Every organization faces risks, be it an office-based IT company, a construction site, or a factory handling hazardous chemicals. These risks to the safety and health of workers are not even consistent; new projects may come with new hazards. A robust risk management process plays a vital role in mitigating these risks and making the workplace safer for all employees.
But risk management involves several steps, including identifying the risks, conducting a thorough risk assessment, taking corrective actions to mitigate these risks, and finally, monitoring the results and keeping the risk management strategy updated. This process can be time-consuming and if done manually, prone to errors.
The best way to tackle this issue is to use an enterprise risk management solution (RMS) for the automation of risk monitoring, identification, analysis, assessment, and mitigation. But how to choose the right risk management solution for you? Let’s go over the features every good risk management software must have. We’ll also share some of the top solutions available on the market.
Why You Need a Risk Management Solution
A risk management solution helps take some of the burden off the shoulders of project managers, who have enough on their plate as it is. Here are some reasons why you need a risk management solution.
Regulatory Compliance
An automated risk management system allows you to account for all relevant safety regulations. A single platform can keep organized records of risk assessments, corrective action plans, and more, leaving a digital trail of all the measures you’ve taken to ensure safety compliance. A risk management solution may also help you monitor industry policy changes and update your risk strategy accordingly.
Continuous Improvement
A digital risk management tool helps you keep track of the progress made with risk mitigation. With such a solution, you can easily spot any hindrances or gaps in your safety protocols and fix these issues as they arise. Tracking these metrics allows for continuous improvement of your safety policies.
Higher Employee Productivity
Using digital tools to manage your safety protocols helps project managers, who can now focus on their revenue-generating projects and workflows rather than spending excessive time managing risks manually.
Reduced Workplace Accidents
The goal of risk management is to keep your workers safe and reduce workplace injuries and accidents as much as possible. Using a good risk management solution helps you manage hazards more effectively and ensures that all possible risks are covered, ultimately proving effective in reducing workplace accidents.
Key Features of a Great Risk Management Solution
Since more and more businesses are turning to digital solutions to manage their safety processes, there are a ton of risk management solutions available in the market. While the solution you choose would be based on your unique needs, here are some features that you can’t do without:
- Accessible from any device: Risk assessment, audits, and other such operations usually involve forms, checklists, and templates to make documentation easier. Since the team conducting these would be on the go, the forms and checklists would need to be accessible from anywhere, preferably even from mobile devices.
- Real-time data: Your solution should allow for customized data dashboards that are automatically updated based on real-time information, meaning that your safety data is always up-to-date.
- Sophisticated risk analytics: The most time-consuming operation that has a high potential for human error is risk analysis. So, risk analytics capabilities that eliminate the need for manual data crunching are a must in any good risk management software.
- Document storage capabilities: An effective risk management solution also acts as a repository of all safety-related information, including your company’s safety policy and procedures, safety training materials, past risk assessments, the latest regulatory requirements, and more.
- Assignable tasks and tracking: An important aspect of risk management is the mitigation of risks. Once risks are identified, analyzed, and prioritized, you need to work on corrective actions to fix the issues. These actions should be assigned to specific employees or teams, and their progress must be monitored until the actions are completed. The risk management solution should allow for this as well, and send automated reminders to the stakeholders until the work is done.
- Easy communication of results: It is not enough to just go through the risk management process. A report must be created and communicated to relevant stakeholders including senior management and the individuals implementing the corrective actions. The platform should make communicating this report (and other similar information) simple and quick.
- No-code customization: Of course, no general solution will be perfect and ready for you to use. You’ll need to customize it to fit your needs. So, the risk management solution should allow you to add customizations easily and quickly, without needing to depend on the IT team for coding.
The 6 Best Risk Management Solutions
While the above list of features would certainly help you with your search, here’s a place you can start. Based on the user interface, usability, reporting and analytics capabilities, and value for money, we have highlighted some of the top risk management solutions.
1. Pulpstream
Pulpstream’s risk management platform is versatile, flexible, highly customizable, and easy to use. It allows you to automate every aspect of your safety management plan and integrate them all into a single, user-friendly interface. Pulpstream is a notch above every other solution on the market thanks to its intuitive dashboard that allows you to perform most risk management functions with just a few simple steps, its sophisticated risk analysis tools, and no-code customization capabilities.
Features
The features that make Pulpstream’s solution stand out include:
- Intelligent tools that consolidate any uploaded data (including paper forms, disparate data sources, etc.) and convert it into searchable, actionable data points
- Digital user portals that facilitate easy communication, task prioritization and assignment, follow-ups, and progress or milestone tracking
- An easy-to-use dashboard that allows you to easily approve, reject, and assign tasks, view task status, and schedule automatic follow-ups and alerts
- The ability to trigger actions based on configurable rules, contexts, or timers
- Secure data storage from any device, anywhere
- Offline access to content and tasks with any updates automatically syncing to cloud when the device is online again
- Sophisticated analytics and reporting tools that help with finding patterns and visualizing the data, available on the dashboard to help with decision-making
Pricing
Details on price are available on request. Get a free demo to get a feel for the platform.
2. Workhub
Workhub allows businesses to easily manage safety inspections, forms, training, and compliance. Also, its excellent communication and collaboration tools allow effective communication about any updates to the safety programs of the company. It is ideal for small businesses due to its low cost and high value for money.
Features
Some features that make Workhub unique include:
- Incident reporting that enables workers to easily report near misses, identify causes, and log action items
- Online training with over 60 readymade options (or you can create your own)
- A digital tool to host live training sessions, contractor safety orientations, etc.
- Automated scheduling and notifications of regular inspections
- A digital bulletin board and alerts function (including email and SMS alerts) that allows for seamless safety communication and follow-ups
- A tool to collect worker suggestions for improvement and a whistleblower function for workers to report safety concerns anonymously
- An incentives system where workers can access a Joke of the Week if they’ve completed minimum safety requirements
- A customizable a rewards program for employee safety compliance
Pricing
A free version available with limited features. The Standard plan starts at $3/user per month.
3. EHS Insight
EHS Insight is a cloud-based environmental health and safety management solution that helps track environmental effects in addition to management of occupational safety and health systems.
Features
A key feature of EHS Insight is that it offers different tiers based on the size of the business, and you can choose the level that fits your needs. The three tiers are Basic (for small businesses), Mid-tier (for medium businesses, includes training management), and enterprise support (for large businesses). Other features include:
- Offline access for users working in remote/inaccessible locations
- A portal for hazard reporting that communicates the hazards to the right people
- Easy-to-use checklists and templates to help with inspections, audits, and risk assessments
- Incident investigation and corrective action management
- Automated notifications to enable progress tracking and follow-ups
- A single, integrated training platform that stores all training materials including training requests, records, certifications, licenses, skill assessments, and course content (mid-size and enterprise support)
- Dedicated representatives for any necessary help (enterprise support only)
Pricing
The details are not available on their website, but you can book a free trial to get a feel for the software.
4. Safesite
Safesite’s digital safety solution stands out because of its easy-to-use interface and its user-friendly safety app which facilitates safety management anytime, anywhere. It is highly trusted for its risk assessment and analytics and enables users to conduct safety inspections and audits, host toolbox talks and safety meetings, or even track equipment. The user-friendly app combined with the low cost makes Safesite a great option for small businesses.
Features
Safesite’s notable features include:
- Multi-user/multi-department audit management
- Incident reporting and management on-the-go
- Training management with an in-app safety topic library that employees can use anytime
- Pre-loaded templates for things like risk assessment forms and corrective actions for a range of industries
- A safety app that syncs with the web interface in real time, giving platform administrators an instant, big-picture view of risks in the field
- Predictive analytics to help identify safety opportunities and potential future hazards
- Assignable tasks and reminders that enable you to keep track of progress with corrective actions and send regular reminders to ensure completion
Pricing
Limited features are available as a free version. There is also a premium version starting at $16/month which gives you access to more features as well as Safesite’s team of safety experts to help you develop your safety program from scratch.
5. Cority
Cority’s safety management system is geared towards larger organizations involved in high-risk industries such as energy, manufacturing, aerospace, etc. This platform is a recognized leader in Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) compliance as it was designed to meet and support ISO 45001:2018 guidelines (an official standard for occupational health and safety).
Features
Some of the features of Cority include:
- A centralized user interface that integrates other Cority products such as the Environmental, Health, Safety, Quality, and Analytics Clouds
- Automated safety audit and inspection management and reporting
- Compliance management
- Current performance metrics
- Innovative intelligence tools that allow for predictive risk modeling, making it easy to transform raw risk data into actionable insights
Pricing
The details are available upon request. You can also request a free demo on their website.
6. EcoOnline
EcoOnline offers innovative solutions to address safety management needs. It is versatile and can be used by businesses in a range of industries and allows safety managers to quickly collect and track risk management data.
Features
Some of EcoOnline’s great features include:
- Safety data sheet management
- Chemical inventory checklists and templates
- Risk assessment, safety inspections, and audits
- Safety training management
- Event tracking
- Real-time analysis and decision-making support
Pricing
Although the pricing details are not available, you can attend a free webinar to learn more about the software, or book a free demo to see if it fits your needs.
Digitally Transform Your Organization’s Safety With a Risk Management Solution
In a nutshell, risk management can be time-consuming, tedious, and prone to human error if done manually. This can lead to gaps in safety. The best way to combat this is to use a digital risk management solution to automate aspects of your risk management. Whether your business is small or very large, there are solutions available in the market that will suit your needs and fit within your budget constraints.
But before choosing a solution, it is important to do your due diligence keeping in mind what features are important to your business. Also, most reliable risk management solutions have either a free trial or a free demo through which you can check if they fit your exact business needs before paying to use a premium or full version. The list in this article can serve as a starting point for your research.
Check out this guide to learn more about using no-code software to digitally transform your business processes, including risk management.
