A proactive health and safety culture is key to your business’ success. Having the right EHS software in place can be one of the best ways to support this.
Not making use of EHS software in your organisation could be holding you back. Even if you already use an external system to manage your safety processes and procedures, how do you know it’s the right fit? In this article, we’ll take a look at 7 signs that it could be time to replace your EHS software and how it can improve the overall safety, health and productivity of your workplace.
Sign 1: You’re spending too much time on Excel and Word
How you handle data is a big part of maintaining good health and safety practices. When logging incident reports or tracking incident updates, many companies default to the programmes they already know, such as Microsoft Excel or Word. While these programmes have their place in the workplace, when it comes to health and safety, they’re more efficient ways of working.
Unlike a tailored EHS software, Excel and Word rely on manual data entry which is time-consuming and can lead to mistakes. Finding that information at a later date is difficult, which makes it tricky to capture an accurate overview of your company-wide health and safety performance. This inability to see the whole picture makes it difficult to identify trends and behaviours that could lead to future accidents or injuries. As a result, you’ll find your teams consistently reacting to events rather than proactively mitigating those risks before they cause harm. With the right EHS software, you can easily obtain a comprehensive picture of your safety performance, you can easily share this with your boards and external regulators such as the HSE, and you can save time and money.
Sign 2: Low employee engagement
Your employees are integral to the success of your company’s health and safety culture. When your teams are engaged in incident reporting and can obtain more data and more learning to identify areas of concern and proactively reduce risks.
They are more likely to continue to promote good safety practices when they are engaged in safety. When your safety processes are complicated and labour-intensive, employees are less likely to feel engaged. This leads to low or no incident reporting, which means hazards are not identified and dealt with quickly, and there are no corrective or remedial actions for near misses.
With EHS software, you can better engage your employees and avoid preventable accidents or injuries. With Notify’s native health and safety app, your teams can report incidents from anywhere, in real time, for free; no more waiting until they’re back at a desk to manually log what has happened. Moreover, managers can deliver feedback and updates in real time, letting employees know that action has been taken as a result of their incident report.
In a recent case study with Regional Water Authority, Amanda Schenkle – Management of Environmental Health, Safety and Risk, commented “ The use of Notify in our safety programme has created efficiencies at an affordable cost for our organisation. Their mobile app has also allowed our staff to report near-misses easily and proactively, leading to a 300% increase and helping to reduce the likelihood of potential accidents occurring in the future.”
Sign 3: You’re paying for things you don’t need
When choosing your EHS software, it can be tempting to opt for an all-in-one package. This off-the-shelf solution promises everything and anything you might ever need, even if you don’t need it right now. Better to be safe than sorry, right?
Unfortunately, with this one-and-done approach to EHS software, you can end up paying for a whole host of modules or functionality that is never used. Instead, why not choose a system that is tailored to what you need? With Notify’s health and safety software, you can select the modules that make the most sense for your workplace. Whether you want to digitalise audits or streamline incident management, Notify can create a bespoke, cost-effective software package that works for you and your employees.
Sign 4: Analysing data in your EHS Software is difficult
So you’ve decided to migrate your health and safety data from Excel to safety software, but you’re still finding it tricky to sort through years’ worth of information. Perhaps your existing software has too many folders and filters, or there are too many clicks, making your data difficult to track and interpret. When you ask your teams for feedback, they use words like ‘clunky’ and ‘time-consuming’ instead of ‘user-friendly’ and ‘accessible’. If these scenarios sound familiar, it’s a sure-fire sign that you should upgrade your EHS software.
With Notify’s safety intelligence dashboards, you can quickly and easily see everything that’s happening. You can quickly identify trends and take proactive steps to prevent hazards leading to accidents. Notify’s automated calculations show the amount of time lost to incidents and your accident frequency rate, helping you track important safety KPIs whilst also saving you time. Moreover, you can choose who can access what information, ensuring your teams have the data they need whenever they need it.
Sign 5: Your employees are still using old templates and out-of-date risk assessments
Relying on an outdated or manual process for creating, sharing and communicating documents such as risk assessments, can lead to your workforce accessing, or even worse using incorrect versions. This can lead to employees working from out-of-date risk assessments, following old SOPs, or completing an old version of an audit – something you definitely do not want if you wish to stay compliant. With each new risk assessment or procedure, also comes the legwork of manually changing your documents and templates to reflect the most recent updates.
To ensure that everyone in your organisation is up to date with your health and safety practices, use EHS software that keeps your risk assessments, safety procedures and other important files all in one place. Notify’s document management software keeps your information organised and easily searchable. You can manage access, ensuring those confidential documents stay that way. Not only that, managing your documents digitally removes the need for piles of printed paper, saving you space while doing your bit to save the planet.
Sign 6: Your audits are inconsistent and untimely
If you’re still using manual methods to carry out your audits, inspections and checklists, there’s a high chance it’s costing you time and money, not to mention compromising your compliance. Relying on paper forms, manual checklists and spreadsheets can result in inconsistent information and untimely delivery of your audits. Can you be confident that your audits are being completed on time? Are you satisfied with the information that is being entered?
Notify’s audit management software enables you to schedule and assign audits to the right teams, at the right time. You can customise your audit templates so that the correct data is consistently captured and oversee all open, overdue and completed audits with our audit management dashboard. Your employees can complete and keep track of audits that have been assigned to them on the go via their mobile or tablet, increasing your teams’ efficiency and ensuring your audits are completed on time – to the right standard.
Sign 7: You’re not getting the right support from your current software provider
If you feel like your software provider keeps you waiting ages for a response, doesn’t give you an opportunity to contribute to their roadmap and doesn’t offer the customisation your organisation needs, then it could be time to make the switch to one that does.
As a health and safety software provider and partner, Notify’s priority is to make it easier for you to manage your company’s safety policies and processes, and help you drive a proactive safety culture.
As well as providing you with software that comes with a 97% customer satisfaction rate, Notify offers onboarding, training and customisation options to help you maintain great safety practices for years to come. With our dedicated support team and 24/7 self-service help centre only a click away, you can get on with driving proactive safety improvements and improving those important health and safety metrics, knowing that Notify is always here to support you.
If you feel like now is the time to give your health and safety software an upgrade, book a demo to learn how Notify can help. From digital risk assessments to incident reporting, Notify’s team of experts are on hand to support your journey towards a safer, healthier and more productive workplace.
