How to Sell EHS Software to Your IT Department

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As all successful marketers know, to win over your target audience you need to: one, know what your audience cares about, and two, speak their language. Trying to get IT approval on your EHS software initiative is no different. Identifying how your EHS software initiative will improve your IT department’s pain points and understanding the key terminology they use will go a long way to securing their approval.

So, what does your IT department care about?

  1. Resources (Time & Funding)
    Each system in your organization needs to be maintained. That can include adding users, managing permissions, updating software to more secure versions, or paying renewal fees. The more software a company uses, generally the bigger headache for IT. Therefore, consider looking at fully integrated EHS management systems over point solutions. It’ll be easier and more affordable for your IT department to maintain. Ever better – showcase how your proposed EHS
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Construction Abatements, Data Collection OSHA’s Chief Challenges: Report

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Obtaining reliable data about workplace injuries is hindering OSHA’s efforts to determine how best to use its resources to help protect U.S. workers’ health and safety, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DoL) Office of Inspector General. This challenge is particularly acute in high-risk industries like forestry, fishing, agriculture, mining and construction.

The report, titled “Top Management and Performance Challenges Facing the U.S. Department of Labor,” details challenges faced by all arms of the DoL, of which OSHA is a part.

The situation, the DoL writes, is exacerbated by underreporting of injuries by employers. Without reliable data regarding workplace injuries, OSHA “lacks the information needed to effectively focus inspection and compliance efforts on the most hazardous workplaces.”

One former OSHA official, however, believes the agency already receives more than enough data to prioritize its actions.

“Most employers over-report, not under-report. They put stuff down … Read more...

HR’s Top Priority? Safety and Wellbeing!

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By Faith Tull, Intelex Chief People Officer

Human Resources (HR) plays a unique role for health and safety within a company. We wear many hats in our organization, but ultimately at the core of everything we do is our employees. Not only is HR present to provide guidance when cultivating careers, but also is a critical component when the well-being and safety of each employee is considered!

There are many facets in any industry where safety is essential. When people think of safety, they immediately think about workplace accidents. It’s overwhelming that over 2.6 million accidents* occur each year, and as an HR professional, this is a tough number to swallow because we work hard to bring in these talent individuals into our organizations.

As an HR leader, I’ve always been committed to improving workplace health and safety standards and have worked closely with many subject matter experts whose roles … Read more...

The Business Value of ISO Certification

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Although companies have no requirement to do so, gaining certification to one or more standards established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) brings a bounty of benefits. Some are altruistic in nature, such as the satisfaction and positive public relations that come with ecological or social responsibility. Others are directly linked to a business’s overall performance, including operational competitiveness and internal process improvement. And, of course, there are those payoffs that are seen on the ledger sheets, such as increased sales and higher revenues.

So, just what is the purpose of the ISO standards? According to the nongovernmental agency itself, they are intended to “facilitate trade, spread knowledge, disseminate innovative advances in technology, and share good management and conformity assessment practices.” Upwards of 22,000 ISO standards have been published, with many being specific to certain products or industries. Some more frequently referenced ones apply more broadly, such as ISO … Read more...

Drive Engagement in Quality and Safety Management with the Help of Technology

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“If only I could get my organization to a state where our quality culture is embedded as a norm in every leader, contributor and partner. This would alleviate our constant trouble-shooting and reactive-stance dilemma. We’ve invested, stopped to ‘sharpen the saw’ multiple times, and while we have seen initial improvements, it’s very challenging to sustain.”

“We’ve made all the right ‘traditional’ moves by putting in place a mentoring program, defining accountability, consulting stakeholders, holding events, providing support and putting training programs in place. It seems though, that we experience diminishing returns and even I can’t remember the last time I took notice of the multitude of posters (some of which I sourced) dotted around the workplace.”

Sound familiar? If you’ve said it, thought it or heard it, maybe it’s time to think differently about quality culture and, more specifically, engagement in the context of quality and/or safety management. Engagement is … Read more...

How Risk-Based Thinking Can Have a Significant Impact on Brand Equity

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By Nicole Radziwill & Sonduren Fanarredha

For an organization to deliver high-quality products and services consistently, it must be able to create and sustain long-term value. An organization’s brand therefore consists not only of its name, but also its logo, its overall image and how it is perceived. “Brand equity” is the additional value a brand acquires because of its reputation or prestige in the marketplace. Brand equity takes time to build and, since it can have an impact on buying decisions over time, it is a significant part of an organization’s brand recognition and value. Losing this equity because of brand damage can also have far-reaching negative consequences.

As powerful as it can be, brand equity is also fragile. There are many forces that can threaten it, including:

  • Industry environments that are more uncertain and competitive.
  • Consumers that are increasingly empowered and have a stronger idea of what they
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The ROI on EHS Process Automation

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As an EHS professional, your responsibilities include safeguarding employees from deadly workplace hazards and managing the potentially paralyzing mountains of regulations and paperwork that go along with them. But just as technology has revolutionized so many things, from assembly lines to transportation, it can also revolutionize your ability to manage workplace hazards, regulatory compliance, and all those reams of data.

Here are ways that automating your EHS processes can improve your productivity and help achieve your EHS goals:

Staying Compliant

  • Identify and keep up-to-date with the EHS regulations you need to keep track of, across various locations, job types and industries
  • Simplify compliance reporting requirements
  • Automate and track training schedules
  • Organize and streamline document control

Anticipating Hazards and Managing Incidents

  • Standardize your incident management process so that required information is captured and can be turned into prescriptive insights
  • Standardize job safety analysis processes so that they are the same regardless
… Read more...

What is Data Governance and Why Do You Need It?

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Improving product and process quality requires that organizations make data-driven decisions about when, how much, and how often to adjust aspects of operations.

This means the data has to be available and accurate! Unfortunately, information often is siloed, living in Word docs and Excel files, and although that data might be on a publicly accessible network, finding it and knowing whether it will meet your needs can be impossible.

Busting silos and encouraging collaboration facilitates systems integration and leads to better decisions — ones that save time, money and effort while capturing valuable opportunities for growth and improvement. A solid plan for data governance — strategic, high-level planning and control for data management tasks.

A data governance framework essentially is a quality management system for data. Setting one up is an essential part of planning for Quality 4.0 for large enterprises or other organizations that are drowning in data.… Read more...

EHS Managers – Take Back the Power of Purchase

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You’ve done your due diligence, explored vendors, and have decided that it is time to invest in an EHS management system. As the person in the field, you know the tremendous impact this can make not only to your daily work life – but to the safety of your workers. However, convincing your CEO, CFO or VP to sign off on the investment can be tricky. Here are three things you need to consider when making the case to purchase an EHS management software:

  1. Turn your personal pain into corporate impacts

While you may find endless stacks of paperwork a pain, they aren’t enough to make your CEO want to allocate budget. Mapping your personal pain points back to tangible corporate impacts is a powerful way to convince your executives why they need to act. To do so, try using a similar structure to a 5-why cause analysis. But, instead … Read more...

How Fall Prevention Strategies Can Protect Your Workforce

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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that on average slips, trips and falls cause nearly 700 fatalities per year. Let’s look at how to prevent them.

Fall prevention strategies should be comprehensive and multifaceted but should begin with complete understanding of the variable risk factors that create loss potential opportunity. Given that there have been changes to the Walking-Working Surfaces standard, it’s prudent to consider risk assessment as a starting point to understand the robustness of your program and if you should be doing more. Consider what risks in your workplace may lead to slips and trips. Here are a few areas that should be evaluated:

  • Slippery Surfaces. It’s a safe assumption that most injuries occur on a slippery floor. Assessment should be conducted to understand if the floor surface is impacted by liquid or dry spillage. Some areas to consider are surfaces impacted by production materials like
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