Safety Leader Series: Michael Holle, Associate Director, EHS & HR Operations at BraunAbility

I came to BraunAbility in the spring of 2016 to help lead the company in transforming the EHS program. Over the past 5 years, our team has implemented programs that have reduced our incident rate by 75%, drastically cut workers’ compensation claims and dollars spent, fostered a new safety culture that has empowered the workforce to make EHS improvements and successfully obtained our ISO 14001 certification.  

For over 45 years, BraunAbility has been committed to changing lives for people with physical disabilities through innovative mobility solutions that provide independence and ease of use. BraunAbility has grown from a modest small-town entrepreneurial venture with a handful of employees, to a global company with over 1200 employees serving more than 70 countries. With the most diverse product portfolio of any mobility vehicle company in the industry, BraunAbility is able to deliver the right solution to more people than ever before.  

Like many organizations, reporting hazards and incidents, tracking corrective actions, and maintaining EHS KPI’s is labor intensive. One of our core values is to Drive Innovation, and that innovative spirit led our department to seek an alternative way to:  

1. Report all incidents; property damage, environmental, near misses, first aid cases and OSHA recordable cases 

2. Notify the appropriate personnel of an incident 

3. Track the completion of corrective actions 

4. Eliminate the need to collect data through an Excel format 

5. Display our data in a ‘Dashboard’ format that was easy and accessible for anyone within the organization. 

In 2019, BraunAbility chose EcoOnline eCompliance as our digital safety solution. We began by creating various forms for incident reports and assigning corrective actions to appropriate personnel. The ease-of-use of both the desktop and mobile app made the transition very smooth. Our supervisors and team leaders enjoy the simplicity of taking photos and uploading them directly into their reports.  

As we grew with this digital solution, we started incorporating monthly safety walks into the system. Again, completing an audit on the shop floor and assigning corrective actions with photos has been a huge success. All of the data that we are receiving, allowed us to pilot EcoOnline North America ’s new Safety Intelligence BETA program and we immediately fell in love! We no longer use Excel spreadsheets to track data and generate data for us. We can now see real time statistics to assist us in focusing our EHS efforts. For example, over 195 corrective actions have been submitted in 2021 and over 56% have been completed before the due date, with an overall completion rate of 96%.

As more BraunAbility employees utilize EcoOnline North America , they are feeling empowered to make the right decisions for their departments and areas of responsibility, strengthening our safety culture.  The mobile app allows employees to enter near miss incidents and corrective actions immediately. This eliminates the potential for the incident to be unaccounted for within the system and drives the implementation of proactive corrective actions.  

Our experience with the EcoOnline eCompliance solution has exceeded our expectations. Their customer service and dedication given to each one of their clients is second to none.