Enhesa Flash 72 September 2013 Issue | Page 5

O ver the past 30 years I have been privileged to observe and be part of a number of companies’ journey to becoming world-class environmental, health and safety organizations. I have seen that for most of these organizations the path has been similar and the transformation has occurred in three steps. These three steps can be classified as Awareness, Process and Culture. Let’s take a look at what each of these entails. Step 1: Awareness Awareness is the first step that most companies go through. It occurs when the senior leadership team takes a genuine interest in improving the EHS performance of the company. This may be prompted by a change in leadership or a catastrophic event such as a fatality, regulatory agency action or environmental incident. It is now very often prompted by a push from the Board of Directors or an acquiring company who has been enlightened to the importance of EHS as an important element of any strategic plan. In any case the members of senior management make the employees aware of the importance of EHS to the companies long-term success. Although they are important, the declaration of commitment must be more than a policy or memo; it needs to be a visible manifestation of support that is ongoing. Managers must have goals on EHS performance tied to compensation, EHS should be on the agenda of every business update meeting and leaders should inquire about EHS performance as part of their site visits. Beyond the top management team middle management must embrace the same sense of value for EHS. Historically this is the group that is faced with many competing priorities and requires the greatest effort to engage it and maintain support. This is the stage at which companies collect EHS performance data, set goals and report outcomes. The old adage of what gets measured improves is a key to improving performance in this step. During this step, by sheer force of will, EHS performance improves but will quickly plateau. In order to continue on the journey to worldclass EHS performance the company moves to step two. period of continuous improvement focused on risk elimination. Procedures are written, checklists created, training provided, risk assessments performed and nonconformances are identified, tracked, corrected and prevented. It is critical that all stakeholders - managers, employees, suppliers, contractors, communities and customers, are part of this process. This is prime opportunity for all members of the team to begin to take ownership for EHS outcomes that are a critical part of step three. Step 3: Culture Step three is the hardest to achieve and takes the longest because it involves a change in the DNA of the organization. It is EHS should be on the agenda of every business update meeting and leaders should inquire about EHS performance... Step 2: Process In the next step the company recognizes the importance of process to improve EHS performance and much like the efforts in Operational Excellence, management systems are implemented to reduce risks and create standard work. At this point many companies turn to national or international management system standards such as ANSI Z-10, OSHA VPP, ISO 14001 or OHSAS 18001 to support their development of process for EHS. Using Plan, Do Check, Act (PDCA) EHS processes enter a not about establishing an EHS Culture but a culture of risk elimination for functions. Eliminating EHS risks but not quality or manufacturing risks does not create a culture that leads to world-class performance. We often draw analogy of top performing companies to a stool with EHS, Quality and Manufacturing as the legs. If any one of these elements is not strong the stool will topple. In order to create a culture of risk elimination everyone in the organization must assume ownership for not only their EHS performance but also for the people they work with. From a biblical perspective they do need to be “their brother’s keeper”. At this point in the journey EHS is integrated into the way business is done. EHS performance is not stand alone but reported as part of business metrics, Rapid Improvement Events (RIEs) and Kaizen Events always included requirements to eliminate risks and lean efforts include EHS topics such as energy, water consumption, waste and ergonomics. When this culture of risk elimination is embraced by the entire company and becomes part of its values worldclass operating performance will be achieved and sustained and EHS will be part of it. If you have any questions or thoughts about the journey to a risk elimination culture, contact Joe Wolfsberger at [email protected]. Enhesa Flash September 2013 | 5