What’s in an EHS management software?
Health and safety practices in the workplace are so crucial that great talent can ditch plans to join a company that does not give much attention to its EHS management system for another that does.
According to an Antea Group EHS Research, 75% of employees are concerned and feel safe and secure workplaces are important to them.
So, how do you ensure you have what it takes to help you not only reduce incidents and save money in terms of compensations, but also take care of your employees and boost your retention rate?
You can turn to technology and use the best EHS management software around.
But how do you choose the best health, safety and environmental software to boost your EHS key performance indicators out of the dozens that now flood the HSE software market?
What Are the Top EHS Management Software Features to Checkout Before Signing on the Dotted Line?
Here are five key EHS software features to checklist.
1. Ease of Use
No matter how full-featured a top EHS program is, if it takes a lifetime to figure out and integrate into your firm’s culture, it can be tough to use it effectively.
Ask:
- Does it come with EHS templates relevant to your industry?
- Does the vendor offer training and continuous support—and is it provided as part of the purchase or a separate charge that’ll cost you more in the long-haul?
- Does it offer custom entry fields your firm can use to create simple workflows?
- Can most of your staff handle the EHS software on a continuous basis?
2. Functionality
This one is a biggie, but it all depends on what you are specifically looking for—what can benefit your firm as opposed to just having a feature-rich software.
For example:
- Is it EHS regulations compliant?
- Does it offer security features such as admin controls, virus and hacking protection?
- Is it adaptable to new changes in regulations (receives updates)?
- Does it notify of approaching compliance deadlines and via what channels (email, text, call, etc.)?
- What kind of incident and risk management benefits does it offer compared to the competition?
- Is it seamlessly compatible with other software suites at the company?
- Does it offer mobile apps to keep up with EHS status on the go, especially if working with millennials?
- Is its audit trail, reporting, document storage, and policy management in line with what your company does or compatible?
- Do you get a dedicated server and regular backups?
3. Cost
You want a health, safety and environmental software solution that is on the sweet spot between affordable and valuable.
Be sure to ask:
- Is there a free trial to test your potential investment?
- What is the overall cost of buying and maintaining the software versus the value it could offer (and compared to the competition)?
- Is cost based on the number of users or features or a combination of both (and which would work best in your case)?
- Is it a one-off purchase or continuous as a subscription?
- Are there discounts for say, annual, bi-annual or tri-annual subscriptions?
4. Scalability
Here are good examples of an EHS program’s scalability:
- Is the EHS management software cloud-based that can expand or shrink seamlessly with your storage needs or a fixed, native app?
- Is the cost based on the number of users you add or features you add hence pricing being based on pricing tiers?
The answers to these questions will require you to thoroughly assess what your firm really wants in an EHS management system before committing to a purchase decision.
