"The reports are taking me half the time, and the end result is better"
"The reports are taking me half the time, and the end result is better"
How Andy Broomfield at Resolve Safety Solutions halved his report time and got hours back
Andy Broomfield assesses residential blocks and sheltered housing. He used to write up every job from handwritten notes and a Word template. Photos were the worst part.
Customer: Andy Broomfield, Resolve Safety Solutions
Previous set up: Own PAS 79 template in Word
Results: Reports in about half the time, around an hour saved per report, better quality reports
The problem
Andy worked from his own PAS 79 template, a Word document with every box filled in by hand. On site he wrote pen and paper notes and took photos afterwards, from the front door onwards.
The real pain was transferring photos from my phone onto that report. I'd have to email the photos to myself, download them, put them in the report, and try to make them look the same size. That took a lot of time.
Write-up took as long as the site visit itself.
I would spend at least as long writing up as I was on site. Some of the buildings were relatively straightforward, purpose-built blocks of flats, an hour or a couple of hours on site, but it would take me just as long to write up.
What changed
With FireCheckr, most of the write up gets done during the site visit.
With FireCheckr, it's click and it's in there. And I don't need to worry about it. That probably saves me an hour per report.
He takes photos on site and adds a note only when he needs one.
If I want to make a note, I can do a voice note. Sometimes I just add photos. I've got quite good memory, so I'll take a photo, I'll remember what the issue was, but I can add a note if I need to.
Better reports, not just faster ones
Andy says the structure keeps him from missing things, and that he now spends his energy focused on the actual findings of the report rather than editing images or producing the document.
It's forcing me not to miss anything. If you're just going through your own notes, you may have missed something, whereas this prompts you to make sure you've covered everything. It's making me focus on the actual non-compliances and the actions rather than the process of producing the report.
He gave an example from a sheltered housing scheme. A three-storey block doesn't legally need a person-centred fire risk assessment, but the prompts made him think again.
I thought, no, they probably do need one. That prompted a conversation with the manager there. I said, we just need to make sure we formalise that so that if it ever happens, the fire brigade know.
He still adapts the wording to suit each building.
I do sometimes change the language a bit in the report when I'm sat at my desk, but only a few words here and there. It's making me think about it a bit more in terms of the entire fire safety of the building. I just feel the end report is better than I would have done without FireCheckr.
The business impact
Andy's constraint is his own time. Faster reports mean either more assessments in the same week or the same number in fewer hours.
I think the reports are taking me half the time. And the end result is better. It looks more professional, and it feels more professional from a fire safety point of view, not just that it all looks good. I'm happy with the product, happy with the price.
The personal impact
It creates a lot more time. If I was of the ilk, I could manage to do more assessments as well. And I can see that getting better as I get more used to the system.
But as with many risk assessors, Andy's goal is not to expand his business. It's actually to use the extra time in his week for more important things.
I'm going to choose to spend that time with my new granddaughter. She's my first grandchild, so I'm going to choose to spend a bit more time with family.
Before and after
| Before | With FireCheckr | |
|---|---|---|
| Tool | Own PAS 79 Word template | FireCheckr |
| Photos | Emailed to himself, downloaded, resized by hand | Added in the app |
| Write-up | At least as long as the site visit | Around half the time |
| Time saved | n/a | About an hour per report |
| Report quality | Good | More thorough and more professional |
| Capacity | Limited by write-up time | More time for family, or for more assessments |
Spending as long writing up reports as you do on site? See how FireCheckr can give you that time back. Book a demo if you're curious to see what all the fuss is about.
