Safety Improvements to Prioritize in 2018

A new year is here, and there’s no better time to start something new in your EHS program. Use this time to take a closer look at what’s working well in your safety efforts, as well as incidents from the past year that might warrant improvements to your program.

Here are the best places to start:

Safety Culture

No company ever executed a strong safety program without culture at its core.  Safety culture is more than simply talking about safety and holding training sessions. It’s an integral part of everything you do, from simple office tasks to risky machine work. Most importantly, it requires participation from every employee, contractor, vendor, and other stakeholders.

To strengthen your safety culture for 2018, first consider your current level of engagement. You might also consider how other programs in your company are faring in terms of participation, then look at what’s making those programs so successful. Check out our eBook to learn more about how you can improve your safety culture.

Safety Training

Steady, sturdy training can go a long way in building your safety culture. But even if you already have top-notch engagement, training should never take a backseat, even if you have a veteran team.

Long-time employees need safety training just as much as newcomers. Over time, workers may develop unsafe habits that seem safe to them, but aren’t aligned with your safety training or processes. By conducting regular training sessions, you can break the cycle by gently reminding workers how tasks should be performed.

Audits and Inspections

While seemingly repetitive and mundane, audits and inspections are a necessary part of doing business. Without the right tools and focus, conducting the audit and logging results can quickly eat up your time – time that could be spent perfecting other areas of your safety program.

This year, make it a point to not only improve safety, but also efficiency. The less time you can spend on certain tasks without cutting corners, the more time you have to focus on other areas.

Incident Investigations

Just like conducting audits, handling incidents can also zap your time. A single incident can result in hours of paperwork, reporting, reviewing, and problem-solving, not to mention time lost if a worker was injured.

In addition to improving audit efficiency, you can also improve how you handle incidents. While you still want to be detailed and thorough, there may be other ways you can expedite incident resolution.

Anytime your safety activities present a red flag, it’s your job to investigate why. From workplace observations to incident reporting to audits and inspections and more, finding the root cause of an issue is the first step toward a positive resolution. Unfortunately, this first step can often be the most time-consuming.

Because of this, some EHS departments may not be accurately conducting their investigations simply because they lack the time. If this is the case for you, make it a point this year to dig deeper than you ever have when it comes to investigations. Often, the deeper details you discover may give you better insight into the root cause of an issue and direct you toward a more satisfactory resolution.

How to Make 2018 Safer for Everyone

Each of the above suggestions share a common goal – make your processes more efficient without sacrificing quality and thoroughness. EHS software was created specifically to do just this. By giving you a central management platform to handle all safety-related activities, you get less data entry, less room for error, and comprehensive views into your program for better insight.

Contact us today for a free test drive of our EHS software and discover how it can position you to make 2018 safer for your company.