What’s Going On
DAVE JOHNSON:
EHS performance checklist
How does your program measure up to best practices?
T
here are approximately 34,596 safety managers currently employed in the United States, according to Zippia, an online job search site. Zippia estimates safety manager demographics and statistics in the United States by using a database of 30 million profiles. Its safety manager estimates are verified against BLS, Census, and current job openings data for accuracy.
Not surprisingly, only 26% of pros work for companies with 500 or fewer employees, according to Zippia. Most are employed by large organizations — 32% work for firms with 1,000 to 10,000 employees and 37% are employed by corporations with a workforce of more than 10,000.
The big players have brands to protect, multiple locations to manage, often global supply chains to oversee, and often are found in dangerous industries — construction, healthcare, heavy manufacturing, mining, utilities, pharmaceutical and medical products, and in oil, gas and energy fields.
Almost 70% (69%) of safety pros work for corporations with deep pockets, revenues in the billions, resources that run wide and deep, often large EHS staffs, EHS management systems, EHS and business goals aligned and integrated, and are most likely to use various technologies for EHS applications. These large organizations are where you find many “best of the best” EHS programs to measure your program against, which you’ll have the chance to do later in this article.
Photo: izusek / E+ via Getty Images.
Small business EHS pros
About one-quarter (26%) of pros — approximately 8,649 individuals — work in operations with 500 or less employees, many at a single location, often with EHS programs that can’t match the big players in scope, resources and technologies. Many of these pros most likely are the only EHS presence on site.
Still, these pros can benchmark their programs against the biggest and best performers. We’ll use EHS excellence elements of the National Safety Council’s Campbell Institute Robert W. Campbell Award to measure where smaller programs match elements of larger programs; and identify their program’s strengths, weaknesses and needs for improvement. This assessment tool comes with the understanding that few small EHS programs will be able to match up 100% with large programs.
Let’s examine these Campbell Award key elements: business profile, leadership, integrated EHS management system, performance measurements & information management, linkage between EHS & business performance, lessons learned, EHS challenges and a data snapshot.
Per a suggestion by David Varwig, former VP of safety for a major oil and electric company, you can assess your program against these best practices using:
• S for Strength
• N for Needs Improvement
• W for Weakness
• ID for Indeterminate (don’t know)
I would add one more:
NA for Not Applicable – not part of your program.
Leadership
OK, let’s start where it all starts, with leadership.
• Senior leaders actively and regularly engage in EHS.
• Senior leaders have EHS specific goals.
• Senior leaders build and sustain a culture that embraces EHS as a valuable, integral component of the business.
EHS Management Systems
• Your company has built and maintains an EHS management system.
• Your management system includes risk assessment, policy development, training, communication, monitoring and corrective action and EHS performance measurement. Note: Use the S for Strength; N for Needs Improvement; W for Weakness; ID for Indeterminate (don’t know); NA (not applicable) to each of the management system components listed above.
• Audits are conducted regularly to assess the effectiveness of the management system components listed above.
• Onsite contractors, vendors, temporary workers and other outsiders must comply with your EHS policies and procedures,
• Employees are positive about their engagement in EHS policies and procedures and problem-solving.
• EHS training and competency-building are constantly updated and evaluated for effectiveness.
• Your company has a health and wellness program that includes addressing mental health issues.
Performance measurement and information management
• You use leading and lagging indicators to measure EHS performance.
• Your reporting and recordkeeping data is secured against access by hackers and non-credentialed employees.
• You benchmark your EHS practices and performance data against other companies.
Link between EHS and your company business
• The approach to EHS problems is identical to how your company approaches business problems.
• Your EHS goals align with your company’s business goals.
• Your EHS performance contributes to operational improvements and solid financial returns.
• EHS performance and business performance are integrated and complementary — not competitive. There is no “production vs EHS.”
Lessons learned
• Lessons learned from challenging situations have positively impacted EHS performance.
EHS challenges
Note: “Challenge” relates to a near-miss, an incident, a crisis or an unexpected emergency.
• We are proactive when faced with near-misses, close calls and “almost events” to prevent the situation from happening again.
• We study the root causes and contributing factors associated with the challenge and take corrective actions to address the situation.
• We consider human performance elements – task demands, individual capabilities, work environment and human nature – when addressing EHS challenges where these elements can be studied.
Data snapshot
• You are knowledgeable about your company’s revenues, stock performance if a public company, and other financial metrics.
• You track how well leading indicators perform.
• You track health and well-being indicators.
• You track and analyze EHS recordable incident rates and days away from work incident rates over multiple years to discern trends and patterns.
• This data is shared with all employees.
Measuring up
Going through this checklist of best practices, how did you fare? What are your EHS program’s strengths and weaknesses? Where does your EHS program need improvements? How many times did you answer “I don’t know” or “Not applicable — this element or practice is not part of your EHS program”? Do you intend to fill that gap? Do you intend to become knowledgeable about practices or actions you currently are not up to speed on?
I hope this tool gives you valuable insights into your EHS program and the level of your own EHS performance. Socrates famously said the unexamined life is not worth living. His words can be paraphrased: The unexamined EHS program is not worth the risk.
Dave Johnson, was chief editor of ISHN from 1980 until early 2020. He uses his decades of expertise to write on hot topics and current events in the world of safety. He also writes and edits at Dave Johnson’s Writing Shop LLC and is editor-at-large for ISHN.
March 2024
VOL. 58 NO. 2