EHS on Tap

Professional development is essential to advancing a career in any occupation, and, of course, the environment, health, and safety field is no exception. There are many opportunities for development out there for the 21st-century safety professional, ranging from traditional certifications to supplemental training to brand-new educational programs supported by digital delivery methods. With so many options (and, in many cases, so little time), EHS pros may wonder what’s the best course of action for continuous career development? While every individual’s path will vary, our guest today has some great ideas on how you can proactively learn and develop your professional knowledge, not just for the benefit of your own career, but also for the benefit of your organization as well. Joining us today for our EHS professional development discussion is Jill James, Chief Safety Officer with Vivid Learning Systems, an HSI company.

May is Electrical Safety Month, and the danger of electrical hazards remains a constant concern in workplaces nationwide. In fact, electrocution remains one of the four leading causes of workplace deaths in the construction industry, commonly called the “Fatal Four” by OSHA, with approximately 9% of deaths in the workplace being caused by electrocution. In this episode, sponsored by AVO Training Institute, we’re marking Electrical Safety Month with an expert who can give us some insight into the issues surrounding electrical safety, from common hazards to personal protective equipment to strategies for keeping employees safe around electricity. Joining us today on EHS on Tap is Ralph Parrett, AVO Senior Instructional Designer and Senior Training Instructor. Ralph is a U.S. Navy Veteran with over 11 years of professional experience relating to electrical safety and maintenance training.

More and more states are legalizing traditionally illegal substances such as marijuana, and legal substances such as alcohol or prescription medication still have a high potential for abuse. It’s a special concern for environment, health, and safety professionals, as on-the-job use or abuse of any drug can potentially have devastating, even life-threatening consequences. So how can we promote safety in this "stoned age"? Joining us for today’s episode of EHS on Tap is Nina M. French, Managing Partner for the Current Consulting Group. Nina has over 26 years of experience in employee screening and managing drug-free workplace operations in a wide variety of fields.

The Trump administration has pursued an overall deregulatory agenda at the federal level while emphasizing compliance assistance over enforcement; however, this is at the same time that more stringent regulations are being introduced by many individual states. It’s all resulted in a complex patchwork of regulations—in this episode, we discuss the issues with Ian Cohen, Product Marketing Manager for Cority’s Safety, Environmental, and Sustainability solutions, where he works to deliver products to the market that are designed to meet clients’ needs in an ever-changing regulatory environment.

We’re talking today with Regina McMichael, president of the Learning Factory and a world-renowned speaker with 28 years of experience as a safety expert. Regina will be delivering Safety Summit 2019’s opening keynote, "The Wife Left Behind: The Making of a Safety Professional," which will describe how her journey in safety began when her husband fell to his death while employed as a roofer. Regina’s work as a speaker and trainer today shows safety professionals how to transform safety from a dry, boring compliance issue, into a living, breathing, vitally important human issue that can save lives.

The threat from workplace violence is very real, and employers simply can’t afford to ignore it. In this episode of EHS on Tap, we’re talking about the intersection of workplace violence with another common organizational concern: substance abuse. We are joined today by Patrick Prince, the associate vice provost and chief threat assessment officer for the University of Southern California. In addition to his role at USC, Patrick is a standing member of corporate threat assessment teams for several Fortune 500 companies as well as numerous cities and government agencies, and he has consulted on more than 2,800 cases of workplace violence.

Good training is the cornerstone of every successful environment, health, and safety program. However, it can be a challenge to ensure that your trainees engage with, absorb, and—perhaps most importantly—retain the information you need to communicate to them. There are plenty of methods and tools out there that aim to maximize adult learning, and one of them is making a great impact in the training space right now: Microlearning. Today on EHS on Tap, we’re chatting with Carol Leaman, CEO of Axonify. Carol is a microlearning expert who is here to help us learn more about this training tool and how it can help EHS professionals in their employee education efforts.

There are a lot of exciting innovations popping up in the field of environment, health, and safety, and the technological revolution shows no signs of slowing down. What does this interconnectedness of safety functions, what we might call the digital transformation of EHS, mean for you? We have two guests today to talk to us a little more about what we call “connected safety”: Joe O’Brien, the founder of Corvex Connected Safety, and Tom Votel, the founder, president, and CEO of Ergodyne.

It’s one of the most instantly recognizable hazards when you step onto many worksites—noise. A lot of us tend to think, well, just use some PPE, and that’s that. However, there’s much more to a hearing conservation program than meets the eye, or, shall we say, meets the ear. What are some of the things you may be overlooking in your hearing conservation efforts, from hidden risks to the value of audiometric testing? Well, today we’re talking with a hearing conservation expert who may have some great thoughts on the matter, so let’s listen up!

Our guest today, Alexa Gough, is the Occupational Hearing Conservation Business Unit Manager at SHOEBOX Audiometry. In this role, she works with some of the most forward-thinking manufacturers and onsite or near-site occupational healthcare providers in North America. She has a passion for partnering with them to find innovative ways of improving the way they deliver audiometric testing as part of a hearing conservation program, all while helping them achieve their overall business objectives.

We all know that protecting employees from safety and environmental hazards is just the right thing to do, but business needs cannot be ignored. Going beyond compliance, how can an EHS manager demonstrate to business stakeholders the return on investment of their efforts—or, to put it another way, what is the return on safety in the organization? Well, we’re talking with an expert today who can help us better understand return on safety, from proper safety investment to experience modification rates.

Our guest today, Mark Woodward, is a Senior Safety and Risk Trainer at Missouri Employers Mutual, a safety company and Missouri’s number one workers compensation insurance provider. Throughout his career, Mark has instructed tens of thousands of workers on how to improve workplace safety and prevent injuries on the job.