Questions That CFOs Ask About EHS Software

Stringent health and safety regulations require businesses to ensure that all EHS processes are strategized and implemented well. Workplace safety and employee well-being are two critical areas of importance, and leadership teams are putting greater emphasis on them.

It is now abundantly clear that better safety is vital to enhancing brand value, reputation, customer loyalty, and employee engagement - in addition to having a direct impact on revenue growth.

A safe workplace improves efficiency and productivity. In organizations where safety and health are given importance, employees feel cherished and take up ownership of the tasks with enthusiasm. This improves compliance with safety regulations as well as enhances the quality and performance of the products and services. As awareness (towards safety) increases, customers also expect businesses to ensure the safety of their employees as well as their products and services. Continuously improvement of safety management systems has, therefore, become extremely important.

Manual Vs. Automated Safety Management

Given the critical role safety plays in an organization’s growth and compliance, businesses implement safety management systems. Often, though, it is a simplistic system that depends on manual processes supported by Excel spreadsheets or other similar software. Some of the limitations of such a system include:

• Lack of data visibility: Data is crucial to identify trends and prioritize safety issues that need immediate attention.
• Inability to implement a risk-based approach: Regulatory bodies require businesses to identify risks and be proactive in implementing controls to minimize incidents
• Inability to manage changes: When a risk is identified and a control measure implemented, does it improve safety or cause new risks to arise? This becomes difficult to view due to the inability to integrate safety data from across workflows
• Monitor and tracking impact become difficult: The performance of safety processes needs to be monitored to assess the effectiveness and make continuous improvements as needed

This reduces the effectiveness of the safety management program and taxes resources to ensure workplace safety. Data-driven, AI-enabled environment, health, and safety management software can provide data visibility, improve risk and change management, and enable monitor and tracking for continuous improvement.

However, the effectiveness of safety management is often measured in terms of the decreasing number of events, injuries, illnesses, etc., and the indirect saving of costs in penalties, litigation, compensation, and so on. While these are important measures, they are not enough to make a business case to convince the CFO about the value of investing in a modern EHS.

5 Key Questions CFOs Need Answering about EHS

For the CFO to be convinced of the need for a next-gen, scalable, modern EHS, the five top questions they are likely to ask would be as follows:

Question #1 - How will EHS software improve workplace efficiency?

A cloud-based safety management solution can be accessed from anywhere, anytime. It enables the centralization of documents and communications, leading to:

• Digitalization of workflows for consistency​: Implementing standardized procedures across the organization is facilitated through templates and automation
• Optimization of resource utilization: The employees spend less time on repetitive tasks and focus more on innovation and value addition, thereby saving time and cost and enhancing productivity
• Implementation of best practices​: Standardization of processes also enables the implementation of safety best practices across the organization
• Improved management productivity​: Access to enterprise-wide data improves decision-making for further improvement of safety practices

For detailed information on how it improves KPIs, read this blog: https://www.compliancequest.com/blog/safety-culture-impacts-on-business-kpis/

Question #2 - Can it lower the cost of safety?

Implementing a safety management system provides greater visibility into the processes, thereby enabling proactive mitigation of risks and lowering the cost of safety. As a result, there will be

• Less lost time injuries​: With fewer injuries and illnesses, there is less absenteeism and therefore less time loss at work
• Reduced fines and penalties: Incidents at the workplace can attract fines and penalties from regulatory and governing bodies such as OSHA, EPA, etc.​

Find out more on how to reduce the cost of safety: https://www.compliancequest.com/blog/reduce-cost-of-safety/

Question #3 - Does implementing EHS software lead to cost savings?

A cloud-based safety management system also results in cost savings:

• Lower operational costs​: It improves process efficiency, reduces errors and reworks, and ensures trained workers operate machines. This results in improved output and quality and lowers the risk of damage to assets.
• Increased productivity​: Employees feel more cherished and invest greater time and attention in their jobs, thereby improving productivity. Lower absenteeism and lost time to work also improve productivity.
• Low insurance premiums​: When the number of incidents comes down, the company also pays lower insurance premiums, thereby reducing costs.

Question #4 - Will the organization be able to improve risk management?

Risk management can be of 3 types:

• Reputation and brand risk
• Operational​ risks
• Compliance​ risks

Implementing a cloud-based safety management system improves workplace safety and employee engagement. This improves the reputation of the company in the marketplace. It also improves compliance with safety regulations. As there is a culture of safety, operational risks come down too.

Question #5 - Can a cloud-based, AI-driven EHS software help the organization meet sustainability and ESG goals?

EHS software addresses the environment, sustainability, safety, and governance aspects of the organization by providing transparency​ and improving workflows to meet these goals. As a result, they can help the organization meet its ESG goals. This has also become critical to improving stakeholder value​ as ESG valuation has become one of the major factors for investors to invest in a company.  The centralization of workflows and automation of document management facilitate reporting and disclosure​ of the ESG performance of the company. Therefore, organizations can not only meet their health and safety goals but also contribute significantly to the environment and community by using the EHS to track and manage its ESG objectives.

Advantages of Cloud-Based EHS Software

A cloud-based EHS software such as ComplianceQuest, which is built on Salesforce, also provides additional advantages such as:

• An integrated platform​ for all safety management needs
• Embedded best practices​
• Access to regulatory content​ and alignment with leading regulatory requirements
• Visibility into risks​
• Facilitates OOB regulatory reports
• Insights to take focused and effective action​
• Predictive analytics to highlight exposure/potential safety risks

For more information on CQ Safety Management Software, click here: https://www.compliancequest.com/lp/ehs/