Today’s society is more socially conscious than ever before. Employee treatment and rights, regardless of industry, are becoming increasingly important to regulators around the world. Employee welfare is becoming particularly crucial to company leaders. This is largely due to significantly harsher penalties for environmental and occupational health and safety violations. Good health and safety practices have been generally accepted as morally correct and important for a company to keep an eye on regulations, but many leaders have just recognized the financial and business benefits of good health and safety practices. Moreover, for a company, compliance with environmental regulations such as waste management or air and emission management is also essential. 

As a result, the demand for EHS software systems is at an all-time high. But how do these systems help businesses? Many organizations and managers do not yet see the value of the digitalization of management of environmental, health, and safety management, so in this article we list the 5+1 main reasons why switching to an EHS software could be a good investment for your company: 

1. Traditional EHS tools like Excel Spreadsheets are outdated 

Excel spreadsheets have always been useful. In fact, many businesses still rely on spreadsheets as their primary means of internal data collection. However, when it comes to EHS, are they still fit for the purpose of reporting and data collection? 

We believe that they are no longer a viable strategy. Here are some of the benefits of moving away from spreadsheets and other traditional solutions: 

• Spreadsheets and other traditional solutions are less user-friendly and more difficult to use. 
• They provide few opportunities for collaboration and limit the ways in which individuals can share information. 
• The transfer of spreadsheets from one employee to another can be complicated because the different versions of excel employees use. 
• Without strict document management tools in place, valuable data is easily overwritten, deleted, or lost. 

Aside from spreadsheets, older EHS systems may lack the functionality and flexibility required in the modern workplace. A switch to a newer system can help eliminate errors, boost productivity, and improve communication. You will also have access to plenty of new capabilities that will allow you to optimize your processes beyond what you previously thought was possible. 

2. Easier to achieve Legal compliance 

Legal compliance can be difficult to achieve, but it is critical in environmental, health and safety and can be costly if not done properly. Using spreadsheets and paper-based systems makes it hard to see who has made any edits which can lead to chaos and confusion which can result in issues at audits. Moreover, it is impossible to efficiently control what can be accesses and edited by each employee. With regulatory environments across industries becoming increasingly stringent and fines more expensive, you will want to ensure that you follow every regulation in place and ensure problem-free audits. 

An EHS software system will assist you in digitizing the process, allowing you to access documents and data remotely and instantly, making legal compliance far easier as we move into a more digital world. Streamlining your operations will save you time and ensure compliance. Many of the top EHS software systems are cloud-based, allowing you to store and send the most recent and accurate versions of documents to authorities. You can also ensure that each file is in the proper format. In addition, if something goes wrong and an error occurs, you have all of your previous records in one place for reference.  

Most of the EHS software providers give you also access to legal implication content and help you to understand the relevant legislations. Read our Legislative management e-book and learn about how a software solution can help you achieve legal compliance and stream free audits.

3. Financial benefits and enhanced trust by customers and investors

The financial advantages of following good health and safety practices are greater than ever due to the harsher penalties for health and safety violations. Fewer accidents can lead to:  

• Fewer legal costs paid out 
• Lower accident claims pay-outs  
• Less time off due to injury  
• Overall healthier, happier, and more productive workforce 
• Better reputation 

Furthermore, customers appreciate it when a business care about their employees. It demonstrates a level of basic empathy that makes them more inclined to purchase your products or services. When you invest in EHS software and prioritize the welfare of your employees, your customers will have more trust in you. It is important to mention that a software that also helps you in ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) data collection such as denxpert, let you prioritize employee welfare on a higher level. The same is true for investors. Both parties will notice that you take employee welfare seriously and understand that the same level of concern extends to their experiences. You can also capitalize on these accomplishments by publicizing them, demonstrating to everyone that health and safety are of the utmost importance to you. 

In addition, sustainability considerations are coming to the fore in financial planning and risk management, and investors are increasingly monitoring companies’ environmental and social objectives and the concrete steps they are taking to achieve them. It is therefore important to establish and regularly monitor processes within the organization that are based on ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) data. 

More and more companies are making the switch to an up-to-date, user friendly EHS software – like denxpert – and for good reason: EHS software provides numerous benefits to both businesses and individual employees, ranging from increased productivity to lower costs and improved overall performance.  

4. Increase employee engagement  

New EHS software models go beyond the reporting capabilities of EHS managers. Updated software systems enable any employee to report an incident, near miss, or other health and safety issues to leadership. Moreover, besides reporting errors, it also lets you record new opportunities such as carbon emission reduction ideas. The ability to report at anytime from anywhere inherently encourages employees to engage in safer behaviors and assist their colleagues in doing the same. When you give this authority to everyone in your organization, it becomes more difficult for them to dismiss due diligence as “someone else’s responsibility.”  

Furthermore, you are allowing those who are passionate about health and safety to express their value. They now have a way to be heard without having to deviate from their daily tasks and schedule a meeting with the appropriate people. Instead, they now have an easy and accessible way to express themselves about what they see and do. Their excellent reporting abilities can now be tracked and recognized, and you can commend them on their excellent work. Encouragement and reinforcement of proper safety behaviors is an excellent way to keep your organization’s health and safety record improving, and software makes this task easier. 

5. Minimize human error 

We are human and we make mistakes, but in the field of environmental, health and safety, they can mean the difference between life and death. A lot of EHS professionals’ work revolves around reducing human errors and focusing on how we can perform tasks in a safer (and often more efficient) manner. Work is supported by EHS software monitoring, so human error is minimized! 

It reveals who the responsible person is, and the software helps with the correction right away. New colleagues can get trained easily, and there is no need to worry when someone leaves, as everything is saved in the system. 

5+1 Save Time & resources 

Every year, businesses devote significant time and resources to safety-related administrative tasks. EHS software simplifies and automates a variety of time-consuming administrative tasks by providing comprehensive dashboards, reports, efficient data collection forms, task management, reminders, and more. It will help with the more routine tasks and report filling, giving health and safety professionals more time to focus on the activities that they believe will drive change in the business from an EHS standpoint.