No budget, no problem: How safety software delivers ROI to the business

Company leadership teams often perceive health and safety as a cost center that does not contribute to revenue. Because of this, they try to keep investment in the area to a minimum. Health and safety professionals often tell us that they do not have a budget for software. We hear this far more often than we hear that there is a budget. So, if this is a situation you face as a health and safety professional, then know you are not alone.

The good news is that health and safety software can reduce costs and deliver a great return on investment (ROI). This blog post explains why investing in health and safety software is a good business decision and seeks to help you build a case in your organisation.

Not so risky business

Mitigating known risks is a critical part of business and operational strategy. A company that relies on disparate, often siloed, spreadsheets and databases for risk assessments, incident reports, environmental data, and more can have a difficult time getting a clear picture of it’s risk profile. It also increases the frightening possibility that many risks will go unforeseen. Reacting to risks you did not see coming can take a major bite out of budgets and incur costs and reputational damage that were not planned for.

Health and safety management software provides your business with visibility into disparate data sources so that it’s easy to identify potential risk and trouble spots. For example, you can access a proactive overview of risk areas across your business, such as hazardous substances or fire and noise assessments. With business intelligence tools built-in, health and safety software can help you understand your risk profile and allocate resources using dashboards. As a result, you can remove risk from your business before it causes major problems.

Accentuate the positive ROI

Workplace safety software helps lower your operating costs by increasing employee productivity. With a safety platform, you can help prevent unwanted incidents, thereby reducing the financial impact they can have on your company in the form of medical fees, fines, expenses due to workers’ compensation or legal settlement payouts, and time spent on administration. The return on your investment in a workplace safety software program is high, with initial payback often within a year of outlay or even shorter.

Workplace safety software also helps you optimise your company’s performance. Software adds a layer of intelligence to your data—one that's not possible with spreadsheets. It can automatically alert you when permit limits or thresholds are exceeded and assign event-triggered corrective actions. Dynamic dashboards enable you to visualise your data in real-time. So, if you notice an uptick in near misses at a particular location, health and safety software lets you proactively see these red flags so you can manage them before an accident happens.

Last but not least, health and safety software positively impacts ROI by keeping insurance costs low. If insurance carriers see employee accidents happening regularly at your company, multiple workers’ compensation claims, substantial litigation costs, and high civil liability damages, they are likely to increase the price you pay for their insurance products. Using health and safety software to avoid accidents and incidents can eliminate higher premiums because carriers can see that the potential for claims is lower due to minimal risks for injuries and accidents. Some even offer discounts to companies with demonstrated lower claims costs compared to their competitors.  

Staying out of the penalty box with compliance protection

Health and safety software enables you to manage ongoing compliance, reduce risks, and minimise incidents and their impact. You can record, monitor, manage and audit your compliance while staying up to date on regulations. As a result, you remain on the good side of the law. You also have a consistent and reliable database of information should it be required during the course of a third-party inspection or audit. With these protections in place, your business is less likely to suffer from penalties or other legal consequences.

Creating a more flexible, agile business

Today, the most effective organisations need to be able to adapt to evolving environments quickly and efficiently. Therefore, fast, reliable communication between staff and management is a must. Workplace safety software platforms with integrated mobile connectivity help enable that flexibility and agility.

How?

Having a mobile app as part of a health and safety software platform makes it easy to manage facility-level tasks remotely without necessarily being on-site. Gone are the days that required boots on the ground—now, data capture can be done in the blink of an eye. That means that data is sent where it’s needed almost instantly, enabling the business to address problems quickly and become more responsive to a changing market or safety landscape.

What’s good for safety is good for the budget

If you need more information to help you make the case for adding health and safety software to the budget, why not talk to us? We can show you and your business leadership team why workplace safety software is good for the budget.