Environmental health and safety management is a vast and complicated job, so in order to succeed, it helps to have cutting-edge safety software. There are safety managers who have to make due with generic databases and spreadsheets, or even record everything by hand with pen and paper. If this describes you, you may be asking yourself what a safety software program could do for you.
The three primary benefits of environmental health and safety software are that they save time, standardize processes, and simplify compliance.
Time Saving Measures
The problem with using a system that wasn’t tailor-made for your industry is that without a proper place for everything, you often file things away wherever makes sense in the moment. When the time comes to find that document – whether it’s a physical paper or a spreadsheet – you may draw a total blank on where it’s stored and have to search for it.
But when safety software is programmed with your industry in mind, you can count on it to put the data you need at your fingertips when you need it, and in the format you require.
Standardized Processes, Across Your Entire Company
If you’re in charge of EHS management for a small to medium business, process standardization may not be a huge concern for you. It’s relatively easy to adhere to a standard method when you’re the only one entering data and making reports.
For larger businesses, however, especially those spanning multiple locations that may be spread across several states or even international borders, standardization becomes a major concern. If each safety manager has their own way of doing things, perhaps informed by the specific regulations of their jurisdiction, you may find that your data is recorded in a dozen different ways, and that none of it is compatible.
However, if everyone is using the same safety software, the software itself can enforce standardization rules. Now interdepartmental cooperation is easier than ever, as everyone’s data can be shared, compared, and combined as needed.
This, of course, loops right back into saving time. If you’re in charge of compiling a quarterly report using data from every factory your business owns, for example, having all of that data in one software solution saves you the time and effort of requesting it from each individual safety manager.
Compliance Made Easy
Safety regulation compliance is another complicated issue for large enterprises. As mentioned above, different jurisdictions have different regulations, which may inform the EHS policies of each individual manager. Rather than having numerous different rulesets, a corporation may find it more beneficial to design one environmental health and safety compliance policy that meets or exceeds the regulatory requirements of every county, state, and country they operate in.
Via the use of a safety software program and sustainability software, EHS managers can track their compliance with various safety regulations, from the rules surrounding the disposal of hazardous chemicals to those governing occupational health. The best safety software automatically updates to reflect new regulations, so that you’re never caught off guard.
Are You Ready to Try Safety Software?
These are just a few of the benefits of modern software for safety programs. Chances are, once you’ve tried EHS management software, you’ll wonder how you got this far in your career without it.
