In our last article, we discussed Environmental, Health, and Safety Management Systems (EHSMS). Probably the most important enabling block in the foundation is COMMITMENT. Commitment is one of the enabling elements of the Health and Safety Management System Model seen below.
People usually speak of commitment to something – to an idea or goal, or more specifically, to a course of action that supports the goal. Answers to the following questions should be obvious:
- Commitment by who?
- Commitment to what?
- Why do you need commitment?
- How do you build commitment?
- How can you destroy it?
Components of Commitment include:
- Policy, visibility, and expectations
- Safety and health values and their role in the business plan
- Responsibilities and accountabilities for safety and health
- Participation in safety and health
Achieving commitment to desired health and safety goals involves defining and communicating roles, responsibilities and behaviors that support those goals.
Commitment is persistently doing what you say needs to be done to achieve a desired outcome.
A critical component of commitment is defining roles, responsibilities and behaviors that support the desired goal. How do you do that? You begin by considering:
- Corporate Values, particularly the Health and Safety Value
- Accident and Injury Prevention Policy
- EHS Policy
These important documents help define EHS roles, responsibilities and desired behaviors.
Who Needs to be Committed to Achieve Success
A value statement such as, “We will work safely in an environment that promotes the health and well-being of PEOPLE”, is common for many organizations to say, but it’s another thing to actually put that promise into action. It implies that safety and health are not things that any single group or individual controls. All individuals – whether hourly or salaried, management or union, line or staff – share an obligation to work safely and to provide, maintain and improve the environment in which they work.
All individuals – whether hourly or salaried, management or union, line or staff – share an obligation to work safely and to provide, maintain and improve the environment in which they work.
Without commitment from every leader and employee, an EHS Management System will not succeed.
Signs of Failing Commitment
Lack of commitment can typically be seen in small waves across time such as delayed or cancelled training or inspections, or putting off remediation and control of blatant health and safety hazards.
Other examples of failing commitment include:
- Altering safety meetings to occur less frequently
- No follow-up investigations occur after accidents or injuries take place
- Safety issues are routinely ignored when vocalized
Signs of Strong Commitment
Alternatively, strong commitment can typically be seen with robust and consistent forms of communication from leadership and when incidents are being clearly measured, tracked, and shared.
Other signs of strong commitment include:
- Visible key safety metrics being shared in routine meetings
- Strong messaging in team huddles, distributed company memos, printed flyers, etc.
- Corrective action is taken immediately after an incident or injury occurs
- Leaders set positive examples by consistently wearing required PPE in designated areas where other employees are expected to wear them as well
What does an EHS Policy look like?
Here is an example environmental, health, and safety policy from Alexion. Note the statements about accountability and responsibility.
Does your Company Exhibit Strong Commitment?
Contact us today if you would like to learn more about what it would take to establish a successful EHS Management System for your company.