Reinforced regulation and best practice in management systems require a systematic approach to incident reporting and handling. But there are a few obstacles to overcome.
How to get people to report incidents? What is the reward? How to get a person to report his/her own mistake? Organizational culture is an important part to consider.
What is the purpose of incident reporting? Clearly there are requirements from regulation, but it is also important statistics for decision making. Which areas do we want to cover?
In many organizations there are several incident reporting systems: for example one system for personnel injuries and accidents, one system handling IT-incidents and a separate system for insurance related incidents. It is important to merge all these types together to get the full picture.
It is important to identify the different types of incidents that are needed. One reason is for statistics, another is for assigning responsible handler to the incident and the follow up content.
Incidents interconnected to crisis management
An important connection is to crisis management that often is handled in a separate organizational silo. After all, a crisis is an incident as well, maybe small from the beginning and then escalating to a crisis situation. Consequently incident management and crisis management should be integrated. And one step further - what if the incident already was identified in risk management and plans are in place to reduce the effects? Is it not all integrated?
Consider the following:
A risk scenario has been identified showing that a fire in the warehouse would cause a total cost of €10 million. [Risk assessment]
To reduce the risk of this happening mitigating actions have been implemented such as fire alarm, sprinkler system and smoke detectors in addition to the insurance. [Risk management]
A Business Continuity Plan has been produced how to source products if the warehouse is burned down. [Business Continuity Management]
Now different events emerge: - The insurance company conducts an inspection and finds non-conformities that must be taken care of (Sprinkler system not tested, Fire door did not open etc.) If not fixed within three months the insurance will not apply. [Loss prevention and event management] - Several incidents are reported categorized as "disturbance". Someone has smoked in the restrooms, three false fire alarms, a truck had battery problem and triggered the smoke detector. [Incident reporting and handling] - Big fire. A fire has started in the restrooms and 30% of the warehouse is destroyed. The fire is first classified as "major problem" but is upgraded to crisis when the fire brigade decides to close the entire warehouse for 5 weeks due to contamination. [Incident type "major", Crisis management]
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