff morale & motivation
• Raise safety standards thereby reducing absenteeism, downtime and repair costs etc.
• Reducing costs to business
• Protect workers and business viability
• Reduce the time required for employers to prepare their risk assessments and safety statement
• Eliminate the perception that many employers have that health and safety is time consuming, onerous, costly and outside of their competence
• Increasing compliance levels of small business as owners are empowered to take control and take more responsibility for day-to-day safety management.

• Members of the Health and Safety Authority’s Workplace Contact Unit deal with BeSMART.ie telephone and email queries from our customers. They advise on the business types available and collate information on additional business types being requested for inclusion in BeSMART.ie along with other general queries on how to use the system.
• Learn More section within BeSMART.ie which provides specific sectorial information and videos.
• Health & Safety Authority Website provides much more detailed information for users of BeSMART.ie
• Health and Safety Authority e-learning website