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Make Reporting Issues Faster and More Informing

Related products: Issues

Our company uses STOP or similar paper cards to report good catches, safety near misses, quality and food safety concerns, damage, etc.  A few sites are using a SafetyCulture inspection template to rid of the paper system.  I have been trying to push using the Issues feature, but it’s not quite baked in a way that makes it a proper replacement.  They should be very fast to report, provide understandable and consistent information, not add complexity to managing, and be differentiated from Actions.  I’m sure we’d think of more ideas once we started using issues, but I think the things below would push us to start.

 

Some ideas below:

  1. Issues Category Settings
    1. A category option to require adding the site. This allows for proper access, automated notifications, and filtering the list. Currently people forget to add it.
    2. Per probing question, an option to require that question be answered when submitting. Many of the questions we need answered to understand the Issue and they aren’t always filled out.
    3. A category setting to automatically build the “Title” using some of the probing questions. If we tell people details we need in the title to know what it is, they forget. To make sure they provide it and give it in a consistent format, we add those in the 5 questions, but now they are answering it twice. Also, typing a title is time-consuming. (example: questions like Line - Product - Defect or Area - Safety Concern Type).
    4. A category setting to require adding media when the issue is first reported. The photo is a crucial piece of context that we don’t have with the paper system.
    5. Per probing question, provide the ability to select a “global response set” or to upload a CSV file for multiple choice questions.  The global response would allow for larger, flexible lists which might be updated through an integration. The CSV option allows for quickly adding large lists or making changes.
    6. On the page of all categories, add the ability to rearrange the order of the categories. They are not sorted alphabetically or logically, and we would want to present them grouped a certain way.
  2. Issues Update Page
    1. Add a “+ Actions” button (replaces the default “what needs to be done” question). This would allow us to manage the correction in the Actions feature and link it just like you can with inspections (someone already posted this idea here: Creating an action from an issue | Community (safetyculture.com)). I would expand this to also show the status of those Actions so within the Issue we know if it’s corrected and can be marked as Resolved.
  3. During Reporting
    1. In the “who should be notified about this issue” popup when you submit an Issue, it should state on that panel who is already being notified based on the category’s workflow. It shows up in the feed after submitting, but it’s not clear during. People end up selecting someone to notify that is already in the automated workflow.
  4. Web Interface Issues Management
    1. When selecting one or more Issues with the checkbox, in the bar that appears at the bottom, add a button for “assign site” so we can mass correct those not assigned to a site.
    2. Add a button to have it search external email assignments to see if the email address matches an existing user account, allowing us to remove the external email and replace it with the user.  We often start out using external emails, and if we see someone assigned many times, we provide them an account. Finding and fixing these so they can see them when they login is really challenging.
    3. In the existing filters for “assignee” and “creator,” add a checkbox for “external email address.”  That helps us find those quickly.

Hi @Corey 

Thank you so much for this brilliant feedback, its fantastic to hear how we could continue to improve the Issues feature for you. 

We are aligned with making the reporting an issue flow as simple and efficient as possible in addition to providing the ability to create an action from an Issue. This is something we are looking to explore in the near future. 

If you are interested in talking this through in more detail with us it would be fantastic. If thats the case please let me know and I can reach out to find a time that works for you, alternatively if its easier you can find a time in my calendar that works for you. 

@James Bell thanks for meeting with me today.  I look forward to any improvements your team can make to Issues so we can begin to leverage it.  I think the feature will have a lot of value after enhancements.

@Corey 

Agree with this part of the current workflow being very confusing for people:

  1. During Reporting
    1. In the “who should be notified about this issue” popup when you submit an Issue, it should state on that panel who is already being notified based on the category’s workflow. It shows up in the feed after submitting, but it’s not clear during. People end up selecting someone to notify that is already in the automated workflow.

 

Also the ability to have the access menu allow different categories to be available for different user types would be a fantastic addition, not everyone has the same issues they need to report in.

Is there any progress on improving Issues?  I have a few sites interested in using it.

Any sneak peaks on the upcoming “Incidents” transition of Issues and what new features come with it?

It is great that we can now require Site, require media, and require certain questions. It’s also great that we can add Actions to Issues.  That covers some really important items from my list of desires!

We want reporting Issues to remain easy to use, fast to report, provide immediate notifications, and give collaborators and the reporter a feedback loop.  However, Issues needs more work to scale it up for enterprise use.

Most important

  1. Per category question, provide the ability to select a “global response set” or to upload a CSV file for multiple choice questions.  The global response would allow for larger, flexible lists which might be updated through an integration. The CSV option allows for quickly adding large lists or making changes.  Site-specific lists would be most ideal, such as employee names, rooms, products, etc.
  2. Category option to automatically build the “Title” using selected category questions. This avoids forgetting to put certain things in the Title, having to duplicate what is answered in the questions, adds consistency, and saves time.  For example: questions like Line, Product, Defect, Area, or Safety Concern Type could build the title for you.
  3. The notification during reporting of who was automatically sent a notification is hidden in the timeline rather than presented to the user upfront. The “who should be notified about this Issue” panel pops up over the timeline after the initial reporting screen, so you cannot see who was already notified. The message of who was notified and who else you want to notify should be combined into the same panel.
  4. Rather than show the “A notification has been sent to members of SITE who are also in GROUP” message (which could be more than one group, including site-specific not related to the selected site), show the list of people that met the rule (matched the site and were also in the groups). That shortens the message and gives end users a direct list of names that were notified. They can then decide if additional manually-selected notifications are needed. For now, to avoid confusion I have created a large group that includes people from all sites, so the site-based rule will pick the right people out of that group. Otherwise, with site-specific groups, this message gets really long and confusing showing group names from other sites. However, this single group is hard to manage.
  5. In the email notifications for Issues, add additional details such as description, site, title, category, and media.  It would be nice to not have to click the link in the email and login to see the primary details.
  6. Add to the New Analytics the ability to dive down into Issues category questions’ answers.
  7. Add to the Issues CSV export the answers to category questions.
  8. Category option to attach instruction/example guide (PDF).

Other desires

  1. Category option to require timeline text response and/or media when closing the issue.
  2. Category option to make it available for use only by selected sites.
  3. Be able to assign an Issue to more than one person.
  4. On the mobile app, make it easier to see the description without clicking “add details.”
  5. On the web page of all categories, add the ability to rearrange the order of the categories. We want to present them grouped a certain way (all safety related together, quality and food safety together).
  6. Add a new data-driven web view of important information (grouping of chat comments, answers to category questions, detail fields, etc.) with a toggle to switch to the current timeline view.
  7. When selecting one or more Issues with the checkbox on the website, in the bar that appears at the bottom, add a button for “assign site” so we can mass correct those not assigned to a site.
  8. Add a website button to have it search external email assignments to see if the email address matches an existing user account, allowing us to remove the external email and replace it with the user.  We often start out using external emails, and if we see someone assigned many times, we provide them an account. Finding and fixing these so they can see them when they login is really challenging.
  9. In the existing website filters for “assignee” and “creator,” add a checkbox for “external email address.”  That helps us find those quickly.
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