Five Steps to Select a Safety Management System

Every company has a different way of going about selecting solutions that will work best for the organization, but there are five useful steps for all companies to abide by, at least as a starting place, to effectively select a safety management system. They are as follows:

1. Admittance and Acceptance – Just like the first step in Alcoholics Anonymous, this step is one of the most important ones. So many companies are too proud or consumed in business to admit and accept that they NEED a safety management system. I cannot tell you how much it hurts to hear that there are still so many companies using word documents and excel spreadsheets. It is time to take that first step and make the decision to update your safety management process.
2. Weighing of Requirements – Next, it is important to determine your organization’s specific requirements for a management system. List out all of the requirements that you can think of, and then weigh those requirements or rank them according to importance. Obviously, the hope is to find a solution that remedies all of your requirements, but it is crucial to at least remedy the major ones.
3. Budget Calculation – Most software companies probably hate this even being part of the process. Most would prefer to let you know that they can satisfy all of your requirements, get you hooked on their solution and then push your budget way past what you ever imagined spending on a system. Know your budget before even walking into a demonstration of a product. Make the software company SHOW you the money the solution will help you save, especially if it’s over your original budget. Just like any bargain shopper knows, there are highly effective solutions out there that do not cost millions of dollars. Depending on urgency, continue to search for a system until you find one that meets important requirements as well as your budget.
4. Identification of Vendors – Rather than narrowing in on one solution right away, allow some time for different departments or people from your organization to do some research and find 3-5 vendors that have the best potential to be the right fit.
5. Final Selection – Once you have received presentations from all of the identified vendors, make the final selection based on which solution would fit in best with your company culture, requirements, budget, etc.