Tyree Simmons
As a Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Manager (SHEQ), over the course of my 18-year career, I have acquired much experience, across many industries, that allows me to be fluid and design my approaches to building strong safety and compliant cultures. While each company may be different in terms of policies, processes and people, I found that three, key elements must exist in order to experience success: engagement, education and accountability. Without these three, key, elements, the journey towards having a culture centered around safety and compliance, becomes that much more difficult to achieve.
Employee engagement, education and accountability starts with leadership. Leadership is the captain that must guide the direction of the ship (workforce) to its daily destination of safe production. There are many ways to accomplish engagement; Visual Felt Leadership, Management by Walking Around (MBWA), Gemba Walks, Leadership in the Field and etc. Whatever method or path is chosen, engagement should be meaningful, open and honest.
Constant and meaningful engagement leads to education. Education in this sense, is a two way street. Leaders can educate the workforce on why it’s important to work safely each and every minute of the day and the workforce can educate the leaders on any issues or barriers that exist that may prohibit them to performing their job tasks safely. This establishes communication and trust between leadership and the workforce. It’s a lot easier to accomplish organizational goals when there is communication and trust.
Once engagement and education has been cemented, accountability must be established. Just like education, accountability is a two way road. Leadership creates the site’s rules, policies and standards that must be followed by every person on site. Leadership has the responsibly to hold the workforce accountable to these controls through positive and negative reinforcement. The workforce has the responsibility to adhere to those controls, as well as, hold leadership accountable to providing a workplace free of recognized hazards (General Duty Clause).
“You do not have to learn the process to the level of an engineer, unless you just want to, but you do have to understand how the people, environment and equipment interact with each other.”
Organizations will face challenges in implementing the three ideals that I stated, maintaining safety standards and meeting ever-evolving regulatory requirements. Some of the challenges that have I faced are; lack of true leadership, high turnover, aging or younger workforce, aging facilities, rising costs of equipment and services and vague or ambiguous standards, just to name a few. Companies should lean into these challenges, establish partnerships and communications with other organizations in similar situations, in order to come up with creative and resourceful ways to help solve these problems. Remember each challenge is just an opportunity in disguise.
One trend that I believe will help organizations overcome some of these challenges and will be the most influential in improving workplace safety, environmental responsibility and compliance management is technological advancements such as AI, robotics or wearable robotics, smart PPE, proximity sensors and monitors, drones, digital EHS management and immersive training. I believe by combining these technological advancements with the other tried and true methods, such as engagement, education and accountability, will put organizations in a position to be great people and environmental stewards.
For those professionals that are aspiring to be a EHS/SHEQ leader for an organization, I offer up some advice based on my knowledge and experience.
1. Go out into the environment, meet the workforce and learn their stories. These are the people that are striving to earn a living to take care of themselves and their families, while creating revenue for the company. Revenue that generates your paycheck.
2. Learn the process. Understanding the interactions between the equipment, people, and environment, will lead to opportunities for improvement and a safer atmosphere.
3. Never forget to focus on doing your part to improve the culture. A positive culture, will lead to positive outcomes. A positive outcome that I never take for granted and what continues to drive me as a professional, is sending everyone home healthy and without injury.
