Considering Mobile EHS? Learn From 3 Companies Who Made the Leap
Mobile technologies are integral to organizational success in today’s world. In the realm of workplace safety and EHS management generally, mobile solutions can be efficiently used to report in real-time on observations, streamline incident management and EHS workflow and management, conduct EHS audits and inspections, deliver employee training, provide hazard communication and alerts, conduct location monitoring and geofencing, and manage change.
When rolling out mobile, it’s important to find solutions that can address your specific challenges. And, you’ll want to make sure that there’s a way to effectively measure the results so you can gauge how well those solutions worked.
The great news about going mobile is that there are so many features built into EHS technologies that once you identify your challenges and the likely technology-based solutions to adopt, there’s a strong likelihood that you’ll see favorable results.
But, don’t take our word for it! Let’s take a look at the challenges 3 companies faced and how the mobile safety solutions they chose produced outstanding results.
Communications Design-Build Provider Needed a Better Way to Understand, Track, and Report Safety Deficiencies
The Challenge—A global communications design-build and maintenance services provider needed streamlined processes to understand, track, and report on safety deficiencies. More specifically, the company needed a way to mitigate risk, decrease total reportable incidents, and ensure that high-risk activities were not performed across their business. At the time, they did not have any EHS software solution or a technology solution in place to effectively track reports and understand the safety deficiencies across the organization.
The Solution—Enter KPA’s EHS platform, which can be used to mitigate risk and effectively report accidents. From a practical perspective, the company experienced increased efficiencies, productivity, reporting frequency, and cost savings. Through mobile integration, the company was able to ensure that high-risk activities weren’t being performed through appropriate workflows, reports, and inspections.
The Results—The company reduced its total reportable incidents from 7 in 2019 to just 1 in 2020. With just 1 reportable incident, their claims costs decreased significantly, too, their division safety manager reported, calling this trending “just incredible.”
EPC Contractor Needed to Streamline Incident Reporting
The Challenge—As one of the nation’s fastest-growing energy industry partners, the company needed to effectively ditch manual processes in favor of a streamlined way to report incidents and alert employees without going through multiple people or having multiple versions of documents across different locations. The goal was to make sure communication happened appropriately across the business.
The Solution—Using KPA’s EHS software platform, the company created a streamlined operational process that no longer relies on tedious manual tasks. Using this software also solved the challenge of having multiple versions of documents, and the company is happy to report it’s now gone paperless.
The Results—With streamlined operations in place, they realized cost savings and gained greater insights into safety trends across the business. This means they can focus efforts on predicting and then mitigating safety risks in a more effective manner. Having greater insights into those safety trends is something one of their data analysts said is simply “incredible.”
Oil Services Company Needed a Way for Field Employees to Manage Incidents
The Challenge—As an oil services company, they needed an easy-to-use platform so field employees could manage incidents in real-time and the company could communicate important safety messages across the organization.
The Solution—KPA’s EHS software mobile application was seamlessly integrated into their field operations. By adopting a solution with an easy-to-use design, the company was able to get its field employees up and running in no time and its user adoption rate also increased.
The Results—As employees started reporting incidents via the mobile application, EES also experienced time savings from the automation. Now that they’ve solved their challenge by giving field employees the ability to access and push out policy and procedure updates in real-time, the business, which also has a more cohesive safety strategy in place thanks to its mobile focus, has also won and maintained more business. Being able to pull up the system and show the progress of an investigation and the outcome has made a “huge difference” in customer relations, the company’s employee development manager said.
So again, when you’re rolling out mobile technology, remember to
- articulate your challenges,
- find solutions that can specifically address those, and
- measure how effectively the solution are at overcoming them.
In the case of these three companies, the solutions they chose were designed in a way that makes it very convenient and easy to overcome the particular challenges they faced. The idea is to give the power to your workforce, so they can perform essential functions, such as performing audits and inspections, reporting incidents, and completing training in a fully integrated and streamlined manner—and all from their mobile device, whether they have an Internet connection or they need to work in an offline environment.
The companies also had the option to brand their EHS software mobile applications and set up profiles for individual users accessing their mobile applications. For ease of use and speed, the platforms don’t require a user to log in every time, meaning access can be granted with a quick click that can save employees’ time. It’s important to note, too, that ease-of-use goes a long way toward getting workers across the organization to participate, which in turn fosters healthy adoption statistics you can then use to reiterate to company leadership that your investment in mobile technology is paying off.
EHS mobile technology platforms like the ones these companies are using also give users the ability to quickly see what they need to do to get their safety-related tasks done. In addition to receiving on-the-go training, they can also take advantage of customizable inspection templates tailored to the companies’ specific requirements and their particular role. This allows them to quickly proceed through a checklist, so they don’t miss steps in the reporting, inspection, or other critical processes.
The companies are also able to track and record training completions and certifications without having to manage paper files. And, as we saw with all three of these mobile use cases, the organizations are now able to report incidents in a streamlined yet customizable way, so they can capture relevant information at the point of report.
KPA is here to help manage mobile technology integration. Our team of seasoned experts are ready to assist with identifying specific challenges, recommending mobile technology solutions, and helping you measure your progress. Reach out to us to get started.
