Reading, UK – [26 May 2022] – Findings from a new research report released today reveal the majority (78 per cent) of environment, health and safety (EHS) professionals surveyed believe a failure to manage and address health and safety risks could see their company lose business to competitors who can better demonstrate success in this area.
The research report from the European division of Intelex Technologies, a leading global provider of cloud-based environmental, health, safety and quality (EHSQ) management software, also reveals the top six most common challenges faced in health and safety:
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- #1 Employee participation in H&S initiatives (41 per cent)
- #2 Employee education and training (33 per cent)
- #3 Difficulties around implementing a culture of safety (32 per cent)
- #4 Incident prevention (31 per cent)
- #5 Lack of proper technology (29 per cent)
- #6 Compliance with regulations (28 per cent)
Commenting on the report, Intelex’s Gavin Stephenson, Director, EMEA & APAC, said: “Improving employee participation in Health and Safety initiatives is by far the number one issue experienced by EHS professionals, and they recognise that this participation is critical to business success. Without it, they will struggle to improve their organisational safety culture – leading to either a loss of business or loss of staff, or worse, both, to better performing competitors.”
The research also highlights worrying statistics around workplace incidents, which show the need for organisations to improve their EHS performance:
- 62 per cent of respondents acknowledge that, in the last 12 months, their organisation has had workers injured, ill or in an accident.
- 20 per cent of these respondents believe that this type of incident could easily occur again if they fail to make the necessary improvements.
- 38 per cent of those surveyed do not collect the right data when incidents occur. This is further impacted by just as many of those surveyed (38 per cent) having a limited understanding of health and safety management systems.
However, despite the challenges, the research report revealed a number of positives – not least that the majority of respondents are determined to find long-lasting solutions to their EHS challenges:
- 80 per cent of respondents agree that executives at their organisations understand the implications of poor performance around health and safety.
- 87 per cent believe implementing EHS-specific technologies and applications would resolve most of their health and safety-related difficulties.
Gavin added: “As well as the human challenges of recurring workplace incidents, there is clearly a significant technological challenge as well, with organisations lacking effective reporting tools. Ultimately, getting people on board with EHS initiatives means removing barriers to pursuing the right course of action, which will result in fewer incidents, making organisations safer and more efficient.”
The Intelex report, Engaging Workers, Growing Business, Protecting the Planet, will be released in three stages, with the first chapter launched Thursday 26 May 2022. The following two chapters will be released throughout June 2022. To read the first chapter of the report, please visit https://bit.ly/ILXEHS.
ENDS
Media contacts:
Tom Gosschalk / Pavel Pertsov
+ 44 (0)7867 452 269 / +44 (0)20 4571 8353
About Intelex:
Intelex is a global leader in environmental, health, safety and quality (EHSQ) management software. Since 1992, Intelex employees across the globe have been committed to innovating and enabling organizations to send their employees home safely every day, leaving behind a more sustainable world to the generations that follow, and manage quality so that only the safest and highest quality products make it to the market.
Intelex’s scalable, web-based platform and applications have helped clients across all industries improve business performance, mitigate organization-wide risk, and ensure sustained compliance with internationally accepted standards (e.g. ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001) and regulatory requirements. Almost 1,400 customers in 195 countries trust Intelex to power their EHSQ initiatives.
Headquartered in Toronto with regional offices and employees around the world, Intelex became a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortive in 2019. In 2020, Intelex acquired ehsAI, provider of a SaaS-based next-wave compliance automation solution that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.
About the research report:
- The research surveyed 720 EHS and ESG professionals across 17 different industry sectors.
- Respondents were based in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
- Respondents represented a variety of job roles, including but not limited to COO; Director of Health, Safety and Environment; Director of Compliance; and Head of ESG.
- All organisations surveyed had a global annual revenue of at least $250 million USD.
