EHS on Tap

When we talk about safety culture, often the focus is on soft skills—things like effective leadership, good communication, management and employee buy-in, and so forth. However, what many EHS managers may be overlooking in their day-to-day efforts to build safety culture is the role of technology. Are you leveraging new innovations to build the best safety program possible at your organization?

We have two guests today on EHS on Tap to help us take a look at this issue, from a company called, fittingly, SafetyCulture! We're joined today by Daniel Cummings, Customer Success Manager, and Josh Yeamans, Product Expert. Daniel works with large customers as an industry expert to ensure best in class implementation of technology and software, and Josh works with customers on various integration projects and technical development to get the most out of safety and quality in an organization.

If you’re an EHS professional, your organization’s safety culture must be a major focus—but a strong culture can be tricky to build. Sure, it’s easy to say that you want a safety culture built on inspiration, not fear, and that the goal is for employee engagement in safety to be positively pursued, not mandated. But how do you walk that line between encouragement and discipline, between being a safety coach and being a safety cop? Our guest has some suggestions!

Here with us today is Shawn M. Galloway, President of ProAct Safety. Shawn is a consultant, professional speaker, and author of several bestselling books on safety strategy, culture, leadership, and Behavior-Based Safety.His clients include most of the best safety-performing organizations within every major industry, and he has received awards for his significant contributions from multiple organizations, including the American Society of Safety Engineers.

Since the presidential election in 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency and its regulatory agenda have been no stranger to controversy. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has stated multiple times that his goal is to roll back regulations, and while some rules have been delayed, repealed, or otherwise rendered toothless, most regs are still on the books. However, some of the rhetoric may have lured companies into a false sense of security regarding environmental enforcement, causing business leaders to think that environmental compliance no longer matters. Putting all politics aside, this belief could be a big risk for organizations, both logistically and financially.

Today we’re talking about this issue with Jeff Ladner, Vice President of Environmental Performance for Sphera. For 20 years, Jeff has been helping corporations drive operational excellence and effectively manage operational risk, focusing on environmental performance, personnel and process safety, product stewardship, supply chain management, risk assessment, and change management. In his current role, Jeff leads the Sphera solution strategy, helping corporations implement and make the most of the Sphera’s EHS management systems.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s electronic reporting of workplace injuries and illnesses, also known at the recordkeeping and electronic submission rule, has been a source of confusion for many EHS professionals. Deadlines for compliance have been delayed time and again, and some professionals aren’t even sure what compliance means for them and their organizations. Fortunately, our guest for Episode 32 of EHS on Tap--Jay Finegan, Compliance Services Leader for Dakota Software-- is here to help us sort through it all.

Managing the use and abuse of drugs in the workplace is getting trickier by the day. Between a national wave of marijuana legalization and an opioid epidemic, EHS pros nationwide have their hands full staying in line with both federal and local laws while also keeping their workplaces safe and incident-free. It can be tough to know what sorts of policies are best for employers in the current environment, and it means that safety will be doing a lot of cooperation with human resources.

Our guest is Nina M. French, Managing Partner for the Current Consulting Group. Nina has over 25 years of experience in employee screening and managing drug-free workplace operations in a wide variety of fields, with a consulting emphasis on helping companies streamline operations, define product portfolios, and align core business goals.

Way back in 2012 the Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest Establishment Act (also known as the e-Manifest Act) directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a hazardous waste e-Manifesting system. After over 5 years of development, the EPA is ready to launch the e-Manifest system on June 30th. But what does it all mean for generators and transporters of hazardous waste?

Here with us today on EHS on Tap to discuss the new e-Manifest system and how it’s going to affect hazardous waste shipment is Phil Comella, a partner in the Freeborn & Peters LLP Litigation Practice Group and Leader of the Environmental Law and Toxic Torts Practice Group.

A robust incident investigation process driven by effective root cause analysis is a critical component of any safety and health program. When safety professionals employ a methodical approach, they provide information that helps determine the basic cause of an incident and leads to the creation of processes, policies, and methodologies to prevent reoccurrences of similar incidents. In short, you need to know what went wrong in order to ensure it doesn’t happen again! However, it can sometimes be a challenge to know where to start.

Here with us today on EHS on Tap to discuss root cause analysis is Francis P. Sehn, Vice President and Senior Risk Control Consultant for Willis Towers Watson.

New technologies are changing the workforce worldwide, and the environment, health, and safety field isn’t immune to the constantly changing landscape. New devices, software, and processes are revolutionizing EHS and forcing professionals to adapt their skill sets accordingly. And it isn’t going to stop—in fact, our guest, Dave Johnson, chief editor of Industrial Safety and Hygiene News, says that the EHS profession is in for disruptions on a scale not seen since the establishment of OSHA, perhaps even greater.

Today we’re focusing on the health part of EHS—mental health, to be specific. The mental health of employees at your organization is an important factor affecting everything from the company’s efficiency to the likelihood of a violent incident. Unfortunately, it’s also a factor that is all too easily overlooked. Employee assistance programs, or EAPs for short, are a great tool for creating a happier, safer, and more productive workplace for employees—but there can be many challenges to implementing them.

Here to talk about EAPs and how they can boost your safety and violence prevention efforts is Raquelle Solon, Business Solutions Engineer at FEI Behavioral Health and a speaker at BLR’s upcoming Workplace Violence Prevention Symposium (live.blr.com/event/workplace-violence-prevention-symposium)

In episode 26 of EHS on Tap, we dive into a topic that can sometimes be a bit intimidating for EHS professionals—implementing EHS software at their organizations. Businesses worldwide are making the transition from paper to pixels, and it seems like new software solutions are popping up every day offering new ways to manage EHS. As any safety pro knows, it can be difficult to get management to buy into initiatives, especially new and unproven ones … and even if you can get the buy-in, you still have to figure out the right direction to take when considering software.

Joining us to share her thoughts on how you can establish management buy-in and keep your EHS software project on track is Pamala Bobbitt, Director of Product Marketing and Channels at Cority.