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The daily life of an environmental compliance inspector can be chaotic: making a dozen phone calls to schedule and reschedule inspections, navigating through piles of paperwork, trying to remember the long list of all the standards and ordinances that apply to the business and facilities you inspect… Not to mention the pressure of knowing that people’s safety depends on getting every detail right.
Your inspectors are making a difference in your community’s health and wellness—don’t let inefficient processes make their jobs harder than they need to be.
In this blog, we’ll share four steps you can take to make inspections easier so you can boost morale and maximize productivity:
- Provide Up-to-Date Checklists
- Plan and Schedule Effectively
- Include All Relevant Documentation
- Minimize Data Entry
While permitting software will facilitate some of these steps, there are plenty of things you can do for your inspectors today, even if you’re not ready to invest in software.
1. Provide Up-to-Date Checklists
Inspectors need to have an up-to-date checklist for every type of inspection that they’re responsible for. Checklists help to:
Keep Track of Updates. While inspectors need to be educated about ordinances and standards, providing an accurate checklist ensures that the most updated and relevant information is always at their fingertips.
Ensure Compliance. Standards vary between industries and are always being updated. Ensuring local businesses and property owners are in compliance requires detail and consistent communication.
Help Get New Inspectors Up to Speed. If you have someone new to the job or a particular type of inspection, having a standard checklist helps them to hit the ground running faster.
Best Practices for Checklists
- Use digital platforms to manage and distribute checklists. Digital checklists can be easily updated and shared so all inspectors have access to the most current information.
- Gather feedback from your inspection team on existing checklists. Their on-the-ground insights can help identify gaps and areas for improvement.
- Regularly review and update checklists to reflect the latest codes and regulations. An outdated checklist can lead to missed compliance issues—which in turn can lead to lost revenue for businesses.
- MCCi Permitting makes it easy to create, edit, and duplicate checklists for all the functions your department is responsible for. Once checklists are created, inspectors can use them in the field from their mobile devices.
2. Plan and Schedule Effectively
An environmental compliance inspector’s day often starts by driving to the office to pick up a list of inspections for the day, then zigzagging across their jurisdiction for inspections, and finally driving back to the office to type up notes. Effective planning and scheduling can make inspectors more efficient.
Use Scheduling Tools. With our calendar integration, businesses or individuals can schedule inspections directly onto the inspector’s calendar. Alternatively, you can allow them to pick a window for their inspection, and have inspectors plan the exact schedule. For unannounced visits like food safety inspections, the back office or the inspector can schedule without sending an alert to the business.
Incorporate Buffer Time. Inspectors can run into delays like traffic or an inspection that’s more complex than expected. Planning for the unexpected helps maintain the overall schedule without significant disruptions.
Pre-Plan Inspection Routes. Our integration with mapping platforms enables inspectors to easily map their route for the day and visualize what will require the least amount of driving.
Minimize Trips to the Office. If your inspectors currently start and end their day at the office, consider whether you can eliminate one of those trips. For instance, could inspectors type up the previous day’s notes first thing in the morning instead of at the end of each day? Better yet, digitize their schedule so they don’t have to come in the morning, and allow them to add notes digitally from the field to cut out the evening trip. You will find that inspectors need only come to the office once or twice a week!
3. Include All Relevant Documentation
Immediate access to all relevant documentation and current status on open cases and fees is critical to efficiency and a thriving business community.
It’s helpful for inspectors to have access to the following at the inspection location:
Previous Inspections. Has the business been inspected before, and if so, what were the results? This helps the inspector to identify recurring issues or track improvements. If it’s a re-inspection, inspectors can save time by focusing only on the areas that caused it to fail before.
Land Use Documentation. Provide a visual reference that helps inspectors understand the layout and specific areas of interest or concern when it comes to protecting groundwater and other essential resources. Inspectors can quickly refer to marked-up plans to make inspections more efficient.
But it’s not always practical to print out that information and give inspectors a physical copy for each business or property they’ll visit that day. Ideally, inspectors can access the information in a digital format from the field. This can be done with an enterprise content management (ECM) system like Laserfiche. It’s best if there’s an integration between the ECM and other inspection tools to minimize time spent switching between applications. Inspectors can view the entire history of a property from the GovBuilt app, thanks to its integration with Laserfiche or other systems.
4. Minimize Data Entry
When inspectors have to return to the office to type up their notes for the day, it effectively doubles the amount of time spent on paperwork. This excessive manual data entry can lead to errors, delays, and burnout. Plus, it means inspectors can perform fewer inspections in a day.
That’s why you need:
Data Entry from the Field. Use mobile apps and inspection software that allow inspectors to input data directly into digital forms. Our online forms come with features like drop-down menus, checkboxes, and auto-complete options, which means less typing and overall easier data entry.
Integration with Other Platforms. Integrate inspection and permitting software with other systems used in your department. That way, data only needs to be entered once and it’s automatically populated across all relevant platforms.
Next Steps
To learn more about how MCCi’s environmental health solution creates a more efficient, compliant, and satisfying work environment for your inspectors and other staff members, fill out the form below!