Page 58 - OHS, November/December 2020

FACILITY SAFETY
Management Commitment is Crucial to Environmental Health and Safety Programs
Management Commitment pertains to high level leadership’s “direct participation” in an organization’s EHS program.
BY RUSSELL CARR
What is management commitment, and why is it absolutely critical to the success of any environmental health and safety program?
It’s a very broad and important topic that cannot be fully addressed in this article, but we will take a summary look at key issues including a working definition, positive and negative indicators, prevalence and underlying drivers. Most importantly, we will examine the critical role that management commitment plays in the long-term success or failure of any environmental, health and safety program.
Working Definition of
Management Commitment
Let’s begin with this simple yet effective definition from a company called IGI Global: “Management commitment is direct participation by the highest- level executives in a specific and critically important aspect or program of an organization.”
For the purpose of this article, it pertains to high level leadership’s “direct participation” in an organization’s EHS program, which we can all assume is a “critically important program.”
In reality, all company stakeholders should be involved and committed to the EHS process, but as the definition suggests, it all needs to start at the top. And by the top, I’m referring to ownership, especially at a small company. It could also be the CEO, COO or President of a medium or large company.
This is critically important because these are the people who are ultimately responsible for EHS issues at any given company, not only from a practical standpoint but also from a legal standpoint. They only ones who can “write the check” and ultimately approve the entire process. So, from this perspective, if you don’t have their commitment and involvement, it puts the entire process at risk.
Why Is Management So Critical?
Now that we have a basic understanding of the term, let’s talk about why it’s so critical to the long-term success of an EHS program.
The short answer is pretty simple—it’s the fact that managing EHS compliance, especially over the long term, isn’t easy. In fact, it’s often very difficult. In a nutshell, it’s inconvenient, costly and disruptive to business operations.
Here are some quick examples to illustrate the point: First, you must make time for employee training, which means pulling employees off the production line, which then ads payroll costs and can disrupt production schedules. To complicate matters, training is a never-ending process.
You must also routinely and consistently enforce your safety program, which means supervisors must continually monitor employees and hold them accountable when they don’t follow rules and for those who refuse to comply, you might actually have to fire and replace them.
The point is, despite all of these and many other challenges associated with managing your EHS program, company leadership must maintain a consistent and unwavering commitment to the cause.
Warning Signs
How can you tell if your program is in trouble due to lack of management commitment? It often starts with little things, like delaying or cancelling planned inspections or training sessions, or allowing known safety hazards to persist over time without correction.
Warning signs include infrequent and inconsistent scheduling of safety committee meetings, safety drafts submitted for comment have been ignored for weeks, no follow up investigations occur after accidents or injuries, and the assigned EHS manager is routinely ignored by leadership when he or she bring an issue.
These situations would never exist or be tolerated in a company with strong management commitment, and are actually symptoms of a dying EHS program. So, if any of this sounds familiar, beware.
Signs of Strong Management Commitment
Now let’s flip the script and talk about what strong management commitment looks like.
In a case of strong management commitment, company leadership routinely includes strong EHS support messaging in company messaging and communication, includes key safety metrics alongside other financial and quality reporting, gets involved in all accident and injury investigations, and sets positive examples by consistently wearing PPE.
Notice that in most of these examples, senior leadership is actually participating in the process, as opposed to just offering lip service. And to the point of this article, if you’re not recognizing any of these
52 Occupational Health & Safety | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
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