A Production Manager’s World

Recently, Amanda started a new role in Business Development with RiskPal, and she’s hit the ground running by exploring the world of media and productions. In conversation with Production Managers, Amanda has quickly learned about the vast range of day-to-day tasks they tackle. Alongside their extensive to-do lists, external pressures such as labour shortages, increasingly tightening budgets, and growing market competition have all created additional hurdles!

Risk assessment is one element of organising a safe and successful production, but how does this fit in among all the other responsibilities? And, what are the common obstacles Production Managers face around risk assessment? Let’s take a look.

Dated Documentation

Production Houses comprise a complex structure of teams working together under strict deadlines to complete creative content. Within tight schedules and, typically, without internal risk managers, risk assessment can often be overlooked until the last minute or delegated to inexperienced staff.

So when schedules are this rigid, few production staff want to be searching around to find the latest risk assessment, investing time chasing answers or correcting poorly written documentation. Risk assessments should be collaborative but, too often, the ordeal of email back-and-forth and document version control can drain the will out of anyone.

We have experienced the frustrations of inefficient working practices and developed RiskPal to streamline the risk assessment process, encourage collaboration and help you focus on production safety. Our simple and innovative platform combines risk assessment creation, collaboration and approval processes, freeing you from formatting, searching and screaming!

Managing Time

From her conversations, Amanda found that most Production Managers wanted to streamline and improve their risk assessment processes, helping to escape that dreaded Friday afternoon “can you just write the risk assessment before the shoot on Monday?” request.

Production Managers commonly have hectic schedules, particularly during a production. The last thing any Production Manager wants to receive is a risk assessment completed on the wrong version template, laden with irrelevant content from a previous production.

Accessing RiskPal’s template design and risk library dramatically reduces the room for error and makes your risk assessments relevant to the task, quick to complete, and full of all the information you need to ensure safe and successful productions.

Expertise and Professional Advice

Production Managers don’t tend to be risk management specialists and can be left short-changed when searching for specific health and safety advice.

Amanda spoke to several Production Managers who expressed unease about their responsibility over risk assessments, especially when needing specialist advice for an activity or production that entails some irregular risks.

“My conversations with Production House leaders have outlined how stressful and exhausting their job can be – particularly when they’re forced to manage tasks not within their expertise.”

Production Managers can find themselves in an awkward bind; they recognise the importance of risk assessment to the safety of a production, as well as the financial, legal and reputational status of their organisation. But limited budgets and busy schedules alongside an absence of expertise can invariably undermine the quality of a risk assessment.

RiskPal’s library of specialist production health and safety advice fills that information void and gives production managers the assurance they need, instantly. The library contains hundreds of questions and guidance covering production risks. And for those lesser known risks, we offer risk assessment support though our RiskPal + service to ensure you can tackle that uncertainty head on.

Knowledge Resilience

All too often when people move so does their knowledge and experience, including when it comes to risk assessment. What this means in practice is that risk assessment templates are used across the industry with little standardisation or acknowledgement of production nuances and relevant information. That specialist advice mentioned above can be lost in folders of previous risk assessments and difficult to locate, draining precious time.

RiskPal gives you all the benefits of a digital platform; an easily searchable register of all your risk assessments, pre-built and configurable templates ready for all future productions and a database of best practice safety advice that is constantly updated.

Time to transform your risk assessments?
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