According to a survey done by International Labour Organization (ILO), there have been more than 2.3 million deaths every year as a result of occupational accidents and work- related diseases. In addition to this, each year, there have been 313 million occupational accidents resulting in lost man-hours.

ILO findings further state, that the annual cost to the global economy from accidents and work related hazards is a staggering $3 trillion. This goes on to show that if organisations are not investing in right safety resources, it can affect their reputation and they can incur added costs due to compensations and fines.

There are many factors leading to a fatal incident at work; lack of employee training, fall related injuries, motor vehicle accidents, machine related accidents, falling objects etc. The industries with most fatalities are agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, transportation and warehousing. Successful workplace safety culture ensures organizational safety is efficiently and effectively managed, and it starts from top of the organisational hierarchy. The indirect costs from injuries like workers compensation, legal matters, hiring new employee can be significantly higher than direct expenses.

Therefore, we can clearly understand that we need to have a proactive safety approach, if we want to foster a safer work place environment, not only for employee safety but also to increase productivity while reducing overall expense of maintaining and compensating employees.

Now the question that we have is, what can be done to bring down incident numbers and create a safer and productive occupational environment.

Changing the mindset

Accidents happen at work place all the time leading to fatalities but companies have accepted this as a pervasive issue. This results in spending more on employee compensation and also results in downgrading company reputation; operations may also take a hit.

Organizations should change their mindset and invest in better safety methodology while keeping an eye on the human capital as well.

Creating a safety culture

Safety culture begins with conscientious efforts of each and every employee within an organization. It is the duty of the employer to cultivate such a safety culture which incentivizes hazard and incident reporting.

By investing properly to create a robust safety culture, organizations can reduce the direct cost of compensating employees while assessing risks and notice an increase in company goodwill.

An effective EHS software can help companies minimize risk and regulate compliance. For building a safe workplace environment, it is important that team leader, decision makers and executives exude this culture from top of the command and then implement it down the line.

Safety as ROI

Safety should not be considered as a cost over-head instead as a cost saving mechanism which can be easily defined when seen through the lens of an EHS software. According to a survey 40% increased productivity was achieved by improving workplace safety. As less injuries means low cost and it helps in boosting employee morale and confidence.

EHS Software as a growth metric

A good EHS software will not only redefine your enterprise efficiency, but it can act as a centralised knowledge repository, providing accurate data and enhanced management visibility resulting in reduced amount of near-miss and incident occurrence. Implementing an EHS software can result in generating higher ROI which can take care of the software implementation costs, on its own.

A well planned EHS software replaces manual safety system and contributes in digital transformation. It helps in mitigating and logging risks with timely assessment of the incident by the EHS team in the company.. Cloud technologies ensure that EHS information can be accessed and addressed quickly, making accident data ubiquitous.

Another benefit of EHS management system is that companies can stay organized and keep up with the ever updating compliance regulations. Software solution can help organizations to streamline essential compliance standards like ISO 9001. It allows companies to be prepared for any unplanned events or audits allowing them to generate reports as and when required.

Conclusion

An effective EHS management system should highlight the roles and duties of EHS personnel like reporting, auditing etc. It should focus on reducing economic and operational losses. The most effective EHS management system is the one which allows you to constantly evaluate and improve your current EHS strategy..

While revamping your company’s HSE culture, it is important that you choose a well-planned strategy which in turn can help you get better ROI. When implementing EHS system, check that a platform fulfills your compliance criteria and choosing the right software partner would definitely ease this change. So by being pro-active companies can create a more sustainable bottom line.