2024 saw a flurry of new safety regulations, meaning 2025 will be an important year for safety compliance. But as risk mounts, what can employers do to ensure compliance while improving safety outcomes?
Digital safety management capabilities should help.
You need to know the right ones, though. So, read on as we explore the five digital safety management capabilities to invest in in 2025.
2024 a milestone year for safety regulation
Indeed, 2024 was the year safety regulators came out swinging. If you remember, July saw the publication of OSHA’s heat illness standard.
The landmark rule requires employers to develop formalized (i.e., written,) heat illness prevention plans.
Beyond that, an initial “heat trigger” would go into effect when the heat index in a work area reaches 80° F. A further “high heat trigger” would go into effect when the heat index reaches 90° F.
The triggers themselves are prompts for employer action. For instance, after the second trigger kicks in, employers will have to:
- Provide a buddy system in which co-workers monitor each other
- Offer observation by a supervisor or heat safety coordinator, “with no more than 20 employees observed per supervisor or heat safety coordinator”
- Provide two-way communication for lone workers
New rule for injury and illness reporting
Meanwhile, other proposals actually came into effect last year.
Beginning January 2024, certain employers had to electronically submit injury and illness information to OSHA. Although limited to industries with high injury and illness rates, the revised rule impacted an estimated 50,000-plus employers.
Digital safety management capabilities to invest in
Now that the bill is coming due, employers might be scrambling to comply before regulators crack down.
What’s more, Safety teams themselves are likely aware of the generalized increase in safety risk, of which many of these regulations are being put forward as a response. If they aren’t aware, senior leadership certainly is, as evidenced by health and safety being considered the top risk measured across more than 50 countries in the WTW’s 2024 Global Directors and Officers Survey Report.
What, then, can employers do to start 2025 off on a solid footing? We say they should invest in the following five safety management software capabilities:
1. Compliance
Don’t start the new year fighting regulators. Increase alignment and drive compliance using controlled documents, manage contractors using questionnaires, and document reviews, and follow up with inspections and audits to ensure controls are implemented and risks are managed on an ongoing basis.
2. Engagement
The better part of compliance is engagement. Invest, therefore, in digital software management capabilities that will help you engage with employees and contractors through planned safety meetings, scheduled behavior-based observations, and change management consultations. Then, easily share lessons learned by generating safety alerts that can be shared to relevant stakeholders via email, SMS, and voice message.
3. Incident management
Although compliance is important, the bread-and-butter of safety management remains incident management. Elevate hazard and incident reporting with safety management software that provides seamless reporting from any device, to instantly notify personnel and assign actions using pre-built plans, oversee injury and return-to-work processes, leverage industry templates for investigations, and manage tasks to prevent reoccurence.
4. Risk management
With risk intensifying, it’s time to ramp up your risk management capabilities, too. Consider safety management software that will help you effectively manage risk using multiple approaches, including tactical Take 5’s, Job Safety Analysis, and Method Statements to align teams, Permit to Work, and Lock Out Tag Out for high-risk work – and the operational risk register to manage risks across multiple parts of your organization.
5. Wellbeing
The data suggests employers are backsliding on their post-pandemic wellbeing in the workplace commitments. Don’t be part of the trend. Instead, support your employees and contractors with the ability to raise duress alarms from their devices if they need immediate support, create a confidential wellbeing support request, or conduct ergonomic assessments to ensure a safe environment at work or in the home office.
These five digital safety management capabilities stand out as a great place to start in 2025. However, Safety teams will likely need to go further to ensure continuing compliance throughout the year.
What other software features to consider? Download our Safety Management Software Buyer’s Guide to find out.
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