How good is your business at complying with environmental, health and safety (EHS) regulations? If you are looking to your employees to tell you the state of your EHS compliance, you might be in trouble. Nearly half (45%) of workers admit they do not report potentially unsafe behaviors to colleagues or supervisors because they are uncomfortable doing so. At the same time, only 28% of employees who work for companies impacted by EHS do not know their employer’s EHS function. This all has an increased importance when you find that in 2014, 4,821 employees died on the job. Many companies us environmental auditing software solutions to help with EHCS compliance.

Oftentimes, when companies do not do well on their audits, it is because they did not do enough to prepare. The fact of the matter is that has to change for most companies because EHS audits are just becoming more and more common. The results are sent to the public, community, shareholders, stakeholders, the employees of the organization and any other people who need to have that information. EHS compliance information also can be used to help the business improve its practices and policies and protect the workers and public better.

There are some things that can and should be done, and if done correctly along with the use of environmental auditing software, can help your performance in your EHS audits and improve your EHS compliance.

1. Make sure the data you share is complete and accurate.andnbsp;Too many organizations today take their data and cherry pick what they will let auditors see. In the first place, this prevents the audit from uncovering any problems that may actually be serious or become serious if nothing is done. The point of the audit is not just to punish companies for non-compliance but to uncover problems so that they can be corrected before anyone is seriously hurt or worse. The second problem with this strategy of dishonest reporting of company data is that when that comes out, the company’s reputation will be hurt. It is critical that the correct data is reported to auditors.
2. Try to be objective. This can be one of the hardest things for a company to do during an environmental regulatory compliance audit and at other times. This is the reason so many people trust it more when outsiders go in and conduct the EHS audits rather than rely on internal reviews and audits. It is natural for a company to want to show off its positives and downplay or totally ignore the negatives. One way to do this is to release raw data on the organization’s greenhouse gas emissions, landfill status and water usage. Two things and organization can do to show they are trying to be transparent with their EHS data is to sent out both the results from EHS audit and the raw data you get from using their environmental auditing software. The closer the two are, the more honest you will appear.
3. Your compliance goals have to be realistic. There are a lot of times when the staff directly involved in EHS compliance management are overly zealous in setting goals for the organization. They set goals that their staff and their organization have no chance of ever meeting. This is a surefire recipe for disaster. The EHS auditors do not expect perfection. It is not possible to reach 100% compliance overnight. That is why the current plan for EHS compliance is 100% sustainable by 2020. If reasonable goals are set, they can be met and progress can be made.

It is natural to worried when any kind of audit is scheduled. Whether it is the Internal Revenue Service or the EHS auditors, getting your organization ready for the audit may put everyone on edge even when the best environmental auditing software being used. At the end of the day, these audits serve an important service to the public, the organization’s staff, the important decision makers for the organization and the organization itself. EHS audits give an accurate picture of the EHS compliance system and give the organization the chance to make necessary changes to comply with EHS regulations and improve the employee safety program.