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Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) software is a platform that allows businesses to protect the health and safety of their employees from potential hazards in the workplace. It also helps organisations comply with existing health and safety rules and regulations.
As per International Labor Organisation (ILO) – C155, it is the duty of the employer to ensure the safety of their workers, and it is the enforcement agencies’ obligation to ensure the organisation conforms to safety laws so as to assure the wellbeing of their workers and customers. The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) obligates employers to perform internal audits, management review meetings and to keep any EHS documents and processes up to date.
Organisations are facing key challenges the likes of measuring the effectiveness of their implemented control measures; reviewing the key safety documents; integrating the EHS system with other management systems; managing changes in the legal rules and new safety challenges; and a need for technological, cross platform synchronisation.
All these requirements increase the need for environmental, health, and safety platforms. These are intuitive systems that help businesses reduce the risks that come with their operations and alleviate some of the top pressures of complying with environmental, health, and safety regulations. Most companies use these platforms to stay up to date on current industry rules, improve manufacturing efficiency, and prevent any accidents from occurring in their workspace.
Additionally, these platforms have tools that allow you to track insurance policies, take note of any incidents, and create corrective and preventive action plans for the operations. Investment in EHS software emphasises that you, as a business, take worker safety, health and welfare seriously. It is a vital message to colleagues, employees, customers and authorities alike. It motivates employees to behave in a safer manner, knowing that it is a priority of senior leadership. It also gives those routes of communication to report near misses, incidents, and more.
“companies use these platforms to stay up to date on current industry rules, and prevent any accidents from occurring”
Strong reporting functionality, data insights, and dashboards are key to analysing trends and putting proactive safety measures in place. You can configure your system to report out on the metrics that matter most to your business and your industry, while also tapping into metrics that you may not have considered before. The perks of a cloud-based system also mean that you can share these insights across the company and get valuable information into the hands of the right individuals swiftly. These deeper insights, and the time saved, will empower you to make critical decisions that may not have previously been on your radar.
Updated software systems allow any employee to report an incident, near miss, or notify leadership of other health and safety related issues. The ability to report at anytime from anywhere, as we will cover shortly, inherently encourages employees to take part in safer behaviours and help their colleagues do the same. When you extend this power
to everyone in your organisation, you make it harder for them to brush off due diligence as ‘someone else’s responsibility.
Functions and requirements
EHS software solutions includes an array of features and functionalities that empower safety professionals to make quick decisions in a collaborative environment, where various safety reports are captured, analysed and approved in real-time – alerting rapid action teams to take preventive measures to control occupational hazards.
A digitised EHS Software provides safety managers with a set of tools to automate routine processes like Permit To Work (PTW), Incident Management, Internal and External Safety Audits, Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA), Mobile Site Inspections, Behaviour-Based Safety (BBS) Analysis, Job Safety Analysis, Safety Observations and more. EHS systems are packed with user-friendly and customised features to record numerous user interactions online. Every task initiated by an EHS Software is scheduled, recorded and tracked – ensuring that there are zero delays in actioning plans to close an incident. EHS Software systems can be deployed and accessed on remote devices like smart phones and tablets.
Additionally, you can set operational standards by customising workflows to initiate a chain of instant notification and alerts according to your hierarchical order. EHS software begins by centrally storing all of your data, tasks, papers, and permits. You may even take it a step further by using mobile devices to collect some data directly from the source. The programme then aggregates all this data into sophisticated dashboards, providing a real-time view of your company’s performance that you can share with required-to-know personnel.
“EHS systems are packed with user-friendly and customised features to record numerous user interactions online”
Apart from gathering and maintaining data, the software may automate administrative activities such as sending alerts and notifications, tracking assigned tasks, initiating corrective or preventative measures, and producing reports. After you’ve completed these tasks, you can devote your time to more worthwhile endeavours. Built-in intelligence enables you to get a deeper understanding of trends and performance, enabling you to make bold choices. For example, a worker uses a mobile device to report an unsafe condition like a spill or a leak, you can then flag this unsafe condition for follow-up action and inspection to determine the cause and evaluate if any controls were absent or failed. Next you can assign corrective actions, continue to track compliance, and monitor the effectiveness of controls. All this is possible with applications for observations, incident reporting, JHAs, industrial hygiene, action plans, and control management that share information for easy dash boarding and report creation.
Selection factors
EHS Software are powerful tools which will help organisations to manage health and safety management systems very effectively. However, the following factors should be considered when selecting a software:
Hazards and risks
A comprehensive risk assessment should be considered when selecting software.
It will help to understand the operations, hazards, complied Hierarchy of Controls, incident types. This data will help you to decide on the appropriate software. It will be good to choose an all-in-one system that includes all the different tools an EHS team might use, such as task and document management, audits and inspections, reporting, Safety Data Sheet (SDS) and chemical management from a single vendor. A comprehensive software organised in modules that can be rolled out individually will allow businesses to start small and add additional functionality from the same vendor as the company grows.
Cost
The cost factor will always be a consideration when selecting software and it will play a key role in your final decision. Modern cloud technology has enabled more affordable storage space for these technologies. In addition, make sure most of the vendor’s fees are a fixed price. This includes fees for configuration, training, maintenance, deployments, and upgrades, to name a few. Runaway costs shouldn’t be the reason you cannot succeed.
Time
The software implementation duration is an important aspect to be considered. The longer it takes to implement new software, the more likely your team will lose interest or even form a negative opinion of the new system. In addition, drawn-out implementations can be a major drain on your IT team, disrupting their day-to-day operations and pulling attention away from other important projects. Look for a standardised solution that can be up and running quickly with minimal impact on your IT resources. Also, steer clear of systems that require extensive customisation. If a system requires lots of custom coding to meet your company’s needs, it will be too time-consuming to implement and get data out of the system. You are much better off choosing a standardised system that can be configured to your specifications without changing the underlying code.
User-friendliness
The best way to ensure widespread user adoption is to choose a system that’s easy to use. Does it look clean and easy to navigate? Is it laid out in a way that makes sense to the casual user? Can it be accessed from a variety of different devices? Simple, intuitive software will drive higher productivity and better results. An overly complicated software can frustrate users and hurt adoption rates. When choosing a software, keep in mind that not everyone will be working from a traditional office. The rise of remote work means that your software system must be flexible enough to work wherever your employees do. Therefore, an EHS software solution with a dedicated mobile app is a must. Mobile apps allow the team to collect and access data from any location. Anyone with a smartphone or tablet can use it to take measurements and readings, conduct risk assessments, perform maintenance inspections, complete audits, report an accident, trigger tasks and corrective actions, and more. Additionally, you’ll want to look for an app with offline capability. Having the ability to capture data offline and sync later is tremendously helpful in remote locations where Wi-Fi is not available.
Training
Everyone absorbs and processes information in different ways. Some people learn best by watching a tutorial, while others prefer to read a guide, listen to a verbal presentation or recording, or take a more hands-on approach. Using the right training model can help people learn and retain information better, which is especially important when implementing a new software system. Hands-on training, webinars, quick reference guides and email are all useful tools to support user adoption. Be sure to find out which types of training the vendor offers. In addition, different types of users will require different training. A casual user who only accesses the software from time to time won’t need as much in-depth training as an EHS manager who uses the system every day. As a result, many software vendors offer different training models based on the user’s role.
Additional needs
A lot of things go into running a productive business. In addition to EHS software, your company may use several other types of technology tools. To reap the full benefits EHS software can provide, you need to be able to share data with these other tools. For example, you may want to feed in production data in order to monitor emissions performance related to production throughput. Integrations solve this problem by allowing your different systems to “sync” one another. So, the compatibility and integration options to be checked.
Vendors
Functionality, price, and ease of use are all things to think about when searching for the perfect software system. But before you make your decision, it would be wise to consult a good vendor. Make sure you choose a vendor who will guide you through the implementation process to make sure the system meets your needs, who will also help you find new ways to make the most of your EHS software. When evaluating different software systems, pay close attention to the vendor’s team. Does the vendor have a team of people who are experienced in EHS? Are they invested in your long-term success? These are all important things to find out beforehand.
EHS software modules
EHS software consist of different HSE modules, and the organisation can customise them according to their requirements. An essential part of any EHS software will consist of different modules as follows.
An incident management system enables you to report incidents and near-misses instantly and remotely, align teams to act on key-indicators, analyse root-cause and take corrective and preventive measures based on actionable insights – all in one go.
A Permit Management module helps you track and monitor all safe work procedures and conditions of workers and contractors in real-time. With a digitised PTW software, you can go from issuing permits, gaining authorisations to initiating work operations with better control and clarity.
“hands-on training, webinars, quick reference guides and email are all useful tools to support user adoption”
Safety Auditing Software is a critical part of any EHS process. It helps you inspect and analyse all non-compliant processes in the workplace. You can automate inspection schedules, enable mobile audits, and create customised forms and checklist.
Risk Management and Hazard Identification are key EHS initiatives. With a digitised hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA) software you can see risks early, understand hazards better, and map out control measure to create a sustainable work environment.
A Periodic Health Check Up module helps to track and manage your employees’ Health during their job tenures with your organisation. It can also ease compliance for you.
A Hazard Observation module will recognise and communicate any potential issues to the safety of employees so that they can be resolved from the rising.
A Data analysis and reporting tool helps to run reports quickly and provide accurate information important to you in different formats.
Asset Management aids in management of company’s valuable assets, e.g. high value vehicles, machinery, PPE, medical devices and medical testing instrument.
First aid is an essential requirement for industry. Regular inspection of all first aid boxes with required number of first aid items and minimum stock in all first aid boxes is mandatory. A first aid module provides facilities to transfer stock to first aid boxes and allows you to transfer stock to different first aid kits at various locations. Department-wise, a first aid register can be maintained for employees who utilise the first aid boxes. Furthermore, inspection can be easily carried out, keeping the first aid register up to date. The employees of any company are their largest single-investment. It is important to protect employees from work related diseases and illnesses as numerous studies have shown that a proactive approach to employee’s occupational health can directly affect the performance of the organisation. It is also a legal obligation for every employer to provide a safe and healthy working environment.
“successful companies proactively develop resource plans for leaders to see what resources are needed”
Medical Surveillance programmes commencing from employment to retirement satisfy both regulatory and business needs. A module of this kind will be well equipped with all the necessary clinical templates, clinical questionnaires and medical test data to complete single screen check-ups. The duration of check-ups and the list of clinical tests for examination depends on the type of industry and exposure of the work. Due to rapid technological development of smart phones, mobile applications are also playing a very important role. In fact, many EHS freeware are readily available online and can be found with a simple web search.
Conclusion
It is very evident that EHS software will help to manage any health and safety management system efficiently, but there are few challenges which need to be analysed and managed well.
Due to project tasks being concentrated within a shorter time frame, companies may need more time to familiarise themselves with the system post-implementation. To overcome this challenge, many companies schedule training sessions for their teams post-implementation until they are comfortable with the system.
Rapid system implementations also pose a challenge of time constraints on the company leaders tasked with driving the roll-out as they need to budget time for the project, and for their day-to-day responsibilities, which may result in various delays. A need exists to carefully plan tasks and allocate enough time to reduce delays. To mitigate resource limitation, successful companies proactively develop resource plans that make it easy for leaders to see what resources are needed for the project and their respective quantities. This enables leaders to properly plan and allocate dedicated resources.
