Managing environmental, health, and safety (EHS) risks is a critical component of an organization’s overall management system. Additionally, a robust system is required to help assess the health of an organization’s program and ensure compliance with internal and external obligations. Implementing an Audits and Inspections program follows the International Standards Organization’s (ISO) Risk Management Standard (ISO 31000) best practice of identifying, evaluating, treating, and monitoring risks to ensure that implemented mitigation or control measures are effective or that internal or external obligations are met.
As organizations streamline their management systems with digital solutions, understanding the features and capabilities that provide the most value and assist with managing EHS risks is crucial. Therefore, here are the top six things to look for in a software provider’s Audits and Inspections solution.
Flexible Checklists and Protocols
Checklists and audit protocols provide the framework to conduct reviews. Whether conducting inspections to ensure the safety of front-line workers or audit compliance to regulatory obligations, having a solution that allows for the flexibility to configure checklists and protocols to specific business, industry, or regional requirements is key.
In addition, integrating comprehensive regulatory content and best practices would be of great importance. Look for the ability to integrate audit protocols directly with external regulatory requirements or best practices to ensure traceability with compliance actions.
Scheduling of Audits and Inspections
Once checklists or audit protocols are created, the solution must be able to schedule inspection or audit activities as often as necessary. It could be a daily behavior-based observation or an audit that is conducted every 3 years to meet external standards (for example, ISO Standards).
Furthermore, automating recurring inspections reduces the administrative burden of continually scheduling regular or routine compliance requirements.
To get the most value out of an audits and inspections program, ensure that assignments of inspections, audits, and corrective actions can be done not only for internal employees, but also to contractors.
Close Out and Follow-Up Actions
Preventing workplace harm and regulatory non-compliance requires that immediate and effective action is taken to address program non-conformance the moment they are found. Findings from audits and inspections, along with their corresponding corrective actions, should be created and managed in the digital solution.
All action items derived from audits and inspections should be fully integrated, enabling actions to be tied to overarching compliance obligations. Ideally, completing the audit actions will automatically update the related compliance element.
A due date should also be assigned to each action item where action assignees are sent an automated notification upon assignment. Additional notifications and escalation workflows should be available to remind employees and supervisors of upcoming or outstanding tasks, helping to drive better accountability and timely action closure, contributing to stronger EHS culture.
For critical or complex corrective actions, a verifier may need to be assigned to review the corrective action when it is completed and have the ability to approve or reject the action.
Integrated Solutions
Its not enough to have an Audits and Inspections solution alone. The real value comes from an integrated solution where audit records can be linked across the platform. This includes Incidents, Risk Assessments, Findings & Corrective Actions, or even Industrial Hygiene monitoring results. An integrated solution enables deeper data integration and provides auditors with more streamlined access to related content within an audit workflow. Therefore, leading to better informed audits and results, identification of recurring trends, and more effective issue resolution.
Having all relevant information linked and easily accessible within each audit or inspection allows for more thorough and accurate audits and inspections. This ensures that no critical details are overlooked and that corrective actions can be more effectively implemented.
Mobility
As technology has advanced, the connected worker becomes a vital player to support managing EHS risks. A mobile solution will provide users with the ability to view and complete scheduled and assigned inspections and compliance actions anywhere, anytime, right from their device, whether online or offline.
AI-Enabled Auditing
Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing industries by automating highly manual and repeatable tasks such as data collection, quality assurance, and risk analysis. This automation frees up human resources to focus on tasks that require human intervention, such as in-field controls verifications, thereby enhancing overall productivity and efficiency.
Look for AI-powered risk prediction solutions that provide advanced toolkits to detect, assess, and mitigate the causes of serious injuries and fatalities (SIF). Data flowing from risk analysis, historical incident data, or controls effectiveness reviews, could be used to determine the tasks and locations where SIF potential is greatest.
These predictions offer insights on where to allocate limited resources to reduce the risk of serious injuries and fatalities. Informed by this predictive risk insight, organizations can assign resources to visit and audit operations where calculated SIF potential is greatest. This ensures that critical control measures are implemented and will prevent exposures to high energy sources to reduce the risk of fatal outcomes.
For more on AI within EHS, check out the blog: Beyond the Hype – The Reality of Artificial Intelligence’s Potential within EHS
Final Thoughts
Recognizing the critical role of audits and inspections in any management system, Cority’s Audits & Inspections solution integrates seamlessly with other key solutions across the CorityOne platform. This integration allows for a single, unified system that delivers a consistent and reliable user experience.
Organizations of all sizes around the world rely on Cority’s Audits & Inspections solution to help them assess the effectiveness of their EHS programs at managing risk and sustaining compliance.
To learn more about Cority’s Audits and Inspections solution read about it in the latest Green Quadrant for EHS Software report from Independent Analyst Firm, Verdantix, or chat with an expert today!
