EHS, which stands for environment, health and safety, is a field in the industry that is slowly becoming harder and harder for firms to take for granted. EHS in itself is quite a vast field in the industry. It would not be a surprise to find an entire section or, even a department whose task is to ensure that the mandates of EHS are followed to the letter. Because of the daunting task of having to keep up with all the demands of EHS compliance, it helps for businesses to have an advanced tool powered by computing called EHS software. In today’s industry, it is almost impossible to perform a proper EHS management without the help of computers which are, fortunately, available to almost any setting. This article will give you a rundown into everything that you need to know before buying EHS software.
Benefits of EHS Software
Before talking about the benefits of EHS software in itself, it is a good idea to talk about the impact of EHS in the industry. EHS software is simply a tool to help out in proper EHS management and EHS monitoring. With the help of EHS software, your company will be able to measure up to the needs demanded by the industry on EHS.
EHS Software: Measuring Social Gains
EHS is the link between the industry and the society that it serves directly or indirectly. Because of that, EHS is essentially the soul of the company that will not only seem the representation of the company to people on the outside looking in, but the face that the workers of the company wears when they brandish about the company that they work for. This means that however the company manages their responsibilities in EHS, it will directly affect how they will be facing the general populace that they directly or indirectly serve.
Proper gathering of data from EHS can help in measuring the level of impact that the company has with the three components of EHS which are environment, health and safety. Environmental data can be used to measure the level of pollution that the company introduces to the natural world. This can include the amount of carbon dioxide emissions, the temperature rise that the company will cause on nearby bodies of liquids such as lakes, rivers, and oceans, the amount of garbage being dumped by the company on a daily basis into the local landfills, the area of animal habitat damaged by the company operations, and so much more.
In health, EHS can help in identifying any possible health risks due to any actions done by the company. The information gathered may include regular reading of vital signs of the nearby communities, or a tabulation of health symptoms recorded by nearby health offices. If the company is selling products that are taken into households or are being taken in by consumers, EHS may also gather data regarding health complications resulting from the intake of said products. Another aspect of health that needs mention is the health status of the workers themselves. It always pays to have healthy workers for the company for as long as the company is expected to operate at acceptable levels. The workers knowing that their health are being monitored will also directly affect the health and morale of the workers which could then reflect on the output of the daily operations.
Safety is the last but certainly not the last aspect of EHS. Safety, like health focuses on the wellbeing of workers, and the consumers of the company. The main difference is that, where health generally looks at the symptoms that the affected population is exhibiting, safety focuses on not getting those symptoms in the first place. This means avoiding any untoward incidents such as accidents due to improper safety management. EHS can create a measure that will be able to identify the level of preparedness that a workplace has when tragedy should strike. This is why part of industrial safety is continuous education of the current workers through lectures, drills and other forms of information dissemination.
Safety, however, encompasses not only the well-being of people, but of the assets that the company owns as well as the assets that are owned by the community. For instance, a company asset that maybe a casualty from an accident includes the vehicles that the company uses in their employ. Defensive driving skills for the company personnel, and proper maintenance of such vehicles are necessary to ensure that no lives are lost, no working hours are wasted to injury, and as mentioned, no assets are destroyed. Similarly, such precaution also gives the community a shield from the same kind of incident. For instance, a truck being driven into a park could cause destruction to property owned by the community.
Aside from the obvious gains that can be gained by garnering the community’s trust as a company that cares for the environment, health of their proponents, and taking care of safety, there is one more benefit that is achieved by proper implementation of EHS. The aspect we are talking about is the morale that could be gained by the workers from having a positive image for the company. One always wants to work for a company that is, not only socially aware, but makes the steps that are necessary in order to uphold the standards that they have set for themselves.
EH Software: Streamline Production
It is no secret that the EHS teams and the members of consultancy will have to spend a long time in doing the tasks that needed for anyone in administration. Using EHS software will allow these personnel to enjoy the benefits of automation to ensure that they will be able to free their time to do things that actually matter. For instance, gathering individual data sets by doing daily rounds may take quite some time off some of the more important members if done manually. Having automated software and hardware designed specifically for data gathering that need not be manually operated would be the key to an optimized and efficient EHS management system.
It is no secret that one of the reasons why production can get halted is because of poor conditions that may have been the result of neglected safety inspections. Proper EHS management can assist in proper EHS checking in a way that will not cause any delay in operations. EHS software can schedule the maintenance routines so that it will not interfere with operations without neglecting all the necessary check ups.
EHS Software: Keep expenses in Check
Because of the increasing demand for employee productivity, one of the ways that a proper EHS software can help is by cutting of the expenses that it usually incurs. When a proper EHS system backed by EHS software is implemented, there are a number of expenses that can be lowered, or outright avoided. Here are some of these expenses
- Legal Fees – Because of the many laws that are being imposed in order to protect human life and environmental rights, there is a real danger of falling into a quicksand of legal conundrums that may end terribly for companies. With proper EHS management through EHS software, the company can closely monitor the responsibilities that they have for the state and ensure that they will not be in violation of any of the policies that are imposed.
- Compensation to Workers and Consumers – One of the many expenses that companies have to shoulder are the medical expenses that they will have to pay for if their employees incur medical expenses. Although not a policy that the state demands, this is a common courtesy and, not to mention, one of the main benefits that employees look for from their employer. If health and safety of the workers are properly taken care off, the expenses incurred from such compensation schemes could be drastically lowered. This means less money going into medical expenses and the time it takes for the employees to get back on their feet again and start being productive.
EHS Software: Transparency
When you are a shareholder of the company or one of the consumers, it is normal for you to demand a lot of transparency when it comes to safety, health and the effort to conserve the environment through sustainability practices. Given these developments, more and more emphasis is being given to the reporting in a way that the results are not only accurate and traceable, but has a striking quality of integrity embedded into it. Proper EHS software would allow the companies in reporting the important metrics and have more integration and optimization in doing soi. Furthermore, in order to facilitate external reporting, the EHS software should allow people from within the company to easily rummage through existing data.
It is never an easy task to manage EHS as it is quite a broad part of the industry. What can be done, however, is to automate, bit by bit the important functions that would save the company valuable resources such as time.
