How Business Intelligence Can Enhance Your EHS Program

Big Data and Business Intelligence. Two buzzwords that have gained a lot of traction in the past few years, and for good reason – data helps us make better decisions.

If you’re like most EHS departments, you’re already capturing a lot of critical data. But, how are you using that data to drive positive change? If you need to think about your answer to that one, you’re in the right place. In this post we’re going to discuss how leveraging your data and embracing Business Intelligence (or Safety Intelligence as we like to call it) can help optimize your EHS program and improve safety outcomes.

Real-Time Safety Visibility

You likely went into the health and safety field in the first place because you wanted to make a difference. However, there’s a good chance that all the time you’re spending preparing safety reports is stopping you from being the change agent you want to be. The sheer amount of data your team collects can be overwhelming to analyze. So many inspection forms, so little time. If continuous improvement means never being satisfied with status quo, your spreadsheet reporting process isn’t cutting it anymore if it can’t provide you with real-time visibility into the current state of safety at your company.

Uncover New Relationships

Let’s say that there’s been an increase in incidents at your company over the last 12 months that have resulted in a handful of injuries across globally dispersed job sites. You think you have an idea why, but you need to back up your hypothesis. If you have an analytics engine already in place, you should be able to drill down deep enough into all of your data to determine the contributing factors. However, some organizations already using Business Intelligence tools still struggle to get a company-wide view of safety because their data is stuck in silos, rather than in a centralized safety management system. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say that all of your data is easily accessible. During your root cause analysis, you discover that all the incidents at your company involved younger workers. Armed with this new level of information, you can now formulate a strategy to address this gap in your safety program.

Go From Insight to Action

So, you’ve just discovered that the youngest workers at your company are most likely to be involved in a workplace incident. With this new intel, you can put a plan in place to ensure this doesn’t keep happening. Maybe your younger workers need to be engaged differently in safety activities (perhaps a mobile app could help boost participation) or maybe they require more specialized e-learning training. After careful consideration, you decide a Young Worker Awareness program would be most beneficial for your company. And when it comes time to share your plan with management, you’re one step ahead – you already have the data at your disposal to emphasize why this initiative is so critical.