Environmental health and safety (EHS)
Regardless of your organization’s size, industry or area of specialization, it’s essential that you have environmental, health and safety (EHS) structure and processes in place. In most developed countries around the world, and particularly in high-risk industries, EHS is mandatory, as is EHS reporting.
At its core, EHS refers to the processes, systems and procedures that you put in place to minimize the likelihood of an employee being harmed, either mentally or physically, while they are at work. It’s an essential and extremely important way of safeguarding your most valuable asset: your people. However, EHS goes beyond simply ensuring safer workplaces. It’s also about minimizing an organization’s reputational damage, optimizing corporate sustainability, and maximizing profits across the business.
How has EHS been managed in the past?
Traditionally, many organizations managed their EHS manually, relying on printed manuals, Excel spreadsheets, and paper-based incident reports. This was time-consuming, error prone, and a considerable overhead for health and safety teams who should have been more focused on finding ways to continually optimize safety and working conditions.
As such, today, an increasing number of organizations are moving to cloud-based EHS solutions. But what is EHS management software, and how does it work?
EHS SOFTWARE: DEFINITION
Environmental, health and safety (EHS) software offers a streamlined, secure way for organizations to manage, control and continually optimize their EHS processes and outcomes. All EHS data – including processes, compliance requirements, incidents and safety observations – are all stored in the one, central location, readily accessible by authorized employees.
EHS REGULATORY COMPLIANCE SOFTWARE+
How has EHS been managed in the past?
There are several important benefits of having industry-leading, cloud-based EHS software like Safety Indicators in place. These include:
- Fast, easy and uniform reporting
- Reliable, secure, central storage
- Identify and resolve trends
- Streamlined audits and inspections
- Configured to your organization
- Empowers employees
- Continuous safety improvement
- Seamless link from site to office
- Support from our expert team
- Improved visibility into Issues
- Simple and efficient processes
Fast, easy and uniform reporting
EHS reporting requirements, especially in risk-intensive industries, can be significant. You may have to report to your company’s head office or parent company, as well as to relevant industry or regulatory bodies. Typically, the onus of preparing these reports can also fall on a small number of people, and detract from other aspects of their day-to-day role. With quality EHS software in place, however, the vast majority of this reporting process is automated and streamlined. Producing reports or viewing meaningful analysis charts is simply a matter of selecting required data fields and information.
Reliable, secure, central storage
EHS software brings all of your organization’s EHS information together in the one, central location. This includes information on processes, incidents, permits, compliance requirements, and more. Some EHS software, like Safety Indicators, can also connect with other software from across your business, like your financial or ERP data.
Identify and resolve trends
One of the most important benefits of EHS software is that it provides decision-makers with vital information on safety trends that need addressing. For instance, it may become clear that a particular construction site has ongoing safety issues with regards to how and where it stores deliveries. Or on another worksite, a certain piece of machinery may be frequently failing, causing delays and potential interruptions to standard safety protocols. When a decision-maker is automatically alerted to this information via their device, they can take rapid steps to resolve the problem before it escalates.
Streamlined audits and inspections
Another great benefit of quality EHS software is that it can streamline the process of conducting your safety audits and inspections from anywhere. With Safety Indicators, for instance, the process of conducting a safety audit is quick, easy, and largely automated – meaning you can spend more time on resolving problems, and less on documenting the potential gaps and risks.
Configured to your organization
Importantly, a quality EHS software solution should be configured to your organization and your specific needs. Compliance regulations, and EHS protocols, can differ from organization to organization, as well as industry to industry, and it’s essential you have a solution that matches your specific processes and reporting requirements.
Empowers employees
EHS software can also play an important role in empowering your employees to care about safety – giving them the ability to submit details of safety observations when they see a potential risk or recognize unsafe behavior. Ordinarily, identifying which safety issues are the most pertinent, and accounting for repeated entries of the same issue, can take considerable time and effort. With EHS software in place, however, all of the information that employees submit is automatically collated and analyzed – and made available to decision-makers via a single dashboard.
Continuous safety improvement
As your EHS software allows you to continually analyze and report on your workplace safety, it also creates a culture of continuous safety improvement in your organization. You can assign corrective actions to certain employees, and the system provides automatic alerts and reminders until items are resolved. This ensures that potential risks don’t fall through the cracks or get overlooked. Also, by enabling individual employees to report risks as they see them, it also helps you create a culture where people genuinely care about improving safety outcomes.
Seamless link from site to office
A quality EHS software solution will also allow you to conduct a safety audit or inspection from anywhere, from any device. This includes any specific observations or updates made while out in the field. Inputting data digitally means authorized people across your organization can access relevant reports, trend metrics, automated distribution, and increased insight – to help improve overall safety, improve compliance, and streamline workloads.
Improved visibility into issues
One of the great advantages of Safety Indicators is that it gives you clear and immediate visibility into your organization’s overall safety performance. You can see, at a glance, where risks exist, the status of any corrective actions, and how what resolutions are outstanding.
Simple and efficient processes
Importantly, Safety Indicators is also clear and easy to use. Authorized people within your organization can see the information that relates specifically to them, and aren’t overwhelmed by broader details. Next steps are also very clearly articulated, and reminders are issued when items haven’t been actioned or followed up.
Support from our expert team
Compliance reporting on environment, health and safety concerns can be complex. When you work with the team at Safety Indicators, you have an expert team to guide you in configuring your software, and ensuring it continues to meet the specific needs of your organization well into the future.
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