Incident Report Templates - What Are They and How to Do It?
What Are Incident Report Templates?
Incident reporting is an action practiced at workspaces and workstations in order to inform about any kind of equipment damage, illness, or injury that was or could have been caused by any event while working. Thinking of that, tons of templates are available online, helping the workers and the manager do it as quickly as possible.
This kind of document must be filled in when the incident occurs. That being done, there are higher chances of it becoming an effective incident report. It is also important to remember that any kind of incident must be reported, no matter the size or nature of it.
It is also essential to know that there are dozens of incident report template kinds, suiting every situation you might find at your workspace. From fire problems to IT incidents, every report document has its particular characteristics making it as accurate and efficient as possible.
Source: eForms
Why Do I Need an Incident Report Form?
Companies use this document so that when investigating the reports, they will be able to create new rules or establish new solutions in order to prevent these accidents from happening again. Normally these workplace incidents can be easily countered by new measures, being a really helpful tool to also keep a record of information like the place where it happened and the people involved.
Another reason why people should use incident report templates is to help with filing insurance claims and also to keep the doctors aware so they can indicate the best medical treatment based on the situation and injuries sustained. With this, you also have key details of what happened and the document can be used as evidence in court cases for further investigations.
Safety is never enough, no matter what function the employee serves. Unfortunate events can happen anywhere and it is always important to keep a record to report them to the responsible authorities and seek the best solution to, not just solve the problem, but also to prevent it from happening again.
Source: Venngage
What Are the Most Important Questions When Creating an Incident Report Template?
When filling out this type of document, the person involved must register everything that happened as clearly and accurately as possible. Every detail is crucial so you can identify the reason why the incident occurred and the best way to avoid it happening again. This guarantees the safety of all the people at the workstation.
With this in mind, when you create a template for incident reporting, you must give the witnesses involved space to write all the important information. There are some details that must be included on your incident report form, in order to make it helpful and make it easier to identify the problem:
The Persons Involved Credentials:
It is really important that the first thing on your incident report form is the space for the persons involved to identify themselves. The reason for this being so important is because the company can keep track of which functions are involved in most incidents and also to what supervisor they should instruct the new measures for the safety of the workspace.
This is also crucial when using this incident report form for legal purposes like insurance claims and court cases. With proper identification of the individuals involved, the document also has more credibility when used for those occasions.
Another reason for the identification of the victim is that the company or responsible for the analysis can look up the person if more information is needed. With the credentials properly filled, collecting those kinds of data can be optimized.
Date and Time
Source: Pager Duty
The date of the accident is one of the most important things when doing incident reports. This topic, when analyzed by the company, will show you at what time of the day the incidents are more common. Not just that but it can also report any raise or decrease in the reporting frequency.
When a raise on the incident reports happens, the company must quickly investigate it to get to the root of the problem and solve what is causing the explosion of events. Those reasons make the need for an exact date almost indispensable.
Description of the Incident
Another indispensable item when creating an incident report template. Here the employee will be able to describe, with as many details as possible, everything that happened. Those reports are normally done in a first-person narrative.
This is the most important part of the incident reporting process because it’ll help the company and the coworkers at the working station understand what really happened. Not just that but it will also help the supervisor or any other person responsible for the security of the employees to understand how to solve the problem and guarantee that this won't happen again.
Describing the incident and giving additional information will also be indispensable when seeking the right medical treatment and understanding why that kind of incident occurs. The more detailed the description is, the more useful for both parties involved it will be.
Authorities Notification
Source: Safesite
Depending on the injuries and the property damage involved, authorities might be notified and called to the location of the accident. It is important to keep a register of what cases got a third party involvement in your incident reports.
This register on your report can indicate the severity of the event and also be considered an important record for any police investigation on the scene. One incident report example where this might occur is attempted theft at the workplace.
Incident Causes and Recommendations
This might be the most important step of the incident report template. Here the employee will describe what caused the incident, being as straight to the point as possible. This will be the starting point of the investigation on how to solve that problem and prevent future accidents.
When doing the incident reports and filling the incident cause, the employee can also write recommendations on how to prevent the events from happening again. Writing details of what can be done to prevent an accident from happening again will be really helpful when building the action plan to prevent it from happening again.
Incident Reports Receiver
No matter if it’s an employee incident report template or any other kind, it is important to keep a record of who received the report. This information will help keep a note of who is receiving the forms.
One of the main reasons of its importance is that it points out who to look for when analyzing the data presented in the documents. The person who received it can also be sought after in order to talk about missing information on the incident reports.
Tips on How to Template Incident Report Documents
Source: Venngage
When creating your incident report template, there are tons of options available. It is also important to know that there are many different types of incident report documents, each one with its own particularities.
Know the Purpose of Your Incident Report Template
The reason why there are so many kinds of templates available is so the incident reports can be done with an emphasis on the cause of it, helping to identify the problem. Some of the most common incident report forms are:
- Employee Incident Report Template
- IT Incident Report Template
- Fire Incident Report Template
- Vehicle Incident Report Template
- Workplace Incident Report Template
Source: Template.net
With this in mind, when trying to template incident report forms, you’ll have to think about what are the most important details and questions that need to be reported. Having a template that accurately gives you the information that you need to keep a record of will help the company, not just save time, but also optimize the creation of measures.
Follow the Company Branding and Visual ID
Source: Venngage
There are some things that will help your template to look better and more informative, no matter if it’s an employee incident report template, an IT incident report template, or any other kind. When you create an incident report template, it’s good to keep the company’s visual ID. This way, your report not just looks better, but also shows professionalism. This can be done with a simple header matching the company’s color scheme or even with a sidebar.
Color Code Your Sections
Creating a color palette for the different sections of your incident report template is not mandatory, but it’ll help the document to be more pleasant to fill. Also, when doing this, you can highlight the more important details.
This way, your form is more optimized for the company to use as a tool for investigations on how to make the workspace safer. In addition to this, being a more pleasant form helps to encourage the employee to fill in all the information.
The more comfortable they feel filling out the document, the higher the rate of people disposing of their time to do this task. Low rates of people answering the incident reports might end up not indicating the company’s problems and also won’t give you the accurate information you may need for the investigation.
Display of Information
It is also very important to have an organized information hierarchy when creating an incident report template. This will help to identify the most important details when analyzing the collected data.
The more organized the information in the report, the better for the person responsible for the investigation. Optimizing report tasks will prevent injuries or even future property damage. When you highlight the more important information, you are also showing the employees what pieces of information really matter for the investigation.
Be Objective
This is a tip for both the creator of the incident report template and who is filling it up. Try to be as objective as possible, without giving space to ambiguous questions.
When you do this, there is a lower chance of the information being misinterpreted by whoever is reading it. It also helps the person filling up the document, as it helps make questions easier to understand and answer.
Where to Create an Incident Report Template?
There are hundreds of tools available for the creation of templates. The best tool available for this task today is Microsoft Office. There you’ll find a selection of software programs that will allow the company or supervisor to create any kind of template.
No matter if it’s an employee incident report template or any other kind of document. Microsoft Office has a variety of features that allows you to create personalized documents, making it easier to build an incident report template that truly gives you valuable information to help your company.
Ready to Use Templates
If you want to use a ready made template instead of creating your own, that’s not a problem. There are dozens of templates available online for you to choose from, each one with its own style.
Be aware that some of these templates are not editable so choose the one that fits your needs better. Think of your business and which incident report may attend to your needs better.
Accident Report Template
How to Get a Microsoft Office Key
You can get your own Microsoft Office activation key at RoyalCDKeys for a considerably lower price in comparison to Microsoft’s official website. With this tool you’ll be able to create the perfect incident report template for your company, preventing injuries, accidents, and many other unfortunate events.