EHS Insight's MOC Module Enhancements Explained

Over the past few years, we’ve all experienced quite a bit of change. In fact, it’s probably safe to say in some ways we’ve experienced more changes in the past three years than at any other time in recent history.

Just like with anything else, too much of anything can become overwhelming, and it’s no different with change. In fact, in a 2022 survey performed by Capterra, 71% of surveyed employees said they’re fatigued by all the workplace change they’ve experienced. 83% of those experiencing change fatigue cited poor communication, constant backtracking, a lack of feedback and a lack of resources to help adapt to changes as reasons for that change fatigue. In other words, employers are introducing a tremendous amount of change that isn’t being managed well, and it’s exhausting and overwhelming their workers.

When it comes to introducing changes in the workplace, companies are sometimes so focused on getting changes implemented that they forget how critical employee support and participation are to the success of those changes. In these situations, you’ll often find Change Owners working in a silo resulting in poorly planned implementation that lacks foresight into how certain changes will affect the workforce. To make things more difficult, these situations also may not include any plan for how workers are supposed to comply or manage the changes being introduced. When change is chronically mismanaged like this, not only will workers become unhappy, but they will also be the reason why certain changes fail.

At EHS Insight, we understand that for companies to properly implement organizational change, they at least need the right tools. That's why we have updated and enhanced our Management of Change (MOC) Module to be the ultimate solution for managing change effectively. We spent a lot of time thinking about how we could make this module a more comprehensive tool for our customers, and we’re excited to tell you all about our updates!

First Things First

Before we dive into the improved features, we want to take a minute and say that when updating this module, we took into account the fact that some customers already using the module may not want to change how things work—and they don’t have to. Customers currently using our module who are happy with things as they are can continue using the module as is and will have the option of adding the module’s new features via site settings as they see fit. We felt it was important to let our current customers control how, when, and if they introduce changes into their change management process.

Improved Communication

As we mentioned earlier, poor communication is one of the main reasons why employees experience change fatigue. This is why we wanted to tackle communication first and foremost with our updates. To do that, we improved how participants involved in the change process interact with the module.

Prior to the updates, the Change Owner was ultimately responsible for managing the entire process, including adding information and making approvals on behalf of other participants. While doing things this way works sometimes, we believe that change is more successful when all individuals actively participate and contribute their part in a collaborative effort. In the updated module, Change Owners are no longer stuck being the sole providers of information. Now those included as Involved Parties in the form are able to add their input, be included in discussions using the discussion panel and, most importantly, they can now provide their own approvals and rejections. We’d also like to mention that Involved Parties can be added at any time during the approval process, something that we know happens from time to time during the change process. When people are added to the form, they will receive email notifications when something is required of them such as task assignments or items pending their approval, and the approval will now capture their electronic signature.

Speaking of approvals, we know that not every MOC will require multiple approvals, but for those MOCs that are maybe a bit more complex we’ve added the ability to include a “final approval” in the process if desired. By including a final approval, customers can have that final set of eyes on the process to make sure all the i’s are dotted, and t’s are crossed.

Lastly, we thought it was important for Change Owners and those included as Responsible Parties to have the ability to follow along more easily with changes being managed in the module. Now both parties can monitor changes as they make their way through the process via the My Tasks area. This is where they’ll find a task for each step of the process through implementation.

These changes are designed to help keep the management of change process from being completed in a silo or vacuum, to help improve communication, and to provide some autonomy for those people involved in the process who have valuable information to include.

Action Management

We understand the importance of capturing and effectively managing all related tasks that arise during the change process. To better accommodate this, we’ve given Change Owners a new way to assign and manage MOC related tasks.

Prior to the module updates, any MOC related tasks or actions could only be assigned as a regular CAPA, and then managed through the CAPA tab along with any other CAPAs generated outside of the change management process. While this works, it’s not optimal, so we decided it was important to give customers the ability to assign and manage actions associated with MOCs a bit differently and separately from regular CAPAs. Now, Change Owners can assign MOC related actions and keep them separate from unassociated CAPAs being managed elsewhere in the software (inspections, audits, etc.). Additionally, instead of having to log into the module to check the status of individual actions, Change Owners will receive an email notification when all actions have been completed.

We believe that isolating MOC related tasks makes them more visible, and when tasks are more visible, they are less likely to be forgotten about. The ability to separate MOC related tasks from other CAPAs generated outside of the MOC process also allows for more detailed reports, which is helpful to any company using MOC related data for KPI metrics.

Workflow Flexibility

Another important update we made to the module was to include some flexibility in the workflow. Prior to the updates, the module didn’t allow the Change Owner to move back and forth within the workflow to make changes, or to go back a step in the process if needed. We found this to be somewhat restrictive, particularly when changes are being implemented and the initial plan for the change doesn't work out or needs to be modified in some way.

With our updated module, customers can now go back and forth in the workflow as often as they need to. Additionally, if customers have to move back a step in the process or make other changes to the MOC form, the module now includes the ability to laminate MOC forms, which means customers can track changes that were made to the form during the change process. This makes the entire process much more transparent and easier to get a full picture of how changes were implemented and what roadblocks may have been encountered during the change process.

Most people who manage change in the workplace understand that every change is a little bit different and that sometimes even extremely well thought out changes don’t work as well as they were supposed to. For this reason, it is crucial to conduct follow-ups to evaluate the impact and success of implemented changes. This is why we’ve included the ability for Change Owners to schedule post implementation follow-ups where they can mark an MOC as either effective or ineffective. This capability gives customers the power to review their overall changes and get an idea for what’s working and what isn’t.

Final Thoughts

These are just a handful of the incredible enhancements we've made to our Management of Change module. If you're interested in learning more about this module or any others, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at any time. We’d love to help improve how you manage change!