The application of EHS software sometimes requires justification within your organization. EHS is something that has been scoffed at in the past, with heads of entire organizations arguing that hazards and injuries and workplace health issues have always been a staple of the modern workplace. They also justify it with the fact that the workers know what they signed up for and receive adequate compensation for putting their lives in the slight danger that they do. However, it is not enough simply to say that today; it’s the legal and moral obligation of an organization to protect its employees against the slightest of harm.
This is why you need to be able to justify the investment in to EHS with more than bravado and conviction. When approaching your leadership you need to always demonstrate a Return on Investment (ROI). For instance, there are obvious factors that contribute to it like reduced labor costs and reducing software costs via consolidating systems. However, there are other hidden areas where you can demonstrate Return on Investment.
Opportunity Costs
With EHS comes automation and with automation, workers can focus on the implementation of safety standards. They can also pursue employee certifications and take part in trainings. Standards and certifications reduce risk and lower insurance costs, ultimately saving the company much more than it initially invested in the EHS software.
On top of this, the extra training and certifications make the employees more valuable and more efficient and capable at their jobs.
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Reduced Distraction
The reduced distractions due to EHS factor in when measuring the increased productivity of employees. Due to the workflow managing who does what and when, there are fewer restrictions and distractions taking away from a person trying to do their job. Here are a few statistics about job disruption that were discovered by a study conducted at UC Irvine.
- People spend an average of 11 minutes on a project before being interrupted. It then takes an average of 25 minutes for them to get back to the point that they were at before the distraction took away their rhythm.
- Employees in cubicles are interrupted 29% more often than people in private offices. This literally kills the myth that if you restrict people in cubicles from having conversations and interacting with people, they will become more productive and get distracted less.
- According to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, after a 2.8 second interruption, subjects in the study doubled the rates of their errors. In fact, their error rates tripled after a 4.5 second distraction.
Improved Morale
This is always a great factor in improving the productivity of any organization or even a single employee. If an employee believes in the work being done and also that it’s making a great contribution to society, basically if the employee feels valued and important, productivity always increases.
No one likes generating reports or filling out safety observations and recording information, no matter how important it may be. The investigative recording, managing MSDS sheets and providing a cover sheest for TPS reports seem like nothing but busywork. It’s time consuming and tedious work that no one wants to do.
People want to do the jobs that they’re hired for and reducing the overhead of busywork allows them to be more productive and efficient at their job. It also shows them that management cares about them and has bought in to their success. It’s a show of respect and caring to them that the organization has made an investment in to their future. This is bound to get a response of productivity and vigor from the individual employee.
Commitment to Health and Safety
This is a no brainer, but implementing EHS software shows that you have a commitment to health and safety and care about the well being of your employees. Accidents and injuries are usually costly in a lot of ways, but nothing can take the place of the damage and loss that is felt by an individual employee. Equipment can be repaired, losses can be reimbursed, but an employee’s well being is second to none.
Prevention is always better than the cure, and hence it’s important to put forth that the EHS investment not only saves money, but it also saves the valuable lives and health of the employees working for you.
Workplace incidents, injuries and even deaths readily occur in a workplace environment, and no matter how hard you try, there will always be a chance that someone gets hurt, but it’s your duty as an employer to ensure that the chance of that happening is reduced to the very least.
While a lot of these items may be hard to quantify in dollars and cents, including them while trying to justify an EHS purchase can make a great impact. A well rounded presentation that includes objective as well as emotional arguments can score a home run, because it’s numbers that may convince the brain, but it’s emotion and compassion that convinces the heart.
