Firms Continue Their March Towards Proactive Risk Management Despite Budget Pressure

Firms Continue Their March Towards Proactive Risk Management Despite Budget Pressure

Despite the looming fear of a recession, the EHS software market is expected to continue growing. According to the latest Verdantix Market Size And Forecast for EHS Software, the market will hit $1.57 billion in 2022, with an expected CAGR of 11.9%, reaching $2.7 billion by 2027. This can be attributed to increasingly stringent ESG requirements, which have driven long-term spending on commercial EHS software to meet compliance-related and internally strategic goals. Coupled with the effects of COVID-19, this has accelerated the digitization of EHS processes. One aspect of EHS to benefit from this growing digitization is risk management. Digital solutions are enabling firms as they look to progress from reactive strategies with paper-based software and workflows, to a more proactive approach with connected software and technology.

Although technology can accelerate this process, it is unlikely to happen overnight. In fact, Verdantix finds that many firms do not possess the necessary IoT devices and supporting software systems to provide holistic real-time insight. According to a Verdantix Best Practices report on the shift towards dynamic risk management, many firms still manage their EHS process via a diverse range of systems, including in-house tools, and paper and excel EHS databases. Despite these challenges, 43% of firms included in the latest Verdantix Global Corporate Survey consider using real-time data as a high priority. With live data feeds from connected sensors to EHS software, businesses can detect and respond to emergent threats more efficiently, ultimately improving their risk management profile. One EHS provider making headway in this sphere is Tenforce, who in April 2022 announced a partnership with Rombit to enhance their permit-to-work management with real-time data alerts.

One benefit of dynamic risk management is that EHS professionals can view all risks associated with processes, people, and assets on a single platform. For example, GOARC has a predictive risk management permit-to-work module, which uses dynamic risk identification to assess operational and occupational health factors that affect the interaction between workers and assets. Using these analytics, firms can predict how workforce expertise, asset maintenance, and health influence each other, which increases risk visibility and improves the relationship between EHS and operations teams who usually shoulder these responsibilities. Furthermore, dynamic risk management increases firms’ capacity to react to critical events. By implementing real-time analytics, workers can respond dynamically and efficiently through enhancements in worker communications, asset sensors, geographical locators, vital signs, and environmental monitors.

Although progression towards proactive risk management is not necessarily an easy task, it is clear to see that firms will benefit from these adjustments in the long run. Firms will need to continue to understand, identify and adopt digital solutions to support their data journeys to proactive risk management. With sharp risk mitigation processes and real-time visualisation techniques, workers will be more suited than ever before to tackle these issues.