May 22nd, 2025 by Dakota Software Staff
Managing Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) risks is fundamental to an organization’s success and requires consistent effort and focus. Without that dedication, it’s easy to fall behind and spend time putting out fires rather than preventing them. Proactively addressing risks before accidents occur shows a strong commitment to safety and helps create a positive work environment that boosts employee morale. It also reduces legal, medical, and compliance costs, builds shareholder confidence, and improves overall company profitability.
The first step is risk identification, the process of pinpointing hazards in the work environment. The next step is risk mitigation, taking action to reduce the likelihood or impact of incidents caused by those hazards. Without a clear framework, organizations can struggle to identify and prioritize risks, which can lead to poor communication and ultimately harm the overall health and wellbeing of the company.
Learn how to take a more proactive approach to EHS risk identification and mitigation. Discover tips on proven methods, best practices, and tools that improve safety, compliance, and operational efficiency.
EHS risk identification is the process of systematically identifying and assessing the organization’s risks associated with its environmental, health, and safety operations. Once these risks are identified, they are prioritized, and strategies are then developed in the mitigation phase to eliminate or reduce them. Common EHS risks include:
Environmental
Air pollution
Water contamination
Noise pollution
Heat stress
Health
Chemical hazard exposure
Biological hazards such as exposure to mold or infectious diseases
Radiation hazard exposure
Safety
Slips, trips, and falls
Forklift and vehicle accidents
Fire hazards
Explosion risks
Equipment accidents
The EHS risk assessment process helps identify workplace hazards and highlights potential areas of regulatory noncompliance. This strengthens the organization’s compliance culture and pinpoints risks that need to be mitigated to improve overall workplace safety.
Both understanding (knowledge) and accurate data (information) play key roles in the EHS risk management process, particularly in ensuring reliable data collection.
The following methods and programs help organizations stay aware of what’s happening across their facilities, including on the shop floor. This information can then be used to develop safety risk checklists to guide further analysis and action.
An effective EHS risk assessment process involves precise protocols and specific assessment tools to rate any identified risks that will measure the potential consequences of noncompliance and overall EHS risk. Workplace inspections and audits have the capability to become more than operational and administrative check-ups by shifting to a risk-based, proactive approach.
JSA and JHA are terms that can be used interchangeably to mean the process of breaking down a task or job into the individual steps required for completion. Once the task or job is broken into individual steps, potential hazards can be identified, which allows for the creation of controls designed specifically to reduce or eliminate any identified risks and hazards.
Incident reporting focuses on reporting events that led to harm, whereas near-miss reporting documents events where harm was narrowly avoided. Documenting these events aids in the risk identification and mitigation process.
Creating a culture where employee safety is first and foremost requires developing a format where the workforce is encouraged to provide feedback. After all, it's the front-line workers who provide essential insights that help identify workplace risks.
One approach that helps create a culture of safety is adopting Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) principles, which embraces the fact that no one is perfect.
Regulatory requirement reviews involve developing formal processes to evaluate an organization’s compliance with specific regulations or internal policies. Creating distinct processes for each area of compliance is essential for thorough and effective risk identification.
EHS risk mitigation is the task of reducing or eliminating any risks or hazards identified. Utilizing a hierarchy of controls allows workplace hazards to be addressed with a step-by-step approach.
First, it ranks various risk control measures, which users then apply from the most effective to the least until they have eliminated the hazard or reduced it to a reasonable level.
Elimination – eliminate the hazard entirely
Substitution – replace the hazard
Engineering controls – isolate the hazard from people
Administrative controls – change the way people work
PPE – provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect workers
Successful EHS risk identification and mitigation involves both short- and long-term strategies. Short-term measures focus on immediate hazards and solutions. Long-term measures are those that are proactive and focus on preventing risks over time.
Having a strong compliance program and a shared EHS knowledge base creates a foundation for mitigating risk effectively.
Suggested best practices to create successful EHS hazard mitigation strategies include:
Building an EHS legal risk register
Prioritizing risks based on severity and likelihood
Assigning responsibility and deadlines
Monitoring and reassessing risks regularly
Integrating risk management into company culture
EHS software is the most comprehensive solution to identify, track and mitigate risks. It prioritizes safety, centralizes compliance requirements, and streamlines reporting obligations.
Despite the many compliance and risk management software options available, some companies still rely on homemade or manual processes that cover only a few functions, leaving important risks unaddressed. When companies create these software silos, typically only one or two people manage the database, leading to bottlenecks and a significant risk of knowledge loss if those employees leave.
Technology improves visibility, accountability, and action tracking by creating dashboards that allow you to easily track and manage EHS tasks.
EHS software saves time by automating reminders to notify responsible employees of upcoming tasks and deadlines. It also provides automated reports and data that can be quickly and easily shared with management and other key stakeholders. By reducing administrative burden, a software system gives your risk management team more time to focus on higher-value activities and supports a shift from a reactive approach to a more proactive strategy.
Data collected through EHS software allows your organization to measure and track:
Inspections and Audits Findings
On-time Completion of Corrective Actions
Safety and Compliance Training Effectiveness
Worker Participation Rates
Near Misses
Today’s market offers a wide range of software solutions, making it important to ask the right questions, such as:
How do you access the software?
Can it be customized/configured?
Is it scalable?
How easy is the software to use?
How much does it cost?
Dakota Software introduced the first EHS compliance software in 1988 to help organizations efficiently identify and mitigate EHS risks.
Our ProActivity Suite is fueled by a database of relevant, action-forcing regulatory compliance requirements and audit protocols. This library is continually updated by our in-house team of regulatory analysts, providing users with plain-language, up-to-date regulatory guidance for identifying and managing compliance calendars, tasks, and audits.
Dakota Software envisioned a need for proactive EHS software solutions and pioneered the proactive EHS compliance movement. We remain committed to providing proven preventative EHS solutions.
Missing the mark on identifying and mitigating EHS risks within your organization is too costly to get wrong. Lives are literally on the line. The health and safety of your employees and the surrounding community are at risk and failure to proactively eliminate or reduce those risks can be the difference in the entire future of your organization.
Take the time to assess your current risk identification and mitigation processes. Explore proven solutions designed to help you stay ahead of compliance challenges, such as Dakota Software’s ProActivity Suite. View our demo library to learn more about how our EHS solutions can help you create a safer, more compliant workplace.
Profiler
Auditor
Tracer
Scout
Insights
Inspections
Metrics
