“Safe” became one of the most ubiquitous and important English words of 2020. In fact, between December 2019 and March 2020 its Google searches doubled, with “covid safe”, “covid safe app” and “covid safe plan” also topping the charts. Our year started with us constantly asking ourselves, “how do we keep people safe in business and how can we improve on what’s already there?”
Now more than ever, people are searching for answers.
It’s likely no surprise that the other word of the year is “unprecedented”. 2020 was the year no one saw coming. For all of us at SafetyCulture, it was marked by significant disruption, major milestones and against all odds, growth. So here it is — our unprecedented year in review.
Helping more than 27,000 organizations do their best work
What we're most proud of in 2020 is helping businesses around the globe build COVID-19 resilience. SafetyCulture is used by more than 27,000 organizations worldwide and this year we took things a step further.
In the middle of the first wave of the pandemic, we launched our free COVID-19 Response Hub, providing checklists, digitized guidelines, and resources to help customers get safely back to business, all in one place. We also partnered with Canva to develop free professionally designed safe environment templates to help communities communicate effectively.
From organizing retail and hospitality hygiene checklists to navigating warehouse closures and reopenings, we’re dedicated to helping businesses operate through uncertainty – and all the new requirements that go along with 2020.
Celebrating wins, big and small
Amidst the chaos of 2020, we’re proud to have hit some significant milestones. After two funding rounds packed into just six months, we joined the adults’ dinner table and gained a "unicorn" valuation of $1.3 billion. It is a testimony to each and every one of our employees and the incredible teams we are lucky to work with each day, as well as the trust investors place in our potential.
It’s always a thrill to be recognized for your work. It was virtual cheers all round as iAuditor took home several awards this year including the Best Health & Safety or Risk Management Product in the 2020 SaaS Awards.
We’ve also kept busy, launching new features in iAuditor for issues reporting and automating data capture with sensors.
Hosting a (social distanced) hangout with an astronaut, Erin Brockovich and Capt. Sully
In a year where our worlds have shrunk to living rooms, businesses have done it tough. We did our best to provide some much-needed motivation via our biggest event to date — the SafetyCulture Virtual Summit. Our speaker panel included the Erin Brockovich, Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, NASA astronaut Captain Scott Kelly and many more. Thousands of individuals from 28 countries tuned in to hear how these ordinary people went on to do such extraordinary things.
Becoming remote work experts
Like most organizations, we made the transition from office to working from home early on in the pandemic. With it came a whole host of initiatives to keep teams engaged and energized.
From TikTok challenges and Zoom happy hours...
To online cooking classes...
SafetyCulture kept spirits high in the home office.
iAuditor’s global impact reaches millions
A raft of partnerships has made our flagship product, iAuditor, synonymous with workplace safety all over the world. In the UK, iAuditor was made free to frontline healthcare and first-aid volunteers through St John’s Ambulance, while the British Beer and Pub Association teamed up with SafetyCulture in July to work the latest hospitality protocols onto the platform. This helped local watering holes carry out risk assessments that would put pub meals back on the menu.
In the US, SafetyCulture made iAuditor free for K-12 and higher education administrators, and entire school districts nationwide. In Fontana, California alone the roll out mitigated the risk of 36,000 students and more than 4,000 staff members contracting COVID-19 at school.
And back where it all began in Australia, SafetyCulture partnered with Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) and WA Shearing Industry Association (WASIA) to revolutionize safety within Australia’s huge shearing and wool industries, making high-risk jobs safer for thousands.
We’re growing and growing
We’re proud wearers of the ‘Best Place to Work’ badge in the UK, Australia, and the US. And we’re growing...fast! In less than two years, SafetyCulture has grown by 60 percent with similar projections expected across its engineering, product development and customer support team in 2021. Ready to be part of something remarkable? Take a look at our careers page to see what roles we have going, or explore training opportunities at BTI to build relevant skills.
Moving onwards and upwards
With this unprecedented year coming to a close, things can only get better and brighter from here. We made our first acquisition, teaming up with mobile learning solution EdApp to give millions of workers free access to world-class micro-learning resources. The pandemic has made it clear there’s a huge appetite for upskilling, and EdApp strengthens our ability to support businesses to do their best work.
Among their many initiatives, EdApp is working with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to increase access to free, high-quality, and impactful education to those with limited opportunities.
Our 2020 growth story continued with the launch of Mitti, our first joint venture with leading Australian insurer QBE. It’s a partnership that marks a new era of innovation in the insurance industry. With COVID-19 vaccines on the way and a flicker of light emerging at the end of the pandemic tunnel, our plan is to help businesses build up an immunity to risk with a technology-first approach.
Fun Fact: Aside from a shared dedication to disruption, QBE and SafetyCulture also share founding roots in Townsville, Queensland!
Keeping an organization thriving and keeping staff and customers safe are indivisible. Equipped with iAuditor , EdApp , and Mitti, both are achievable.
Safety protocols in any business should be proactive, not reactive to damage, but this year most were denied that luxury. If 2020 was the year of unprecedented chaos, 2021 will be the year of preparedness, solidarity, and innovation. Honestly, we can’t wait!
