1. Overview
Alerts & Notifications in Sospes control who is notified as reports are submitted into Sospes. A well-designed alerts setup puts the right information in front of the people who can act on it, quickly, without overwhelming anyone with emails they do not need.
This guide outlines the Sospes recommended alert model: who should receive which alerts, and why. Your implementation team will work with you to configure alerts appropriately for your organization.
2. Guiding Principles
- Assign by site/facility: Employees should only receive alerts from the facilities or business units that are relevant to them.
- User roles over individual emails: User roles, such as site directors, plant managers, area managers, and team leads, keep alerts and notifications working smoothly. Where individual emails are needed, consider a shared distribution list. (i.e. safety alert distribution email)
- Avoid duplicate alerts: Incident Submitted sends an alert for every incident type, so do not also add the same employee to type-specific incident alerts unless you intend for them to receive both.
3. Recommended Best Practices
| Role | What they receive | Alert Name |
| Front Line Employees | Only an alert when they personally submit a report | Submission alert (own reports only) |
| Direct Supervisors | Close calls and incidents involving, or submitted by, their direct reports | Close Call and Incident Submitted |
| Area Managers / Team Leads | Site-specific observations*, close calls, and incidents at the facility(ies) they cover | Observation*, Close Call, and Incident Submitted |
| EHS Team | All site-specific observations, close calls, and incidents | Observation, Close Call, and Incident Submitted |
| Site Directors / Plant Managers | Incidents and close calls at their site | Close Call and Incident Submitted |
| Executives | Emergency, hospitalization, OSHA recordable, SIF, and workers’ comp alerts only | Emergency Incident Reported, Hospitalization, OSHA Recordable, SIF Reported, and Workers’ Comp Injury Reported |
| Alert | Front Line | Direct Supervisor | Area Mgr / Team Lead | EHS Team | Site Director / Plant Mgr | Executive |
| Own Report Submitted (any) | ✓ | — | — | — | — | — |
| Observation Submitted | — | — | ✓* | ✓ | — | — |
| Close Call Submitted | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Incident Submitted (all types) | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Emergency Incident Reported | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hospitalization | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| OSHA Recordable | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Workers’ Comp Injury Reported | — | — | — | ✓ | — | ✓ |
*Area Managers and Team Leads can receive Observation alerts based on organizational choice/need.
Front Line Employees
Recommended alerts: None, other than an alert when they personally submit a report
Frontline employees do not receive alerts about what others submit. They receive an alert only when they have personally submitted a report, so they know it was submitted.
Direct Supervisors
Recommended alerts: Close Call Submitted, Incident Submitted
Supervisors should be aware of, and can support, anything involving their own direct reports, whether a direct report is involved in a report or submits the report themselves.
Tip: This alert depends on employee demographic data, the employee/supervisor relationships come through an active HR import.
Area Managers / Team Leads
Recommended alerts: Observation Submitted*, Close Call Submitted, Incident Submitted
Some sites have a set of leaders, such as team leads, shift leads, or area managers, who need visibility into what is reported at their facility. Assigning alerts to these roles delivers site-level view to a defined team. They can also be assigned across multiple sites where relevant.
Tip: These alerts are completely customizable, and organizations can set them based on their individual requirements.
EHS Team
Recommended alerts: Observation Submitted, Close Call Submitted, Incident Submitted
The EHS Team is accountable for site safety performance, so they should see every report from the sites they oversee, including lower-severity observations and close calls. Where team members cover specific sites, assign their alerts to only those sites so they are not flooded with reports from elsewhere.
Site Directors / Plant Managers
Recommended alerts: Close Call Submitted, Incident Submitted
Site directors and plant managers own the site and its outcomes. They should be alerted to incidents and close calls at their facility.
Tip: Confirm that at least one site director or plant manager is assigned as a responsible party to every facility.
Executives
Recommended alerts: Emergency Incident Reported, Hospitalization, OSHA Recordable, SIF, Workers’ Comp Injury Reported
Executives need to know about serious events quickly, but not the day-to-day volume of close calls, observations, and individual incident reports. Sospes recommends limiting executives to emergencies, hospitalizations, OSHA recordables, SIFs, and workers’ comp injuries, rather than alerts for specific incident types.
Not recommended: Executives receiving all observation, close call, or incident alerts. This volume tends to cause alert fatigue and buries events that need executive attention.
4. Final Tips
- Test before go-live. Submit a sample observation, close call, and incident at a pilot site and confirm the right people receive each.
- Review frequently. Update recipients when people change roles or leave, and when you add facilities or business units.
- Ask for feedback. If employees say they are getting too many or too few alerts, adjust settings before adding or removing recipients.
For configuration steps, see our knowledge base article: