News
How to beat the "Sunday Scaries" with Re-flow
With Halloween fast approaching, we want to turn our attention away from the ghosts and ghouls that dominate this spooky season and focus on a very real fear many professionals face – the “Sunday Scaries”.
The “Sunday Scaries”, also referred to as the “Sunday Blues” is the phenomenon of routinely experiencing feelings of intense anxiety and dread before closing out the weekend and returning to work for the week. There can be many factors that bring about these anxieties – increasing workloads, struggling to retain or tender new contracts, growing material prices or concerns about on-site incidents.
New research commissioned by The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) found that 67% of Britons experience some form of anxiety on a Sunday. Many cope with this by turning to distractions, such as social media, binge-watching TV or comfort eating, which can further exacerbate feelings of anxiety in the long-term. Professionals working in field-based industries such as highways, construction, rail or landscaping may be especially affected by such concerns, having to keep track of numerous operational processes as part of their role. This can include scheduling works, ensuring HSE compliance is met and tracking masses of plant, vehicles and equipment.
Countering the “Sunday Scaries” often involves a multi-pronged approach. At home, building sustainable and healthy habits can go a long way – engaging your mind with a hobby or project, staying active with regular exercise and ensuring you get the right amount of good quality sleep can help you feel more fulfilled and ready to start the week on the right foot.
In the workplace, finding an appropriate framework to streamline tedious administrative tasks and automate operational processes can go a long way in reducing workloads and allowing management staff to become more informed and reactive with high-quality, live data. Re-flow’s field management software is poised to tackle these issues, coming equipped with a full set of powerful features that can keep field managers confident and in control.
Scheduling
A common issue we hear about from users switching from traditional paper systems is the concern of operatives arriving on site on a Monday morning and wasting precious time waiting around for instructions while job packs are being manually delivered. Manpower and time aside, this process is at the whims of many external factors. Forms could get misplaced, transportation could encounter delays, important information could be missing – just to name a few.
With Re-flow, dashboard users can create jobs equipped with all relevant information – site drawings, plans, photos and more. Once created, tasks and events can be scheduled against a job far in advance, and common events such as site visits can be automatically scheduled on a recurring basis. Users can then assign individual users or entire groups. If an operative lacks the appropriate qualifications, lacks availability or has exceeded their fatigue limit, conflicts will be triggered, ensuring the correct operatives are always on site.
Rather than worrying about the amount of time that’ll be wasted as workers wait for their instructions to start off the week, remote teams can simply access all relevant tasks and information directly through the Re-flow app. With a digital knowledge base and all necessary forms, the office no longer needs to worry about the logistics of transporting documents, and works can proceed accurately and efficiently.
Health and Safety
Ensuring health and safety compliance is one of the most important parts of leading a successful field-based business. Unlike other things, however, oversights don’t just come at a cost to the business, they come at a cost to individual operatives.
Reading news stories about companies getting fined hundreds of thousands for skimming on their HSE management and causing irreversible injury to their workers isn’t a rarity in the industries we serve, and they’re certain to make even the most meticulous field manager question if they’ve dotted all their i’s and crossed all their t’s.
Keeping robust audit trails and ensuring correct form completion when dealing with a paper system can be an arduous task. Forms can get lost, damaged or completed incorrectly, creating even more work on top the mountain of tasks field managers have to get through on a daily basis. Going into another work week uncertain of the workload ahead, constantly worried about whether corners are being cut on site is bound to lead to burnout and anxiety.
Re-flow’s powerful features allow users to master their HSE management with digital forms, strictly enforced compliance, robust audit trails and automated workflows. With a catalogue of over 40 out the box, users can customise existing forms or build new ones from scratch, all to regulatory standards. With mandatory fields and drop-downs, there’s no room for confusion, and all forms come equipped with a unique digital signature that tracks time, date and location – automatically building audit trails alongside form submission. As forms are instantly submitted to the office, data can trigger automated workflows. For example, when submitting a vehicle check and noting a defect, the status of the vehicle will automatically update within Re-flow’s records and a maintenance reminder will be scheduled while notifying all relevant parties.
Planning Ahead
Businesses across all the industries we serve face numerous challenges – rising material costs and wages, a shortage of tradespeople, and growing expectations for faster project turnaround. Shrinking margins and tightening deadlines are yet another concern for many field managers.
Re-flow operates on instant, real-time data. Everything on the system – job updates, forms, messages and more, benefit from instant communication between the app in the field and the dashboard at the office. The system’s customisability – the form builder in particular – enables businesses to harvest very specific data and quickly generate exportable PDF reports. These can then be exported and shared with colleagues, stakeholders, and clients. The easy collection and collation of real-time data and customisable KPIs gives businesses more breathing room to identify the challenges and opportunities ahead for their business.
Over 200 business nationwide, including M.V. Kelly, Colas and FM Conway are using Re-flow to gain peace of mind by streamlining tedious administrative tasks, mastering their HSE management and having the flexibility to tender and retain bigger contracts with specific requirements.
