Before you choose or replace your EHS software program, ask yourself this: Does it provide you with tools that optimize your ability to manage people, protocols, and planning solutions? If not, you may not receive top value –– no matter how affordable the technology is.
People
There is one element that all EH&S managers agree is the highest priority in any safety management software solution: the employees driving the work. These are the individuals who create the environmental health and safety culture at the company, and they are the ones who will need to remediate or respond to the calls for a healthy EHS workplace. Personnel have rich data tied to their records that –– when stored securely and accessed with ease –– can aid a variety of risk mitigation purposes. These seemingly basic data fields are the building blocks to capturing department and supervisor performance, elevating issues, and assigning action items to the appropriate parties for completion. At the minimum, any safety management software solution should allow you to track and utilize these relevant fields as part of your people management program:
- Hire Date
- Employer
- Job Role
- Supervisor
- Department
Protocol
EHS software solutions need to alleviate paperwork and streamline tasks connected with the management activities that keep you tethered to a desk versus interacting with colleagues where you are most needed. Regulations, policies, codes, procedures, and standards drive the day-to-day operations of your EH&S program. These are communicated repeatedly in the context of training, audits, toolbox talks, and incident management. By offering dynamic multimedia options, such as video and image capabilities, those messages become more memorable –– not to mention archivable and reusable. What a time saver and game changer in how you interact with employees! Make sure the safety management software solution you choose or use offers this.
Planning
Planning or scheduling solutions within a premium safety software should synthesize human resources data and logistical information for your EH&S program in powerful ways that work for you. Not the other way around. As a proactive safety manager looking to oversee multiple departments and supervisors within a single platform, you need an easy-to-use yet robust planning tool. This tool should allow you to quickly and clearly determine 1) Which safety measures need action, 2) By whom, and 3) By when. Any safety management software program worth the investment must allow EHS managers to login to the system, retrieve data, make requirement determinations, and communicate those to the right people in meaningful and time-sensitive ways. Only then will efficient and proactive safety management performance be able to occur.
Next time you are examining your EHS program’s solution, or considering a new technical solution, confirm the 3 Ps are in place at its core. Proact would love to show you these key EH&S features in Proact’s solution and discuss how our different safety management clients use them. Give us a call, or complete our contact form so that we can be in touch.
