Skip to content

3 Tips for Successful Global EHS Management

Whether you have one location or 100, managing your EHS compliance obligations is no easy task.

However, the challenge is even greater when you’re juggling responsibilities across different time zones, tools, and languages. After all, your global compliance program is only as strong as its weakest link.

So how do you overcome those challenges and help your company operate as efficiently as possible?

Below, we’re sharing three simple tips for successful global EHS management.

1. Standardize your processes

In a large global enterprise, it’s not uncommon for teams in different locations to manage their compliance responsibilities differently. That might seem like a good idea at first — after all, each country has its own set of regulations to follow — but it’s actually a recipe for disaster.

Can you imagine if an automaker allowed each factory to do their own thing? There would be no way to ensure the quality or safety of their vehicles.

Similarly, when each location has its own way of managing compliance, there’s no way to ensure your company’s obligations are met.

Standardizing your processes is essential to ensure that everyone is using the best practices, no matter their location. Checklists and templates are two great standardization tools. Both ensure that tasks are completed consistently and reduce the potential for mistakes or missed information. For example, you could consider developing a standardized template for all your job safety assessments. Or, you could create a company-wide checklist for safety self-inspections.

2. Create a central compliance calendar

When you have so many different people handling different tasks in different locations, it’s easy for things to get overlooked.

That’s where a compliance calendar comes in. A compliance calendar lists all your upcoming compliance obligations, tasks, and deadlines. You can use it to keep track of internal and external audits, report due dates, regulatory deadlines, permit renewal dates, and more.

Whether your team is in your office or scattered around the globe, a centralized compliance calendar gives you the ability to see who’s responsible for what and when so you never miss a deadline.

Once you know what everyone’s working on, you’ll have a better idea of where compliance issues are happening, which teams are overburdened, and how to prioritize your resources.

An added benefit: A centralized calendar fosters collaboration and gives employees a sense of working toward a common goal, no matter where they’re located.

3. Share common software tools

In most global companies, sharing EHS information for internal and external reporting is a necessity. So it makes sense that everyone should use the same tools to collect and manage their EHS data.

Cloud-based EHS software gives users across your organization access to the same information from anywhere, at any time. Not only that, but it reduces travel time and expenses because information can be captured remotely. So, an auditor at a factory in Spain can complete a risk assessment on a tablet, and a manager in Germany can view and analyze the results instantly. Or, you can easily report on sustainability performance across your enterprise without making a single phone call.

Even if you’re thousands of miles apart, a shared EHS management system puts everyone on the same page so you can work together efficiently.

EHS Management Software for Global Enterprises

At Perillon, we help global enterprises efficiently share timely environmental, sustainability, and safety risk knowledge across thousands of employees with powerful dashboards, mobile apps, and an intuitive user experience.

To learn more, check out our EHS management software or read the exciting news about our recent acquisition by global leader Lisam Systems.

New call-to-action