Work to Permit Systems: Opportunities & Challenges

Industrial work sites are risky places with numerous hazards, such as sparks from welding, energised electrical conductors, corrosive chemicals, loose valves and so forth. Oftentimes, seemingly trivial incidents can turn into major accidents if not addressed properly on time.

These hazardous situations pose critical risks to the health and safety of the environment, assets and workers involved. This is where Permit to Work systems comes in, serving as a crucial element of the all-inclusive Control of Work strategy for any business. It helps identify, mitigate, communicate and manage hazards in risky areas, nonstandard circumstances and possibly hazardous situations, like shutdowns, to prevent accidents.

Permit to Work system is critical to the safety of employees, especially frontline workers. It restricts the effect of human errors, which ensures there are no unanticipated on-site hazards and helps manage risks across the whole site, ultimately creating barriers to prevent hazards, such as welding sparks near flammable items.

What is Permit to Work?

A permit to work is basically a document that details the work to be done, hazards involved, precautions to be taken, any requisite authorizations, and other relevant information, specific to the job or project.

It is a record in writing, which authorises a particular work at a particular site, for a particular time. It is used to ensure that critical safety information is defined, communicated and well understood by individuals involved. A great example of the kind of task requiring permits is confined space entry. 

Key Features of a Good Permit to Work System

A good permit to work system should be comprehensive enough to be used in virtually all sectors, including: 

• Construction

• Commercial Premises

• Airports

• Data Centres

• Industrial sites

• Military & Defence Estates

• Pharmaceuticals

• Transportation

• Public and Private Health Sectors

Good work to permit system should have the following features:

• Cloud-based

• Accessible by anyone with a user account and internet connectivity

• Easy to submit and approve method statements and risk assessments

• Easy to apply for permits ahead of work to lower the need for excess duplication 

• Simple to review and approve permits

• Easy to review and approve permits, directly to the user’s inbox

• Real-time reporting via a simple and intuitive dashboard

• Complete technical and operational backup

• Reporting functionality

• Live chat

Main Objectives of a Permit to Work System

Initially, permit to work systems arose from risky industries as a best practice to manage hazardous activities like hot jobs or confined space entry. The system is designed to ensure that risks are determined for every activity and the authorisation process offers a way to coordinate the activities in order to avert risks associated with simultaneous operations. With a permit to work systems, companies aim to meet the following objectives:

• Develop a process to handle hazardous tasks safely.

• Develop a process that involves risk assessment, permit coordination and hazardous energy isolations (tagout/lockout).

• Ensure work is defined and risk is assessed.

• Get real-time clarity to coordinate activities.

• Get data for investigative work and optimise processes.

Opportunities and Challenges Specific to Permit to Work Systems

Organisations that deploy electronic permit to work systems must ensure that the process does not end up being just another back-office activity, which companies often establish and forget. Safety managers not just experience the challenge of bringing continuous improvements to workplace safety, but they also need to ensure that they don’t underestimate operational efficiency. It is for this reason, environmental health and safety (EHS) managers should use safe systems of work templates, and seek intelligent and simple solutions to often complex problems.

A wonderful aspect of such challenges is that they themselves give rise to opportunities – the opportunity is to improve the processes for people directly involved in these processes and who are using permits, through solutions that empower these professionals.