EHS Software Guide: Selecting the Right Safety Management Solution

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on EHS software—your go-to resource for selecting the right EHS solution. Regardless of your industry, ensuring a safe workplace is essential. So, having the right tools to identify hazards, communicate risk, and ensure compliance is critical.

In this guide, we’ll review what EHS compliance software is, including must-have functionality, so you can make an informed buying decision.

What is EHS Software?

EHS Software (or Environmental, Health, and Safety Software) is a type of technology that is used to manage all regulatory compliance, risk, and sustainability data for an organization.

It’s a comprehensive tool for:

• Identifying, assessing, and mitigating workplace hazards
• Facilitating efficient communication of risks
• Ensuring adherence to regulatory standards (e.g., OSHA)

The goal of EHS software solutions is to create safer work environments, proactively manage risks, and demonstrate a commitment to employee well-being.

Who Needs EHS Software?

Many industries are considered high-risk and, therefore, benefit from using tools to manage workplace safety. Here are a few examples of industries who need EHS software:

1. Construction. In an industry that reports the most fatalities of any other, proper EHS management is vital for construction workers. The right tools can empower construction crews to make safer decisions with faster reporting and risk management.
2. Energy and Utilities. From oil and gas operations to the mining industry, this sector can benefit from the use of an EHS management platform to minimize risks with better investigations, recording, and reporting.
3. Manufacturing. Any subset of the industrial manufacturing industry needs an EHS solution. These environments are considered high-risk, so having the ability to track and respond to injuries, near-misses, and hazards in real-time is essential.
4. Chemical Processing. In the chemical manufacturing industry safety is critical to keeping workers safe from the dangerous chemicals they use daily. EHS software can help them track injury and illness data in real-time to easily determine root causes and the training histories of workers.
5. Transportation and Logistics. Proper safety management can reduce injuries and incidents. Logistics companies with EHS management tools are more equipped to improve safety at scale for their truckers, warehouse workers, and distribution center employees.

Benefits of Using EHS Software Solutions

Investing in Environmental, Health, and Safety Software has numerous benefits. It helps your organization:

1. Save time. Removing manual processes with a digital solution is game-changing. You can streamline data collection, automate reports, and set up reminders for key administrative tasks.
2. Protect employees. Becoming more proactive with your EHS management strategy reduces risks and incidents. This is a critical way to keep employees safe from injury and illness and boost productivity and worker retention in the long run.
3. Improve compliance. Software like Vector EHS empowers organizations to more easily track, manage, and comply with EHS regulations.
4. Save money. By preventing accidents, reducing downtime, and avoiding fines from non-compliance, EHS software contributes to significant cost savings over time.

How Much Does EHS Software Cost?

EHS software companies may all have slightly different prices for their offering. The final price of EHS software is going to depend on a variety of factors, such as:

• The number of users/licenses
• Customer support level
• Any customization (e.g., integrations)
• Choosing add-on functionality

At Vector Solutions, we work with you to create a customized quote based on factors like these to ensure you get the most out of our platform.

If price is a concern for you, consider the cost of doing nothing:

• Have you been relying on manual tracking for reporting?
• Have safety issues or even injuries been increasing using your current methods?
• What are you currently paying in fines and workers’ compensation claims?

How to Start an EHS Program

Hopefully, you’re starting to see why an Environmental, Health, and Safety strategy is so important. Beyond having the right software in place, you need to create a culture of safety and reinforce why using these tools is so important.

But getting started can be overwhelming. Let us help you break it into manageable pieces.

Step 1: Employee Safety Training

One of the foundational elements of an effective EHS program is comprehensive employee safety training.

Begin by establishing a robust training program that covers topics like:

• Safety protocols
• Hazard identification
• Emergency procedures
• The proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE)

This not only ensures that your workforce is well-informed and capable of responding to potential risks but also sets the foundation for a safety-conscious culture within your organization.

If you want to provide award-winning safety content to your workforce, check out our free HSE Training catalog. ⬇️

Step 2: Empower Managers and Safety Leaders

Starting any new program requires leadership to enforce your organization’s policies and ensure regulatory standards are being met. Therefore, training and supporting safety leaders is instrumental in driving the success of your EHS program.

Provide these individuals with resources they need to champion safety initiatives. Encourage open communication channels for reporting safety concerns and incidents, fostering a collaborative approach to risk management.

When leaders are actively engaged in promoting safety, it creates a ripple effect throughout the organization, emphasizing the importance of a safe work environment.

Step 3: Provide the Right EHS Compliance Software

Selecting the right EHS solution is a pivotal step in establishing your EHS program. Look for a solution that aligns with your organization’s specific needs. Consider that a user-friendly and feature-rich EHS platform not only enhances the efficiency of your safety management processes but also encourages widespread adoption among your workforce.

Critical Functionality of EHS Management Software

EHS management is essential, but it doesn’t have to be overly complicated. Choosing an EHS solution with the right functionality can simply EHS management for your organization.

Let’s review the important features of Vector Solution’s EHS Management Software.

Incident Tracking

Incident management functionality lets you easily report, track, and analyze incidents, near misses, and worker injuries in compliance with OSHA requirements.

Inspections

Inspection and audit functionality allow you to streamline scheduling, tracking, and recording any type of inspection. This also enables you to implement corrective actions as part of your preventative safety strategy.

Hazard Management

Our functionality to report and monitor safety hazards gives your workforce the ability to report safety hazards they find. But it also allows you to notify employees of hazards in real-time.

Job Safety Analysis & Behavior Based Safety

Behavior-based safety features let you record employee safety behaviors, monitor unsafe conditions, and provide supervisors with the tools they need to correct issues. And job safety analysis lets you establish best practices for completing hazardous jobs, identifying hazards and risks for every step in the process.

Chemical Management and Safety

For employees who handle chemicals, proper safety data sheet (SDS) management and chemical inventorying is essential. Our chemical management features give you access to a vast database of GHS-compliant SDSs and allow you to upload your own.

Analytics & Reporting

Last, no EHS software is complete without real-time safety reports and metrics. Vector EHS gives you the ability to track key safety performance metrics including your total recordable incident rate (TRIR), training pass rates, and more.

What is the Best EHS Software?

The best EHS software companies understand that it’s not just about improving compliance and avoiding fines. It’s about human beings whose lives can be improved and even saved by prioritizing and improving safety measures.

At Vector Solutions, our mission is to make people safer, smarter, and better at work. Proper safety and risk management is an essential part of that.

But don’t just take our word for it. Our customers have seen incredible benefits from using our EHS software:

“A cornerstone of our world-class safety program is our attention to even minor incidents and our investigation of all potential safety issues. The data we pull from Vector’s dashboards and reports is an invaluable part of this process, and helps us make adjustments to how we work to continuously improve safety.”

— HS&E Manager, Rockline Industries

“With Vector EHS Management, we make sure no part of our safety program is overlooked, whether it’s notifying us of potential hazards or scheduling regular inspections.”

— Safety Specialist, Lincoln Electric Systems

“We are excited about [Vector EHS], which helps us on our quest to achieve zero injuries at OPPD.”

— Omaha Public Power District

If you’d like to see how our EHS Management Software can help your organization, please request a demo today to see it in action.