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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 frustrating or 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:
- Provide up-to-date checklists
- Plan and schedule effectively
- Include all relevant documentation
- Minimize data entry
Permitting software will facilitate some of these steps. But don’t worry, 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. Rules and regulations change regularly. An accurate checklist ensures that the most updated and relevant information is always at inspectors’ fingertips.
Ensure Compliance. Standards vary between industries. Ensuring local businesses and property owners are in compliance requires a lot of attention to detail.
Help Get New Inspectors Up to Speed. If you have someone new to the job or a particular type of inspection, 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. That way all inspectors have access to the most current information.
- Get feedback from your inspection team on existing checklists. Their on-the-ground insights can help you find 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 An outdated checklist can lead to missed compliance issues—which in turn can lead to lost revenue for businesses.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 Community Development makes it easy to create, edit, and duplicate checklists for all the inspections 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 and paperwork 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. Don’t love that idea? You can allow them to pick a window for their inspection, and inspectors can 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.
Include Buffer Time. Inspectors can run into delays like traffic or an inspection that’s more complex than expected. Adding an extra 15-45 minutes helps maintain the overall schedule with fewer disruptions.
Pre-Plan Inspection Routes. Inspectors can use our integration with mapping platforms to plan their routes for the day and minimize drive time.
Cut Back on Trips to the Office. If your inspectors start and end their day at the office, consider whether you can eliminate one of those trips. 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 may find that inspectors only need to come to the office once or twice a week!
3. Include All Relevant Documentation
Quick access to case files, documentation, and fee information makes inspectors more efficient.
It’s helpful for them 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. This helps when protecting groundwater and other resources. Inspectors can quickly refer to marked-up plans to make inspections more efficient.
Does that mean printing all that documentation for each inspector, for each property? That’s a lot of paper, and it’s not always practical for large-format plans and drawings.
Ideally, inspectors can access the information digitally from the field. They can do this 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 MCCi 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 excess 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 drop-down menus, checkboxes, and auto-complete options. That 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
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!