Be it that you just heard of EHS software and are curious to know what it is, or you’ve been searching for one for your business for quite a while now, you have come to the right spot.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
EHS stands for Environmental, Health, and Safety software. These types of tools are meant to help you save time, decrease accident risks, and avoid unwelcomed situations so that they don’t hinder your company’s progress. These tools are widely used in the manufacturing, construction, and utility industries to keep workers safe and proactively decrease hazard risks.
Using EHS software is a cost-effective approach to link thousands of staff members across your company — from manufacturing managers to C-level executives — and consolidate their records, actions, and measurements.
As you continue to read this guide, you’ll better understand what EHS software is, how it may benefit your company, and how to select the best EHS software for your needs.
What exactly is EHS software?
Companies utilize environmental, health, and safety (EHS) software to manage their regulatory compliance, business risk, and corporate sustainability data and operations. Companies may save time, decrease risk, and avoid unpleasant situations by using an EHS software solution.
An EHS app software begins by centralizing all of your data, duties, paperwork, and permits in one place. It may also access data from other systems, such as CEMs, financial data, or manufacturing data. You may even take it a step further by capturing essential data right at the source with mobile devices.
The tool then organizes all of this data into comprehensive dashboards, which you can share with personnel who needs to know about your company’s performance in real-time.
The software can automate administrative duties such as giving alerts and notifications, following up on assigned tasks, initiating corrective or preventative measures, and creating reports, in addition to gathering and managing data.
The executive staff can then focus on core activities now that these responsibilities are no longer on their plate. Built-in intelligence aids in the better understanding of trends and performance, allowing you to make more proactive decisions.
How can businesses benefit from using EHS software?
The most significant advantage of EHS software is having all of your data and operations in one place. Most businesses store critical EHS information in various places, including spreadsheets, databases, paper records, and people’s minds. When you need information for an audit or regulatory report, it might be challenging to get it promptly. Your staff spends countless hours going through data, fixing mistakes, and manually inputting entries.
When employees leave or retire, they may walk out the door with vital information stored in their minds, and you wind up spending weeks or months putting the pieces back together every time someone goes. This diverts attention away from other essential responsibilities, such as enhancing safety or adopting environmental initiatives.
Worse still, these haphazard arrangements introduce unanticipated risks. It’s all too easy for crucial tasks and deadlines to get lost in the shuffle. Furthermore, it’s hard to get a clear business performance idea until reports come in; therefore, many issues go unreported until the end of the month or quarter.
Other benefits of using EHS software include
Everything is centralized and standardized
EHS software makes it simple to communicate and get more done by centralizing all of your papers, projects, and deadlines in one dashboard and making data entry automated. You’ll save time and lessen the risk of non-compliance by standardizing how staff gathers and maintains data.
Encourages proactive management
You can collect more valuable and timely data using EHS software. To make educated decisions, the results may be promptly examined in real-time to discover patterns and anomalies.
Streamlines the reporting process
EHS software makes reporting more efficient by allowing you to build comprehensive reports in minutes utilizing real-time data recorded at the source.
Increases task visibility
Executives and EHS leaders can always know where they stand using dynamic dashboards. Thanks to automated alerts and notifications, need-to-know employees may also be updated about crucial indicators in real-time and from anywhere.
How to determine if a business needs EHS software
Most high-quality EHS software is designed to scale as your company grows and can use up to 100+ users. This means, once you get this type of software, you won’t need to change it as your business evolves. Still, how do you determine when it’s the right time to invest in EHS tools?
As with many things in business, there is no clear answer to this, as every company has its individual journey and needs. However, you can determine if you should start looking for EHS software by asking yourself the following questions:
- Is my staff spending time looking for EHS data by bouncing between spreadsheets or databases?
- Is it getting increasingly difficult to keep track of our activities and deadlines?
- Is my team wasting too much time putting together reports?
- Is it difficult for us to keep up with our EHS duties due to a lack of time and resources?
- Are performance improvement and risk mitigation long-term goals for my business?
If your answer was “YES” for more than two of the questions above, it’s time to evaluate your EHS software options.
Is EHS software worth the investment?
EHS software may cost anything from under $10,000 to over $2 million. Initial EHS software pricing is determined by the size of your business, the features you want, and whether you choose a customized or off-the-shelf system.
One of the most common blunders is wasting time analyzing software that they cannot afford. That’s why discussing costs early in the software selection process is critical. Make your budget clear and straightforward, and hunt for a provider who does the same.
To determine if it’s worth investing in EHS software, you need to have a clear idea of how much value it can add to your organization and how much you’re willing to spend for it. Based on their clients’ experiences, skilled vendors should be able to provide an estimate of your expected ROI.
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