EHS Management: Eliminate These Time Wasters

Are you looking for ways to improve your company through better EHS management techniques? One way to make a huge impact is to eliminate these common time-wasting methods.  

For all the talk businesses make on the subject of staying productive, we’re not getting any better at spending our time wisely. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we’re getting worse! For the last quarter of 2014, productivity actually decreased by 1.8%. 

Business Management is About Maximizing Productivity 

Productivity is decreasing—that’s good enough reason for managers of any type to always be on the lookout for productivity tools that will help their teams work better. That’s just business management common sense. 

But there are other reasons to eliminate time-wasting methods in the workplace, especially when those methods involve the wasteful usage of resources other than time. The chief resource we’re talking about here is paper.  

Paper-Wasting Techniques Must Go 

Actually, it all comes back to productivity, no matter how you look at it. When companies waste paper by holding onto legacy paper-based reporting methods, they’re keeping productivity levels down in three ways: 

1. Most paper-based reporting wastes time 
2. Paper-based reporting wastes money 
3. Wasting resources isn’t green and doesn’t align with CSR (employees like to work for sustainable companies, and are more productive when they do so) 

Of Course, Better EHS Management is No Different 

For EHS managers, it’s the same principle: always be looking for ways to help your teams be more productive, and focus on time-wasting techniques that waste other resources as well. 

Here are two ways that EHS managers in particular can improve their systems with an eye toward productivity. 

1. Stop Issuing Paper Reports

EHS will always involve heavy reporting requirements, so eliminating paper-based reports is one way to quickly make improvements in productivity. Did you know the average office worker in the United States uses more than 10,000 sheets of paper every year?

2. Stop Using Spreadsheets

Many EHS managers can’t seem to let go of using spreadsheets, even though they’re incredibly inefficient compared to what’s available in today’s highly digitalized and cloud-based world. 

The data on spreadsheets is often stale, especially when compared to real-time environments favored by most managers today. Plus, spreadsheets are notoriously unwieldy, making it difficult to manage the data they contain. 

Of course there are lots more inefficient practices to be found in most EHS management environments. But start improving these two key areas and productivity should start inching upwards and in the right direction.