8 minutes14/10/2025
An estimated 90% of companies are currently undergoing a digital transformation. But in safety, one survey found that 93% of EHS decision-makers are still trying to phase out some aspects of legacy systems and paper-based processes. Failing to embrace digital safety solutions obstructs progress on safety culture.
Paper documents and spreadsheets are makeshift solutions for fulfilling EHS requirements, but these safety management systems cause problems:
What’s more, legacy tools rarely align with the way people work. This reduces participation and increases risk. Siloed solutions also hamper collaboration. If everyone is working from a different source of truth, collectively improving safety becomes much more difficult.
The lack of data protection and accessibility complicates matters further. When a system isn’t trustworthy, employee engagement in safety reporting declines. And if tools are monolingual, language barriers can hinder people’s understanding of safety measures.
Collectively, these issues keep companies potentially locked in a negative safety culture, where accident rates are higher, engagement is lower, and reputational and performance risks run rampant.
To break free from this and fulfil legal obligations for workplace safety, companies need to embrace digitalization. Any evaluation of legacy systems versus digital safety solutions will show that a digital transformation is the way forward. This article explores how modern tools help you establish a positive, proactive, high-engagement safety culture.
To transform its safety culture, a company must understand how to eliminate safety data silos. Removing silos is key to gaining a clear picture of safety performance. It also paves the way for shared goals that will lead to collaborative improvements in the culture.
Cloud-based EHS software centralizes your safety management processes and data. This single source of truth enables company-wide alignment around safety. And with simple access anywhere, anytime, the software makes it easy to analyze data and track progress from within one tool.
The ability to digitally link safety topics to environmental and health data also helps improve safety culture. Gaining a comprehensive view of EHS across the business can sharpen safety-related goals, awareness, and engagement.
A digital system can also integrate third-party tools and expert databases for legal content and regular updates. This unifies data and keeps information up to date. It also makes it easier to onboard and align people, interact with internal and external stakeholders, and integrate EHS into broader business processes.
A digital transformation is a powerful thing, but technology alone isn't the change driver, it comes from people, too. The best digital tools boost human engagement throughout the organization. These are some ways this happens:
Signal leadership commitment: Providing modern safety tools shows employees that management prioritizes safety and values their contributions.
Support proactive training: Digital platforms with training management and online instructions promote preventive behavior and increase engagement.
Simplify reporting: Mobile-friendly forms make it easy to log safety observations anytime, anywhere, fitting seamlessly into daily routines.
Enable real-time feedback: Managers receive notifications, share updates, and stay informed, ensuring no report is missed.
Reinforce engagement: When leaders act on frontline reports, employees feel heard and are more likely to continue reporting.
Digital tools do more than manage safety, they build trust, improve efficiency, and foster collaboration across your organization. Here's how:
By combining these capabilities, digital tools help organizations build a safety culture that’s transparent, inclusive, and scalable.
Automation and AI can drastically shrink the gap between insights and action. They do this by accelerating routine tasks and rapidly processing data. As a result, companies can streamline workflows and act on AI-driven safety insights sooner, keeping everyone safer.
Digital tools can automate and simplify all manner of safety tasks. Examples include:
AI-driven functions are increasingly appearing in digital EHS tools. The technology is evolving rapidly, so more capabilities will emerge regularly. Deployed consciously and with an understanding of the limits and risks, AI is a powerful tool for safety.
Here are two examples of AI currently in use on the Quentic platform:
AI data extraction and processing help manage safety data sheet information much more efficiently. By ingesting and recording hazardous chemical records into the EHS software directly, users can save up to 90% of the time needed to keep manual records.
AI translation allows employees to log near misses, incidents, and positive observations in their preferred language. Managers can then use AI to translate the report into their preferred language. This removes potential barriers, which can increase the number of reports being submitted and processed.
The right digital tools make it easy to collect, manage, and analyze large volumes of safety data, giving leaders the clarity to make confident, data-driven decisions. With quick access to trends and performance gaps, teams can proactively adjust strategies and stay aligned with safety goals.
Choosing meaningful KPIs is key. EHS software lets you define and track a mix of leading and lagging indicators, while dashboards display critical metrics at a glance, eliminating guesswork and simplifying communication.
Choosing the best EHS software for your safety management needs is the first step toward a successful digital transformation. A thoughtful selection process saves time, avoids future issues, and ensures company-wide adoption.
Begin with these steps:
Gather input from all departments to understand company-wide needs and build support for your chosen solution.
Once you're ready to evaluate options, look for software that adapts to every role, offers mobile reporting, and provides real-time safety dashboards for centralized decision-making.
For an in-depth guide on choosing EHS software, download our whitepaper. It walks you through each step in the process and helps you identify selection criteria. Then use our business case template to present compelling, data-driven arguments to convince management and stakeholders of your choice.
A digital transformation is the lever to scale your safety culture. Digital solutions are powerful enablers of the engagement, behavior, and actions that drive positive progress on safety. To harness the full benefit of these tools, you must choose solutions that are employee-centric and backed by leadership.
Ready to move beyond paper? Quentic has you covered.
Quentic (an AMCS company), is a leading SaaS provider for EHS and ESG management, acquired by the AMCS Group in 2022. The acquisition combines AMCS’s global reach and digital expertise with Quentic’s specialized solutions and market fit to drive innovation in sustainability, safety, and compliance. Together, Quentic and AMCS will continue to deliver integrated technologies that support a healthier, cleaner, and more sustainable future.
Learn more about how Quentic drives safety culture: book a 10-minute consultation call here.
