5 Ways to Improve EHS Software Adoption

A National Safety Council study of Work to Zero identified the benefits of using EHS software for risk management and hazard identification; permit management; incident management, and safety audit.

According to the study, implementing a digital EHS solution provides the following 4 advantages:

• Generate deeper safety insights using centralized data acquired from multiple sources across the organization. This facilitates tracking, monitoring, and continuous improvement of safety practices.
• Enhance regulatory compliance by enabling companies to align with regulatory changes. It also helps create custom inspection checklists for making workplaces safe and compliant.
• Lower the cost of safety due to compensation, penalties, absenteeism, and recruiting and training replacements.
• It also improves safety review by providing the management with safety data anytime, anywhere, improves reporting, and enables the identification and mitigation of risks.

6 Common Hurdles to EHS Adoption

Despite these benefits, researchers found there are common barriers to widespread adoption of EHS software and apps, including:

• Customizing EHS Packages: Although all companies are mandated to ensure the safety and health of their workers, the needs and approach can vary from company to company based on the size and maturity of the safety management system. Therefore, each company needs a solution that meets its specific needs and can be customized. When that’s not possible, the company has to change its processes to fit the solution, which is more challenging and time-consuming.
• EHS Software Aimed at Smaller Organizations: Small organizations have a different need and approach to safety management. Most EHS software caters to mid and large companies, thereby leaving the smaller companies to deal with home-grown varieties or manual systems.
• Needing Manual Intervention: Many EHS software requires the intervention of the IT team to access reports or perform some other tasks, which creates data silos and inaccuracies, rendering safety practices ineffective.
• Lack of User Buy-in: Often, EHS adoption is driven from the top or by external stakeholders. But for the implementation to be successful, it is crucial that the users be convinced that the new technology can indeed make safety practices more effective. Lack of training and awareness can lead to the system being abandoned after initial feeble attempts at using it, or it may be used only for compliance and not to create a safety culture.
• Lack of Understanding of the Needs: Though EHS software can solve many problems, organizations often do not conduct a gap analysis to understand the areas where they need to focus first. This can dilute the effectiveness of digitizing safety management, as no major improvement may be observed.
• Lack of Tracking and Monitoring: Another barrier is that there may be no metrics to measure success. As a result, the leaders may have no reference about whether the EHS implementation has truly made any difference to the organization’s safety levels.

Best Practices to Overcome EHS Software Adoption Barriers

For the EHS software to truly be effective, it must not only reduce safety incidents but enable continuous improvement of safety practices to address future hazards and risks through predictive and proactive safety management. To achieve this, businesses need the following best practices:

• Identify Gaps: The first and foremost need is to understand why EHS software is needed. While it is a must in today’s digitized environment, it must be adopted for the right reasons. Is it because compliance is becoming a challenge? Is it because there are too many incidents? Is finding the root cause becoming a challenge? These can be some of the questions to consider. Also, the organization may already have robust practices in some areas and not so good in others.
• Scoping the EHS Plan: Once the gaps have been identified, the next is to brainstorm and scope out the EHS digitization plan. Whatever the trigger for the adoption of the software, since it will have enterprise-wide implications, the buy-in of all stakeholders will be a must. Therefore, taking their input on what is working, what needs improvement, and how software can help will be crucial. This will enhance a sense of ownership and accountability. This must also translate to policies and procedures to ensure the process of adoption is standardized.
• Identify the Right Fit: The next stage is to evaluate different software for the purpose. Whether to build it from scratch or buy an existing solution should also be considered. Assessing the key features that will enable meeting the organization's goals will be important, and customizability, scalability, and flexibility will be other key elements. The software must also be aligned with leading regulations to minimize compliance efforts.
• Establish Metrics: Is the software effective and giving the expected results is a crucial consideration. If the results are not as expected, then changes can be made early to minimize damage and ensure the goals are met. This will also determine whether the software is the ideal solution for the organization. This will also make it important to choose a scalable solution so that it can be piloted before the full version is implemented. Customizability also becomes crucial at this stage.
• Provide Training: For users to use the EHS effectively, providing them with training on the software and its different features is important. It will help them overcome any hesitation that can be a barrier to adoption and improve its effectiveness. The participation of employees is critical for proactive risk management as they are closest to the ground and therefore in a position to make safety observations and near misses. This will help in continuous improvement and meeting organizational goals.

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