Safety Education is Redefined by Online Learning and Training Management Software

E-learning powered by training management software reaches employees who work remotely or in different locations and is the reason why distance learning became an invaluable tool during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The urgency to train employees on new workplace safety rules presents challenges for many Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) managers and corporate leaders. Digital learning platforms, centrally administered through training management software and systems, have become essential tools for companies and institutions in their efforts to deliver information and training quickly and effectively to employees. Online and blended-learning programs help workplaces reach employees no matter where they’re located.

However, effective e-learning programs require a strategic approach to the use of technology, content delivery and course development. The introduction of microlearning—the ability to deliver training content in short bursts of information—has elevated the way organizations conduct distance learning. It’s a way of presenting complex topics in an engaging way and without … Read more...

Arcadis: A Trusted Partner Offers Four Differentiators Shared by High-Performing EHSQ Programs

From filing cabinets to spreadsheets to technology: Arcadis and Intelex partner to change the way world-class companies approach EHSQ management systems.
From filing cabinets to spreadsheets to technology: Arcadis and Intelex partner to change the way world-class companies approach EHSQ management systems.

The landscape of EHSQ data management has changed quite substantially over the last 30 years. From the days of incident and inspection reports stored in filing cabinets to the spreadsheets and point solutions of a decade ago, Intelex has developed mature, enterprise EHSQ solutions to meet these changing and challenging demands.

Arcadis has been a growing and trusted partner of Intelex through many of these years, helping clients implement Intelex to meet very complex requirements in EHSQ data management. We have brought subject matter experts in EHSQ business processes and market sectors to provide the right amount of guidance for industry best practices during implementation. Arcadis is dedicated to building long-term, trusted-advisor relationships with our clients throughout the Intelex engagement and beyond. We are very proud that we are … Read more...

Look for the “Believers” to Evangelize Your Safety Culture

Occupational health and safety, like anything, needs to be imbedded into culture and culture is created by the employees.

Safety cultures should be created by employees for each other – empowered, invested and supported by the company – as opposed to forced down and then begrudgingly adopted or ignored.

That’s the view of Neil Bedwell, a council member of Forbes magazine who heads up a consultancy that focuses on culture called Local Industries, based in Atlanta. Employees represent the most important stakeholders in any workplace initiative, he says. In the context of health and safety, guidelines may be created by a small group of senior people, but it is the employees on the floor who bring these principles to life day-by-day and minute-by-minute.

“Occupational health and safety, like anything, needs to be imbedded into culture and culture is created by the employees,” Bedwell says. “Health and safety … Read more...

ISO 45001 and ANSI Z10 Offer Valuable Safety Management Guidance

Industry standards exist to help set the foundation for a safety management system. For those who may not have a system in place or are looking to take an existing safety management system (SMS) to the next level, standards offer a guiding blueprint for the key and necessary components and practices. Two of the most common and ubiquitous are the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 45001 and the American National Standards Institute’s ANSI Z10.

ISO 45001 is described as the world’s first international standard for occupational health and safety systems. It provides a framework for improving health and safety performance and is intended to control the factors that may result in injury, illness or death on the job. ISO 45001 is also described as process-based and considers risks and opportunities. The standard explicitly mentions mental health as an element that should be protected by the program.

Another noteworthy feature of … Read more...

The Data Collection Components of a Safety Management System

Safety Management Systems report essential business information, ensure compliance requirements, help to manage risks and improve operational performance.
Safety Management Systems report essential business information, ensure compliance requirements, help to manage risks and improve operational performance.

The scope and maturity of a safety management system (SMS) to manage safety risk in the workplace varies by industry type, location and company because some are more regulated than others and that dictates the level of maturity and robustness a system requires. However, there are common components every SMS has, including:

Incident Reporting to capture, track, investigate and report on all incidents and near-misses, including injuries and illnesses, spills, property damage and vehicle incidents.

Audit Management that includes scheduling, tracking, data collection and reporting for all internal or external audits to simplify and ensure compliance across all company locations and operating jurisdictions.

Document Control that improves document management across the complete lifecycle of an organization’s compliance efforts and activities. It’s important to control access to sensitive files, forms … Read more...

More Work and More Tech Needed to Take EHS to the Next Level of Success

The COVID-19 pandemic placed EHS in the spotlight and has tasked professionals to do more than ever in managing risks within and outside of traditional workspace confines.

The future of environment, health and safety will see the need for more technology adoption by organizations as EHS professionals take on much greater workloads and a role in total worker wellness largely due to the outfall of COVID-19.  

These were among the key observations and topics of discussion during the first day of the Verdantix virtual summit on Innovating for Sustainable Operations that focused on EHS and operations.

Next Level for EHS

During a session titled, Taking EHS to the Next Level of Success, presenters considered how the responsibilities and workloads of EHS professionals have been impacted as hybrid and remote working becomes more popular. 

Verdantix CEO David Metcalfe said the COVID-19 pandemic placed EHS in the spotlight and has tasked … Read more...

Compliance or Risk Auditing: What Is the Best Approach?

Companies need audit management to understand the safety management system and evaluate compliance with internal requirements and external regulations.

Safety program audit management provides confidence to organizations that operational risks are measured through sufficient identification, control, monitoring and governance. Audits are conducted to better understand the safety management system and evaluate the level of compliance with internal requirements and external regulations. Such audits utilize audit protocols to understand problems to correct any deficiency before a loss or a compliance issue is experienced. 

Safety auditing is conducted usually for the following reasons:

  • Ensuring compliance to the requirements of internal, international, and industry standards & regulations, and customer requirements
  • To determine the effectiveness of the implemented system in meeting specified objectives (safety, quality, environmental, financial)
  • To explore opportunities for improvement
  • To meet statutory and regulatory requirements
  • To provide feedback to senior management

Compliance Versus Risk-Based Audting

There are two main channels of thought when … Read more...

Key Principles and Technologies to Implementing a Robust Safety Program


Creating a workplace that is striving to achieve and sustain safety performance success begins with one critical question: Is safety your organization’s principal value?

Achieving safety and health success is measured in various ways and with an ample set of metrics that quantify and qualify success. However, I would venture to guess that most organizations still look to a specific number of measures to define overall success: Metrics that measure loss, the time between failure, the duration of loss and the severity of the loss.

The reality is, most organizations still want to understand that loss and its severity are improving with time, and that’s okay. Yes, I said it: it’s okay.

Creating a workplace that is striving to achieve and sustain safety performance success begins with one critical question: Is safety a core value or better yet, is it the organization’s principal value? To define it in terms of … Read more...

Safety First: Boosting Your Organization’s Culture of Safety by Steering Clear of Seven Dangerous Mistakes

Safety Management Program

As they say, “invest in tomorrow by practicing safety today.” While that may seem to be a very commonsensical statement, common sense is not always common.

With safety being a key component to most post-pandemic business continuity plans, there has been a re-focus on the culture of safety. Most organizations that have a safety-first mantra have put a strong focus on creating effective safety observation programs. According to Chuck Pettinger, Process Change Leader for Predictive Solutions Corp, these programs “bolster employee engagement and provide a great repository for leading indicator analysis.”

While the focus of any safety program is to incorporate best practices and learnings to ensure that your program is founded on foolproof methods, there is also a lot we can learn from their failures. Put another way, we can identify additional opportunities to further test and optimize.


How Multi-Faceted Safety Programs Can Effectively Drive a Strong Safety Culture
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The Deepwater Horizon Disaster: Why it Holds Important Lessons for Every Organization

Ten years later, the lessons learned from the Deepwater Horizon incident remain important.

On April 20, 2010 at 9:49 pm, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers and injured 17. By July 15, five million barrels of oil had flowed from the ruptured well into the Gulf of Mexico. This caused untold environmental and economic disaster for the region, the effects of which continue to resonate to this day. 

Ten years later, the story of the Deepwater Horizon remains important. The Report to the President by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling summarized the technology failures. On the face of it, these failures were responsible for the immediate disaster.

Significant Technology Failures

In summary, the most significant technology failure was that of the blowout preventer (BOP), which did not sever and seal the well to prevent the escape … Read more...