Canned vs. custom safety programs
While safety has generally always been a priority in the workplace, the way businesses approach this topic has evolved over the years. Instead of waiting to respond to injuries and taking a ‘reactive’ approach, workplaces are instead being proactive in seeking out and mitigating potential hazards before they lead to employee injuries.
At the heart of these efforts is an effective safety program. These systems allow businesses to better train their employees in workplace safety, ensure compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, and track data that pinpoints issues and fuels improvement.
While different types of safety programs share similar goals, some offer clear advantages over others. Here, we’ll compare two types—canned and custom—and see what sets them apart.
Comparing canned and custom safety programs
With canned safety programs, workplaces have access to fixed solutions. These packages help businesses comply with safety guidelines and regulations and offer a good starting point while requiring minimal work up front. Their disadvantage is that they provide little to no flexibility or room for growth. So, while the program can cover elements like lockout/tagout (LOTO), training, and safety data sheets (SDSs), they don’t align with your company’s LOTO, training, and SDS.
Custom safety programs, on the other hand, offer the flexibility that canned safety programs lack. Businesses are able to pick and choose products that are relevant to their needs, as well as tailor specific details to their workplace safety initiatives. The package is aligned with your training and is representative of your safety program, not the company that made the software. The result is a more streamlined process for keeping track of safety documents and ultimately keeping workers safe.
Why custom safety programs are the recommended choice
When organizations opt for a canned safety program, they often end up with more bells and whistles than they actually need. For example, the software may include modules for managing LOTO when you only need it for job safety analysis. These limitations not only lead to higher costs but also make it more difficult to locate relevant information.
Custom safety programs eliminate this problem by allowing you to create a solution based on your needs. By taking this step, workplaces are able to center their safety programs on elements relevant to them and remove the added clunkiness of outside factors.
Choosing a custom safety program also brings the added benefit of flexibility within individual modules. One example is EHS Hero’s advanced incident reporting and investigation tool. By customizing incident types and building checklists around them, workplaces are able to better monitor incidents and take the necessary action to prevent future issues.
Through the EHS Hero® platform, safety managers can create their own training categories and assign various work groups to them. This provides organizations with an easier way of staying on top of employee safety training, including monitoring and validating their progress.
Safety managers have a lot of puzzle pieces to manage. But with the right resources in place, they can successfully manage documents, report incidents, and stay in line with regulations. To learn more, schedule a consultation.
