10 Key Questions to Answer Before Choosing an EHS Software for the Public Sector

Recently, we published a whitepaper titled “9-Step Guide to Safety Transformation in the Public Sector”.

The paper highlighted the following about automation and overall operational modernization at public sector and government-run organizations:

• The importance of spotting high-opportunity areas where digital transformation will make a big difference
• Digital transformation as a mean to drive more data-driven decisions
• Easier reporting and analytics when the right set of tools are used
• The need for integrated “connected” systems and how siloed digital tools will result in inefficiencies

The four points mentioned above are especially important from a health & safety perspective. Public sector entities understand the immense value of “safe people, safe workplace, and safe processes” and the only way to make it a reality is to embrace automation.

The automation of safety management processes and workflows will help with the following:

• Bringing together teams and stakeholders across locations to approach all the work they do with a “safety-first” approach
• A single platform where all safety-related documents including safety policy, SOP documentation, etc. can be easily accessed
• Ease of incident handling and planning CAPAs
• Recording, tracking, monitoring, and acting on near-misses and safety observations
• Scheduling of safety audits on a periodic basis
• Conducting focused safety inspections with clearly defined goals and objectives
• Proactive risk assessment and risk management
• Safety training - customized for various locations, nature of work, etc.
• Overall, build a safety culture and spread awareness about the importance of doing the right thing when it comes to health and safety

Safety Management in the Public Sector: Common Challenges

Some of the common challenges in the public sector when it comes to workplace safety include:

• Diverse workforce across several locations, cities, and offices
• Legacy systems and processes that are often difficult to change
• Prioritization of budgets
• Resource allocation, training, and planning
• Large, complex operations that are not easy to transform
• Public scrutiny and overall resistance to change
• Integration with other software/solutions used to make the new digital tools useful

In the whitepaper we mentioned above, we offer a manual of sorts to help guide safety leaders in the public sector implement a safety transformation project. The key aspects of any safety transformation must include the following:

1. Assess and evaluate current state of safety management in your organization
2. Analyze documents, data and reports that are currently available and decide what else is needed
3. Define safety policy, plan out your goals & objectives
   1. Draft SOPs for various job roles
4. Involve the leadership team and make safety a priority for them
   1. Of course, employee engagement across the organization is critical for effective implementation
5. Continuous training is critical for ongoing improvement
6. Measure both lagging and leading indicators of health & safety performance
7. Empower people and teams; ensure they are truly engaged with the organization’s safety goals
8. Ongoing audits and inspections are a critical component of better safety
9. Proactive risk management with data at the core

Read the full whitepaper to find out more: https://www.compliancequest.com/whitepaper/9-step-guide-to-safety-transformation/

Evaluating an EHS Software for Your Public Sector Organization? Answer the Following Questions Before You Choose

As detailed above, a robust safety strategy is the first step towards better safety. But in order to implement this strategy and execute it well, the role of a modern EHS Software cannot be emphasized enough.

Answer the following questions for yourself, and then choose the EHS Software for your organization:

• Is the EHS tool flexible, scalable, and configurable?
• Is it secure and reliable?
• Can we implement this quickly?
• Do we need to worry about infrastructure?
• Does it integrate with our other software including our HRMS and CRM?
• Is it modular, so we can add features and capabilities as time goes by?
• Does it have out of the box checklists and pre-built processes for regulatory compliance?
• Will our people use it? Is it intuitive and simple to use?
• Does it take advantage of latest technology including leveraging AI and analytics?
• Is the solution running on a FedRAMP certified platform?

Evaluating your EHS Software options based on answers to the above questions will bring in a lot of clarity into your process.

At ComplianceQuest, we have built our EHS Solution on a FedRAMP High and IL4 Certified Platform. Find out more here: https://www.compliancequest.com/industry/government/