EHS Software: The Accurate Safety Data Leadership Demands
Corporate safety professionals understand the intrinsic value of developing an influential and engaged safety culture.
A safety-conscious workplace minimizes employee workplace accidents, incidents and near misses, stabilizes productivity, encourages organizational-wide participation and improves morale.
One of the significant challenges our clients battle is winning management buy-in to EHS initiatives when their eyes are laser-focused on the bottom line.
In today’s environment, being a safety subject matter expert is simply not enough.
How do you get their attention? How do you present your case to achieve the results you need? How do you get a piece of the budget?
If metrics are not part of your plan, “selling” your case will be an uphill battle.
But with planning and strategizing, supported by an effective EHS software management system, I’ll outline how to tactically make your case.
For added ammunition, your argument should be supported by measurable data points.
When addressing management, center your presentation on safety data areas that matter to leadership:
- Lower Worker’s Comp costs (direct and indirect)
- Fewer lost-time accidents
- Lower insurance premiums
- Zero regulatory non-compliance penalties
- Increased profitability
At UL, we consider a thriving safety culture where there is continuous improvement driven by continuous learning.
The stark contrast between manual EHS and EHS software
High-quality EHS management software speaks in terms of senior leadership priorities—
“Show me the numbers.”
Through precisely curated documentation, management can see clearly defined data that identifies the strengths and weakness of the company’s environmental, health and safety programming.
It also identifies specific areas where more employee learning is needed and other areas that require an ongoing training curriculum.
But how do you document that mountain of EHS data?
UL’s PureOHS™ EHS management software includes analytical tools, quick charting, dashboards, configurable incident-level reports and aggregate level data reporting.
Our clients also cite the ease of use in recording and following-up on safety incident reports, which simultaneously initiates corrective action recommendations going forward.
Inputting data to EHS management software can be completed through integrations with existing automated systems or manual data entry, which is still more common in the EHS space.
Data entry should be as direct and straightforward as possible to ensure it is verifiable and auditable.
For regulatory compliance purposes, there is a distinct advantage to using EHS software over a paper-based or an Excel system—the availability of the data.
This reporting information can be traced back to its source via a single comprehensive platform that includes these proactive recourse tools:
- Notify responsible individuals so they can execute appropriate investigations.
- Perform risk assessments
- Identify root causes of safety concerns
- Assign corrective and preventative actions
- Devise targeted improvement plans
EHS presentation groundwork
After the EHS system is operational and the data is entered, there are six key steps to address before clicking send for a meeting request with management:
- Perform a top-to-bottom assessment to let them know where the company stands on safety issues as well as leading and lagging indicators.
- Review skills gap analysis between a culture of continuous learning and where the company is right now.
- Carve a path to improve existing safety culture or develop a turnaround strategy, if necessary.
- Develop specific metrics that will drive improvement.
- What is your desired outcome from the meeting?
- What is relevant to management in regard to EHS?
Securing buy-in from top leadership is never easy, but when it comes to EHS, it is a crucial step to ensuring a safety culture will be a priority for the organization.
Reliable, measurable data should be acknowledged by leadership, but continuous employee learning is the tipping point to achieving compliance and competency.
A robust safety culture means workers are innately focused on safety all the time and for the right reasons.
Data entry should be as direct and straightforward as possible to ensure it is verifiable and auditable. They feel comfortable speaking up about risks and contributing suggestions for continuous improvement.