EHSDA Shorts: How Can EHS Technology Address Modern Safety Challenges?

In this installment of EHSDA Shorts, Monica Patel, Product Manager, KPA, Dustin Baxter, Account Executive, KPA, and Kat McConnell, host of KPA’s “The Safety Meeting Podcast,” talk about how EHS technology can address modern safety challenges.

This clip was taken from a webinar titled “Evolving Safety Practices: Improving Safety & ROI with EHS Technology” as part of EHS Daily Advisor’s EHS Leadership NOW online summit. The full session is available for FREE on-demand here.

The webinar was sponsored by KPA.

Transcript (edited for clarity):

Question: How can EHS technology address modern safety challenges?

Patel: Historically, EHS practices are really manual today or really based on paper records, making things really siloed. Things are hard to track, they’re hard to analyze, and they’re hard to
do. It makes it really hard to do anything with that information. Today, EHS systems have really transitioned into integrated platforms that really centralize all of that data collection that really makes it easy for organizations to do real time monitoring. real-time data collection, real-time reporting, and these platforms really allow for data to be easily accessible across departments.
McConnell: Yeah, it’s super interesting to see how EHS technology has kind of evolved from this cumbersome manual process to these integrated platforms that allow for the more real-time monitoring and mobile access. I think from what you explained, the shift has clearly made it easier for safety professionals to do their jobs, no matter where they are. But with all of these advancements, what are the most effective ways to use EHS software to streamline safety processes and identify potential risks?
Baxter: Yeah, for me, Monica touched on it. Having a mobile-based platform that with instant communication and notification of finding’s is huge now versus the old email method or a phone call with a voicemail. Now people in the administrative side and the offices are getting notified instantly about a hazard or an incident that’s occurred. Additionally, those same people have automated reporting and task assigned to them regularly so they’re not digging for the data. One of the biggest issues before was having to spend all that manual time accumulating data looking for things. That’s just a lot of wasteful time so having all that automated now and instant instantaneous is a big deal. Additionally, employees in the field having access to resources such as standard operating procedures, such as safety bulletins and updates that are right there at their hand versus having to be on their computer in an office to find those things, those are all huge advancements that make the culture building a much simpler process now.