No More Admin! Well Almost... Our NEW Audit Feature!
Andrew Tollinton
Business resilience technology to manage threats and disruption to your business
Around one third of a security manager’s job is spent on admin and no one likes admin. It’s unrewarding, boring and nearly always important. Moreover, having poor admin hinders job advancement and can seriously impact a business. Could security audit software help with admin?
Admin includes large amounts of repeatable tasks, each of which need to be seen through to a conclusion.
Common examples of security admin include:
- Welfare visits
- CCTV audits
- Site security audits
Frequently, these require a follow-up. In other words, after the audit you must do something or someone else must do something, an ‘action’ arises. Keeping track of these actions make admin a real headache.
Solution
Our security audit software is a pill to ease a security manager’s admin pain. It provides:
- Responsibility for tasks
- Deadlines for tasks
- Follow-ups and chase-ups
“It has halved the time I spend on Admin!”
Security Audit Software: How it works
- Using the SIRV web browser or mobile app, you create a task for an assignee, called an ‘Action’.
- As a result, the assignee receives an email notifying them an Action has been assigned to them and inviting them to review it through a web page.
- The web page displays details about the Action. In addition, it shows any accompanying media and its deadline.
- As the deadline for the Action approaches the assignee receives follow-up emails prompting them to address the Action and classify it as ‘Complete’.
- Finally, upon completion, you receive an email notification asking you to review and sign-off the Action as ‘Closed’.
And yes, you can assign an Action to yourself, just like a reminder.
Tutorial: Using Actions
Below is a full tutorial on our security audit software Actions feature. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more.
Key:
- Assigner is the person who assigns an Action to an
- Assignee is the person responsible for resolving an Action
SIRV has many features, here we concentrate on the security audit software feature: ‘Actions’.
An Action is an attribute of a form. It’s worth adding to a form if you think any audit item may require a follow-up. For example, a health safety injury form will require information such as date, time and location of injury. It may ask if the injured person was sent to hospital: Yes or No.
If the answer is Yes, it may be necessary to complete a RIDDOR form, this is a follow-up action. In an effort to remind you or someone else that a RIDDOR form must be completed you assign an Action, for example ‘Complete RIDDOR form’. The Action must be assigned to either yourself or someone else and a date given for its completion.
The assigner can include lots of information about the Action, such as:
- Text
- Images
- Video
- Sketch
- Location
Four Steps to Creating an Action
(1)
Add the Action attribute to a form and assign it a contact list. The contact list should include all the possible assignee’s email addresses. (Contact lists can consist of both users and non users of SIRV, classified as Contacts).
(2)
After the form is built, open it using the SIRV web or mobile app and select ‘Yes’.
(3)
Add detail to the action using the different attributes available, then select ‘Save Section’.
(4)
After the Action is saved you need to assign it to someone from the contact list and give it a deadline date.
What Happens Next: Open Actions
Less than 20 minutes after the form is created the assignee receives an email informing them an Action has been assigned to them. The email gives them summary information about the Action:
- Description
- Due date
- Creation time and date
- Unique ID
When the assignee clicks on the web link it takes them to a login screen. If they have not received an Action from SIRV before they will automatically be sent login details.
If you assign an Action to yourself you will not receive an email. You review your Actions by going to: Advanced> Search My Actions.
The name ‘Third Party’ appears on the login screen. In addition, there’s an option to reset your password. The username is the email address to which the Action was sent. The password is randomly generated by SIRV.
After the Assignee has entered their login details they are presented with a search screen. As a result, the assignee can search all Actions or limit their search.
The search result provides a list of Actions. By selecting one of the Actions the assignee will be presented with an overview of the Action and have the following options.
Assignee’s Options
(1)
Add information about the action for example, the activity taken to remedy the Action.
(2)
View additional information about the Action for example, images, video, sketch etc.
(3)
View the audit’s overview information. This may include more information about the assigner.
(4)
After the assignee has taken the required Action they should change the status of the Action from Open to Complete.
Completed Actions
After an assignee changes an Action from Open to Complete the assigner receives an email notification.
The assigner reviews the Action by logging into the SIRV website and selecting Advanced>Search Actions. The assigner has two options to change the status of the Action from:
- Complete to Closed (if satisfied task is complete)
- Complete to Open
If the assigner changes the status of an Action from Complete to Open they are not satisfied the Action is complete. In this case the assignee receives another email notification. The email states:
“One or more Calls to Action from XXX that are assigned to you have been reopened.”
If the Action is changed from Complete to Open the assigner should add comments explaining their reasoning.
Reviewing Actions
There are two ways to review overdue actions you have set:
- Firstly, on the day an Action becomes overdue you will receive an email.
- Secondly, you can login to SIRV and select: Search Actions> Open Actions.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you’re looking to reduce your security manager’s workload our security audit software may be for you. Some users report it saves them as much as 50% of their admin time. If you would like a free trial get in touch.