When some organisations think about health, safety, environment and quality (HSEQ), they might imagine the extra work involved in completing their basic requirements. But others know that HSEQ isn’t merely about dotting i’s and crossing t’s — it’s a key driver of long-term growth and sustainability.
And more often than not, businesses that take a proactive approach to risk management do so through the vast capabilities of HSEQ management software. In turn, they gain a significant competitive advantage compared to those that stick to more traditional, reactive solutions.
Health and safety procedures aren’t just a matter of compliance. On the contrary, improving workplace health and safety can be a great way to generate efficiencies and create a more profitable business.
Some health and safety managers still rely on antiquated methods to perform regular HSEQ duties. As a result, their ability to prevent workplace accidents is limited and they’re forced to take a reactive stance to risk management. In other words, reactive safety procedures involve dealing with the implications of an incident or failure after it has already occurred rather than taking steps to prevent them from happening in the first place.
It’s best to consider reactive risk management in terms of the safety maturity scale — a model used to measure and assess an organisation's approach to health and safety. Typically, researchers use the term “reactive” to describe the second-lowest level on the scale, above only the pathological level (in which organisations don’t take safety seriously and consider it less important than other objectives). Simply put, taking action after the fact is associated with a less-mature approach to safety management.
Waiting until risk becomes a reality can leave you defenceless across four key conditions:
Environment: When critical HSEQ risks are mitigated, you could wind up with a larger carbon footprint. Even worse, accidents could result in severe environmental and reputational damage.
People: Workplace hazards are a direct threat to employee well being. If left unchecked, they expose the business to lawsuits, fines and substantial injury payouts. In 2021, the total cost of over 2392 injury claims was more than $41 million in the Northern Territory alone.
Company: Businesses that allow accidents to happen have a tougher time winning bids, making sales, recruiting talent and staying productive due to their poor track record.
Psychology: If employees feel unsafe at work, their psychological well being will take a toll. In turn, they can become disengaged at work and suffer burnout, making them far more difficult to retain or much less productive.
Fortunately, there’s a better way to handle health and safety. When you implement integrated HSEQ software, you’re enabling your company to proactively mitigate risk and streamline compliance.
An integrated solution services the entire end-to-end HSEQ landscape, meaning you can manage everything from one comprehensive platform. Centralising your procedures into a single source of truth means workers only need to learn one system. Better yet, thanks to mobile devices, employees can be more easily proactive by reporting risks on the ground and filing a report right away. In turn, they can access critical information and HSEQ procedures when and where they need it most.
Likewise, digitised checklists make it easy for workers to quickly fill out forms and complete daily procedures. On the other end of the platform, managers can ensure critical tasks are performed on time. In combination with digital document management, workflows are made simple. Managers can assign tasks, track progress and streamline procedures, including contractor and asset management.
HSEQ software is especially advantageous because it allows managers to analyse data, predict incidents and make better safety decisions using advanced business intelligence. Rather than rely on static, manually-reported data in a spreadsheet, you can leverage actionable, meaningful insights in real time.
As previously mentioned, health and safety isn’t merely a compliance issue – it’s a way to drive added value to your business. By using HSEQ software to reshape your management style from reactive to proactive, you stand to gain substantial benefits in both the short and long term, including:
Reputation management: Data empowers safety managers to make smarter decisions that protect not only the workforce but also the organisation’s reputation. This can go a long way toward winning future contracts, generating revenue, protecting employee mental health and attracting or retaining talented workers.
Productivity: Automation can eliminate time-consuming, inefficient and costly manual processes, like paper-based reporting and recordkeeping. Employees can report on their mobile devices, while workflows can be built into the process and streamlined through automation. For instance, once a risk is reported, the responsible manager is notified of the problem and can take appropriate action immediately.
Cost savings: HSEQ software enables continuous incident management and risk detection. Instead of chasing the cost of an accident that’s already occurred, businesses can prevent them from happening in the first place. This translates into fewer claims, smaller insurance premiums and no more fines.
Visibility: Keeping a clear line of sight is critical when you operate a high-risk job site, let alone multiple projects simultaneously. Software solutions allow workers in the field to stay connected anywhere on the job. Better yet, that data is instantly available for managers to access as needed.
Benefits like these are a significant competitive advantage for any size organisation, regardless of the scope of their industry. But to obtain that edge, organisations must deploy an integrated HSEQ management solution such as Lucidity.
Informed by decades of experience in the business, Lucidity’s HSEQ management software is designed to help organisations like yours make the leap to safety maturity.
Discover the power of Lucidity’s HSEQ solution by scheduling a free demo today.