Instigating action
June 1st 2006

Asurvey conducted by operational risk management specialist EnvironmentIQ found that 65% of companies still use a paper-based accident reporting system and a further 17% record this information using spreadsheets. In this article HSM looks at whether such traditional means of data collation are adequate in today's fast changing environmental, health and safety landscape

Alongside specific requirements such as RIDDOR all companies are obligated to disclose non-financial information as part of their annual reporting cycle. It is increasingly common for companies to issue a Corporate Social Responsibility Report that contains information on the Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) performance of the company. However, despite the best efforts of senior management to recognise that monitoring EHS performance is important and the diligence of those involved in EHS tasks, gathering the relevant data can be a complex task.

Can you be sure that the data shown in the annual report is accurate?

Apocryphal tales exist of well known companies that simply send round spreadsheets towards the end of their financial year, with department heads expected to accurately fill in all their EHS information for the year.

Even if this data is recorded in a standard format it is easy to see how such an exercise can be rushed and how the final statistics could be an enormous distortion of the true picture. Shareholders are placing increasing pressure on senior management to improve EHS performance as the impact this information can have on such areas as company image, brand awareness and personnel recruitment are beginning to be understood.

So what alternatives are there that will manage EHS information across a company, or typically across a multidepartmental, multisite organisation? How can such pitfalls as non-standard data collection and inaccurate reporting be avoided? How can a return on investment be shown such that not only is any purchase justified based on meeting reporting requirements but shows added value in overall managements of the business?

One solution is RiskLedger, an enterprise-wide integrated suite of software products from EnvironmentIQ. It provides an integrated solution for capturing extensive EHS information via configurable browser-based screens thus giving a central reporting system. Crucially though benefits go beyond reporting to deliver proactive EHS management.

RiskLedger is said to be capable of producing measurable reductions in operational risk, compliance overheads and legal liabilities. In addition, organisations implementing the system can improve operational performance via the EHS information produced from the system, delivering a significant ROI.

RiskLedger offers a number of modules that can be implemented on their own or together. These include: Incident/ Accident Monitoring, Risk Assessments, Medical Records, EHS Audit, Event and Action Management, Medical Records and Occupational Health, Training, Environment Monitoring and Waste Management. The modular nature of the system enables users to introduce the specific capability at plant, division or group level and add modules as business requirements expand.

A major advantage of the system according to Mike Hedger, CEO at EnvironmentIQ (pictured) is its action system. Mike says "We have an increasing number of organisations using RiskLedger as an action management system. Modern EHS systems must not just produce accurate reports, they must prompt actions in a dynamic, real-time way."

This was a major attraction for Nippon Gohsei, a specialist resin manufacturer on Humberside. Bob Rose, MD, comments "We are committed to improving not just safety, but quality and environmental issues.

Action tracking, escalation and resolution is an essential part of the process. From a management perspective one of the most important reasons we selected RiskLedger was the ability to assign actions to individuals, who then accept ownership through to resolution. I can see immediately the implications of an incident, the status of any action and escalate if necessary"

Data from RiskLedger can be fed up from the shop-floor to plant, division and group level while senior managers can also drill down into the aggregated information to analyse individual incidents. The flexibility of the system allows for single-entry RIDDOR and OSHA reporting as well as facilitating claims management for insurance purposes.

Importantly the system enables procedures necessary to qualify for standards such as OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001. Gaining these accreditations obviously provides advantages on many levels including how a company is perceived externally which increasingly determines which types of companies will do business with them in the future.

Accurate EHS information is of increasing importance to businesses. Mike Hedger summarises the situation saying "The metrics to measure how a business has performed are changing. Accurate EHS data is now as important as accurate financial, manufacturing and supply chain information. Given the operational impact and strategic risk associated with EHS performance it's time for businesses to evaluate whether their approach adds to, rather than decreases, this risk."

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