It’s often said that the only constant is change, and that’s certainly true in the field of environmental health and safety management. Procedures need to be changed regularly, whether due to new regulations or company policy. For serious overhauls, management of change software will guide you.
What is Management of Change Software?
Put simply, this is a module within your EHS management system that is specifically designed to oversee department-wide or company-wide changes. In order to make seamless transitions from old procedures to new, it features helpful tools for every step of the process.
Conceptualization – Use your software to create a plan for change.
Create workflows – In order for an efficient transition.
Implementation – Apply changes to your procedures within your environmental management software as you implement them across the company.
Documentation – Record progress and share these progress reports within your organization.
Analysis – Determine impact of change and use results to refine the process for future change management.
Furthering Your Understanding of Change
To build on the final point noted above, management of change doesn’t just refer to overseeing the process of change itself. It also means monitoring the results to determine whether the change was successful, whether it has benefited the company, and how well it has been received.
Your management of change software can allow you to track all of these metrics. By consulting your EMIS software, you can review key data from before the change and after – whether you are monitoring emissions, waste, on-the-job injuries, or some other facet of environmental health and safety. Import this data into the management of change module to create reports about the impact of your new policies.
You can even record employee sentiment about the change by using a Questionnaire feature. These customized public surveys are an easy way to determine whether the new procedures have been embraced by employees. If the feedback you receive is overall positive, you can consider the change to be successful. If you receive complaints about how the new policy has complicated tasks or is difficult to understand, you may realize that further improvements are needed in order to ensure compliance at every level of the organization.
The more you know about how successfully change was implemented and how it has benefitted your organization, the better prepared you can be for the next round of change. Having clear records of what worked and what didn’t deliver the expected results can inform future procedure changes.
Change Can Be Stressful
Any major change in policy puts stress on an organization and the people within it. No matter how beneficial or well-designed an environmental management procedure change is, there’s likely to be some rough spots along the path to implementation. Executives will have anxiety about the cost and efficacy, employees with have anxiety about how it will impact their day-to-day tasks, and environmental managers will naturally be anxious about putting the changes into motion while balancing the needs of these two groups.
The goal of change management software is to make these transitions as smooth as possible, at every level of your organization. Put your management skills to work with software that’s designed to work with you to create powerful change.
