Employees are an essential part of a business. They’re the ones who drive your company to achieve its goals. It’s important to provide training that empowers employees and promotes a safety culture.
Create a safety committee that includes employees from all departments. Keep them updated on safety topics, inspections, and injuries and illnesses through digital signage.
1. Automated Reporting
Reporting automation is the most effective way to democratize access to data-based insights and foster internal and external collaboration. Essentially, it’s business intelligence that serves up visual KPI metrics for real-time decision-making.
Using EHS software will help to reduce employee workload and build a culture of safety within your company. It will also increase productivity by simplifying data management and turning it into an asset for your brand or agency.
Manual processes create data lags and prevent organizations from being able to take action in the face of emerging risks. This can lead to safety incidents and compliance violations. With automated reporting, visibility into potential threats and hazards is enhanced so that corrective actions can be implemented promptly. This prevents downtime and lost revenue. It also helps to avoid regulatory fines. Smart alerts can be set up to notify the team when a benchmark is reached or a pattern indicates that immediate attention is needed.
2. Automated Safety Inspections
Performing regular safety inspections within a facility is an important part of any business and can help reduce the chance of injuries, accidents, or fires. However, it can also be time-consuming and may even cause disruptions to daily operations.
With the advent of technology, there are now a number of software solutions that can automate much of this process. These tools can greatly reduce the amount of manual data entry that is required as well as provide greater visibility into the inspections being performed.
Using these tools can also make it easier to track and analyze the information being collected. This can make it more efficient for the team to complete safety inspections as well as allow them to catch more issues before they become liabilities. Often, these tools are able to be used on mobile devices like laptops or tablets that allow the inspector to instantly enter information as they are gathering it.
3. Automated Training
Depending on the context, the word “automation” can evoke a variety of feelings. Some perceive it as an unethical method for businesses to replace human employees. However, this is far from true. Since its inception, automation has brought immense and indispensable benefits for both employers and employees.
Physical safety solutions are one of the most obvious ways that automation can enhance employee safety. For instance, automated lifting devices eliminate the risk of lifting and bending injuries. Robot welding machines distance workers from sparks and fumes, preventing weld-related accidents.
Document automation software can also streamline workplace safety processes by automating scheduling and reminders. This can help you avoid missed inspections, compliance renewals, training recertifications, and other important documentation deadlines. In addition, digital files make it easier to access and share information with your team, resulting in more consistent and aligned learning experiences. This can help reduce costly mistakes and misunderstandings that can lead to expensive injuries and lawsuits.
4. Automated Compliance Reporting
Industries like energy, mining, construction, and manufacturing deal with specialized equipment and materials that can be dangerous. Workers and organizations need to be vigilant and adhere to standard operating procedures, or risk fines and reputational damage.
Yet, many EHS teams are slogging through manual processes to perform quality inspections and gather data. When front-line employees have to manually scan inspection forms or crunch data in spreadsheets, they’re missing out on real-time performance reports and interactive dashboards that can inform their strategic decisions.
Using automation and digitized checklists, employees can log their observations and submit evidence through a simple app on their phones. This eliminates time-consuming, manual work for compliance teams and control operators and makes it easier to fulfill requests for evidence from auditors and third parties. It also ensures that controls are reviewed regularly and that they’re backed up by documentation in case of an incident. Finally, it helps reduce the fear and apprehension that prevents workers from reporting incidents – knowing their information will be shared only with the appropriate people.