At a glance:
– Introduction
– What is Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Management?
– Why Is EHS Management Important?
– What is EHS software?
– Significant Benefits of EHS Software
– Top EHS Software Modules
– Does Your Business Need An EHS Software?
– Factors To Consider While Choosing An EHS Software For Your Company
– How VisiumKMS Supports EHS Management
Spanning numerous industries, small and large companies alike have been prioritizing workplace safety over the last few decades. Essentially, this involves Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) management at the enterprise. In this guide, we cover everything related to EHS – right from its meaning, importance, EHS management software and its benefits to its modules, detailed features and how to shortlist an EHS software for your company. Let’s get started –
What is Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Management?
EHS management refers to the discipline covering many specialized fields across industries, focusing on the protection of the workers from hazards, prioritizing their safety, and encouraging the implementation of environmentally sound practices. Let us further understand each of these terms on the basis of their industrial connotations –
Environment –
Environment refers to the impact of industrial activities on its natural surroundings, namely air, water and land. Poor industrial practices can cause environmental degradation, leading to an imbalance in the ecosystem to a large extent. To avoid this, in this context, it focuses on accident prevention and consequence management.
Health –
WHO defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Simply put, it encourages organizations to safeguard employee health in a holistic sense i.e. looking after their physical as well as mental wellbeing.
Safety –
Safety pertains to protection from industrial hazards – workplace accidents and injuries.
As such, it is a standard industry practice to conduct a hazard and effect analysis, meticulously examine their consequences and take the necessary measures to prevent the same.
All in all, the EHS management system refers to laws, rules, regulations, professions, programs, and workplace efforts to protect the health and safety of the employees, the public as well as the environment from potential hazards associated with the workplace.
Why Is EHS Management Important?
Unquestionably, the fundamental advantage of EHS management is that it prevents a significant number of illnesses, injuries, and environmental hazards at the company. In addition to that, from a business perspective, it allows businesses to thrive by advancing operational efficiency, boosting employee retention and attracting investors and customers who value environmental sustainability.
What is EHS software?
With the advancement of technology, management and operations of EHS processes have also evolved. As opposed to the time-consuming, manual data collection and processing methods, enterprises are now opting for EHS software – a tool designed to make EHS management a seamless experience. In simple terms, it provides businesses with a digitized platform wherein they can collate all their safety management goals and information into a unified system.
Centred on smooth collaboration and positive user engagement, EHS software solutions help enterprises identify, track, manage and report workplace health and safety issues effectively.
Moreover, it helps them to stay compliant with the ever-evolving regulations and supports them to identify growth opportunities. Businesses from many leading industries including manufacturing, energy, pharmaceuticals, chemical, oil & gas, etc. have already made the switch to stay ahead of the curve.
Harnessing the power of modern technology and data, it empowers them to become more efficient, profitable and sustainable.
Significant Benefits of EHS Management Software
- Centralized Data Management –
The nuances of safety and management policies involve a lot of documentation, data collection and data management. EHS software is adept at data collection, organization, storage, management and automation. This helps in streamlining processes across the organization, saving time, compliance management and boosting overall productivity. - Robust Reporting –
Next, the EHS software program is adept at data evaluation and generating detailed, complex reports in a matter of minutes. Furthermore, it can generate custom reports specific to the information requested, using data captured in real-time at the source thereby proving timely data, minimizing risk and assisting in making informed decisions. - Data Analytics –
Thereafter, owing to its advanced dashboard, EHS software provides the management with meaningful and timely data, thereby assisting them to spot trends and make the necessary amendments promptly. Evaluating these insights and metrics can help organizations raise their quality and safety standards substantially. - Boosts Overall Efficiency –
Last but not the least, resorting to EHS software solutions boost overall organizational efficiency considerably. This is a result of a number of factors like pre-configured workflows that expedite the general process, increased employee morale due to better safety standards, transparent and smooth communication across multiple departments, etc.Top EHS Software Modules
Now that we have a basic understating of the EHS management system and its benefits, let us dive deeper and explore some of the top EHS software modules – - Management of Change –
Simply put, Management of Change (MOC) focuses on tracking, communicating and closing modifications in a streamlined and unified manner to avoid any uncertainty. It involves evaluation of proposed process changes related to infrastructure or updating operating procedures, in order to assess their impact on employee safety and health before implementation; while ensuring that no new, unmitigated risks are introduced to the operation. - Action Tracking –
The critical nature of industrial programs like EHS demand uncompromising efficiency in tracking and closing associated actions. Such task management involves multiple roles and work groups across departments in the entire organization. EHS software application is adept at identifying the responsible source for each action, clarifying the requirements for closure as well as automating and streamlining the workflow. Doing so, enables enterprises to take corrective and preventive action in time! - Incident Investigation –
When safety, health and environmental incidents occur, organizations operating under the OSHA Process Safety Management (PSM), OSHA Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) and EPA Risk Management Plan (RMP) standards are mandated to conduct investigations. EHS software assists in recording and analyzing such incidents efficiently, thereby driving continuous improvement whilst ensuring that is no possibility of recurrence of such incidents in the future. - Quality Management –
Essentially, quality defines the success of an organization. Robust quality management systems such as ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) contextualize the disciplines, processes and rigorous checking required to demonstrate quality operations and outputs. EHS software ensures consistent, optimum quality by executing CAPAs to boost the organization’s efficiency and profitability. - Risk Reporting –
In order to grow, every organization needs to understand its processes, hazard severity and frequency, gaps in best practice, and root causes identified during incident investigations. Process safety management software provides the decision-makers with advanced reporting solutions that help them gain better insight into both – the bigger risk picture and the smallest details it may sometimes obscure to take the necessary risk control measures. - Risk Assessment –
Risk assessment is critical to ensuring safe operations for people, equipment, and the environment. When risks are identified, assessed, monitored, and controlled, the probability of hazard events occurring can be minimized. By way of different assessment methodologies, EHS software solutions generate recommendations to close gaps and distribute risk mitigation actions to the concerned teams in time. - Audit –
Audits measure compliance, gauge the effectiveness of processes and enable continuous improvement. They are conducted through on-site verification, examination or inspection of the organization, management system, or process aligned to a specified standard. For any enterprise, multiple points of an audit are required. EHS software programs assist organizations to plan and conduct audits in order to prove compliance with regulations, achieve operating efficiency and maintain client and vendor relationships.
Types Of EHS Management Software
EHS software can mainly be categorized into two types – On-Premise EHS Software and Cloud-based EHS software. While they serve the same purpose, they differ from one another in terms of deployment and features. Let us gain further insight on both these options –
On-Premise EHS Software:
An on-premise EHS management solution allows companies to deploy the software on their server and is managed by their internal IT department. While this provides them with complete control over their data and systems, it can prove to be a heavy, ongoing investment in terms of both – time and cost. Moreover, the added responsibility of maintenance, updates, customizations and keeping up with the latest technology can prove to be challenging and burdensome in the long run.
Cloud-based EHS Software:
On the other hand, cloud-based EHS software is owned and maintained by a service provider. Employing modern technology and integrated with the latest updates, it offers unparalleled flexibility, accessibility, scalability and security to enterprises. Besides, this software even offers mobile-friendly models and platforms to engender growth! Undoubtedly, SaaS-based EHS software proves to be more efficient and cost-effective for organizations, irrespective of their size.
Does Your Business Need An EHS Software?
Keeping it short, if you wish to raise the standard of employee well-being at your company, optimize operational efficiency and ensure timely compliance to rapidly evolving safety regulations, the answer is yes.
Factors To Consider While Choosing An EHS Software For Your Company
Having said that, there are various safety management software available in the market – exhibiting different offerings and features.
However, before getting into the process of reviewing and shortlisting an EHS software for your company, ensure that you perform a comprehensive review of your organization’s needs, learn about your pain points and understand your business’s unique needs.
Next, systematically evaluate software to choose the one that helps you achieve your goals and fits your requirements best. Mentioned below are some important factors to take into consideration before finalizing one for your organization –
Ease of Access –
To begin with, it is imperative to check the accessibility of the EHS software. As such, the latest software provide remote connectivity across devices to refine the data sharing process – enabling faster and more efficient communication across channels. It allows the on-field workers to report incidents from the site in real-time, conduct site audits using digital checklists and evaluate risks on the job. All in all, it plays a key role in optimizing safety operations by enabling the management to take timely and informed decisions.
User-friendly Interface –
Thereafter, it is crucial to take into consideration the software’s user interface, onboarding structure and overall support.
Needless to say, it is essential that all employees – management and workers alike are well-versed with the software and its usability to be able to perform their respective duties proficiently and take prompt action whenever required.
It influences the overall productivity and safety management at the company to a great extent.
Customization –
To cater to every business’s unique requirements, it is of paramount importance that the EHS software solution offers custom workflows, resources and add-ons that can integrate with the company’s safety management processes seamlessly.
Customization helps steer a company’s ESG strategy in the right direction, thereby ensuring that it achieves operational excellence.
Scalability –
Another important feature to consider to maximize profitability is the software’s ability to scale.
Ensure that the software is constantly being upgraded and adept at keeping up with the ever-evolving demands of a growing industry.
An EHS management software with limited resources and capabilities will prove to be incompetent and hamper the company’s growth in the long run.
Pricing –
Lastly, comparing various software from a price standpoint is essential to make a cost-effective decision for the company.
Be sure to go into the details to gain complete information regarding product packages, any additional payments involved, hidden costs, etc.
Go through the contract, features and deliverables meticulously to ensure that the software and package are best suited to the company’s needs.
How VisiumKMS Supports EHS Management
For global enterprises that contend with regulated processes and complex engineering assets, VisiumKMS is a highly configurable, web-based QHSE platform connecting information dynamically, precisely, reliably and instantly – between the back office and the plant, factory, or any other site. It drives efficient, visible, and easily communicable corrective and preventive actions.
VisiumKMS removes weak links in any communication chain, providing a pillar for optimal, safer, risk-reduced, and compliant operations – enabling continuous improvement through preventive and corrective actions – for the oil and gas, chemical process, and food, drug and beverage industries.
VisiumKMS is in constant evolution because the industries we serve face ever-evolving challenges. We commit to staying ahead of the curve; to help our customers keep ahead of the business and operational pressures, regulations, and global or local challenges they face. Get in touch with us here.