Do you ever think about the complex sequence of events that has led you to the career you have today? Was it fate, destiny, kismet, calculated or accidental? Perhaps you knew from as far back as you can remember what you wanted to be when you grew up and your focus and determination allowed you to achieve your goal. Or maybe, like myself, a very complex sequence of events lead you to where you are today, in a career that you would have never dreamed of for yourself as a child.
I would have to say that there are three main catalysts that led me to my current position in EH&S. The first occurred in my late teens or early twenties. I had concluded that school was not for me so I jumped right into adulthood, starting a family and working multiple jobs to pay the bills. One of those jobs was as a firefighter. For those of you who remember my last blog, this is one of the 10 most dangerous jobs. As is typical of young people, I didn’t worry about the dangers, I only knew that keeping people safe was important to me.
The second catalyst was shortly thereafter when my younger sister introduced me to a family that she babysat for. The father of the children worked at a chemical plant and it just so happened that he had the pull to be able to get me a job as a laborer in that plant. I worked hard and doors began to open. I was promoted to forklift operator, then through the grades of chemical operator, and finally supervisor.
With a growing family came the need to increase my revenue. It was about that time that I realized college was where I needed to be. So, while working at the chemical plant as a supervisor, I entered college. Having worked as a firefighter and now in a chemical plant, I took these experiences and linked them to a degree in environmental and health & safety (EH&S). More needed to be done to keep people safe and I was the one who was going to do it. Upon graduating, more doors opened and I was soon an operations manager in a large liquid chemical and petroleum bulk storage facility with the responsible for hiring EH&S consultants. Before I knew it, I myself was an EH&S consultant responsible for helping companies to keep people and the environment safe.
As I thought more about the series of events that led me to today, I realized that there was a moment where I reached a level of maturity and made the switch from being a reactive participant in my life to being a proactive participant. The change was not an easy one, juggling work, family, and college, but the resulting upward spiral of success was well worth it. The same can be said for a maturing company. There comes a point when the business realizes it needs to move from a reactive approach to EH&S to a proactive approach.
Move from a compliance-based approach to proactive EH&S approach.
Companies have no choice but to meet regulatory requirements if they are to maintain their license to operate. However, aiming for minimum legal compliance results in lost opportunity. The current regulations are the outdated regulations of the future and with a proactive approach to EH&S, the opportunity to prevent an injury or save a life is presented.
EHS professionals easily can get tied up in managing incidents and closing gaps found through audits. Remember that incidents and audit findings mean that something was wrong or could be done better. If you spend all your time on corrective action, you’ll never find time for preventive action.
Create a wedge – no matter how small – to spend time on improvement. Once you are able to shift your focus, even if only slightly, to proactive risk reduction, you will start an upward spiral of improvement. In other words, the time spent proactively reducing risks results in fewer incidents, which then frees up even more time for being proactive.
Conduct risk assessments to provide a comprehensive understanding of the operational risks and potential business impact.
Management wants to do the right thing, but it is not always obvious what that is. Often, there are so many conflicting priorities that it can be difficult to focus on the things that will reduce EH&S risks the most. To create a compelling business case for more proactive EH&S management, a good starting point is to identify and quantify all risks and their impact on the company.
It often is not obvious exactly how the company’s resources are being spent, which risks are at an unacceptable level and where the best places to focus may be. Management often is shocked to find out that serious hazards do exist in its facilities, and that the facilities solely are relying on procedures and training to avoid the catastrophic incident. Simply providing a thorough analysis of all EH&S risks to make the situation transparent to management is a big step towards getting more resources for EH&S.
Starting such an assessment can be overwhelming when you consider all safety hazards, chemical agents and environmental aspects in your operation. But once you get started, you’ll find that you actually already have a lot of the information that you need. Why? Because those regulatory requirements have a basis in risk management.
We may often feel that regulations are overly burdensome, but they were derived from studies of the impact of chemicals and hazardous operations on people and the environment. After creating your hazard register, conduct a more detailed analysis, starting with the ones with the highest inherent risk. Document all of the safety measures and controls that you already have in place to manage that risk. Using the hierarchy of controls concept, you can then determine the current level of risk based on the strength of those controls. And if this risk level still is unacceptable, prioritize it for risk reduction projects.
So think about that last entry on your OSHA 300 Log. Was it really accidental or was it a failure of management to mature to a proactive approach to EH&S? Total Environmental and Safety, LLC (Total) understands how difficult the transition from reactive to proactive can be. Total’s familiarity with the regulatory requirements can help your company achieve the goal of risk reduction more swiftly. This is not only good for the company, but also good for the job satisfaction of your people because who wouldn’t rather spend time preventing bad things from happening instead of reacting to them?