What You Don’t Know About Your Health & Safety Program Could Hurt You

Chris Henderson, HSE Director of Stream’s Critical Environments Services practice

Workplace Health and Safety for Compliance and Productivity

Maintaining a safe and healthy work environment is a crucial responsibility of employers, and most companies have a health and safety policy to prevent injuries and illnesses at work. But who makes sure that the policy is enforced? Are you assuming that employees and managers take precautions to keep themselves safe? Does your policy take into account your organization’s unique way of operating and the level of risk common to your industry? An experienced HSE consultant can bring clarity to your program, providing 360 degrees of health and safety assurance.

Does Your Company Need an HSE Audit?

When was the last time you took a long look at your health and safety policy and procedures? Chances are, an honest self-assessment of your HSE program will reveal obvious strengths and weaknesses. If certain parts of the program are not enforced, ask yourself why. Perhaps employees don’t understand your commitment to health and safety and take shortcuts for the sake of increased production. Perhaps different managers have their own perspectives on what is important. Perhaps your workforce does not feel free to question unsafe practices. And if your company has experienced a serious accident or injury, you may be unaware of its far-reaching effects on employees throughout the company. Discovering why your program is not working as it should require vision that goes beyond the obvious. An objective HSE consultant can provide insight into your current environment and offer help in aligning your practices with your goals.

A comprehensive HSE program also has strong business benefits. It can:

•  Demonstrate your company’s social responsibility
• Save lives and prevent/reduce injury
• Protect your brand
• Increase productivity day-to-day and support recovery after an incident
• Spotlight your commitment to employees, improving morale and conveying the sense that management cares
• Promote a healthier workforce
• Support consistency in safe and healthy work habits

Health and Safety Services

The elements of HSE services may vary in presentation among different third-party consultants. But in my experience, a complete program should include four areas of expertise and associated services:

HSE Audit

An effective health and safety consultation starts with a careful examination of what you’re doing now. Whether the audit is targeted or comprehensive, it potentially addresses hundreds of topics. Be sure your consultant has the experience and expertise to understand how your business works. Key topics include:

• Review of HSE plan
• Stop work authority
• HSE recordkeeping
• HSE training
• Event notification and escalation
• Spill prevention
• Hazard communication
• Medical, first-aid and exposure-to records
• Personal protective equipment
• Ladders and lifts

When a health and safety incident happens, a thorough, objective investigation is crucial.

Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health (IDLH) Training

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has clear definitions of what can be considered a work environment with exposure to contaminants that can cause death, adverse effects, or an impaired ability to escape a dangerous atmosphere, i.e., IDLH. But ensuring that employees understand how to recognize and take precautions regarding IDLH requires continual training and updating. A foundational service of HSE consultants is IDLH training that contains specific methods and elements, including:

• Interactive and engaging methods
• Avoiding immediate danger to life and health
• Lockout-tagout procedures
• NFPA 70E electrical safety standards
• Ladder safety/fall protection
• Confined space awareness

HSE Orientation

Health and safety programs must be aligned with company goals and expectations. An HSE orientation provides new employees with an overview of your HSE program and its features conducted in person or virtually through a web conference. The presentation sets the tone for new hires and gives them a proper start to their tenure at your company, with topics that may include:

• The five steps of risk management
  • Step 1 — Define the Scope of Work
  • Step 2 — Identify Hazards
  • Step 3 — Mitigate Risks
  • Step 4 — Perform Work
  • Step 5 — Recap Lessons Learned
• Company HSE policy and procedures
• Safety programs by type

HSE Incident Management

When a health and safety incident happens, a thorough, objective investigation is crucial. An HSE consultant provides the insight you need in four stages. Looking into an incident can be a delicate process because even minor events have a ripple effect, from the affected individual and family to the local team and to the company and its customers. You have the added stress of possible insurance premium rises and lawsuits. Your HSE consultant must understand the atmosphere at every stage by following through with:

• Investigation — identifying what happened and why
• Dissemination — sharing the root cause of the incident and lessons learned
• Alleviation — assuring that personnel are retrained appropriately
• Cultivation — enforcing best practices to prevent the incident from happening again

Choosing Third-Party HSE Services

The commitment to health and safety starts with the consulting company. It must have a deep understanding of how HSE connects to every other aspect of business. The consultant must have its own commitment to its employees and demonstrate a strong, safe, healthy culture. Here are a few things to look for:

• A record of hiring experienced operations experts who know how to maximize uptime without compromising health and safety
• Ongoing review and improvement of their own the tools and systems to assure safety and efficiency
• Empowering staff to recognize issues and speak up if they see a potentially dangerous situation
• Facilities with physical and administrative controls, including 24/7 security monitoring and incident response notification
• Compliance with recognized health and safety standards, backed by compliance-based audit reports
• Environmentally conscious operational decisions to support an eco-friendly and energy-efficient workplace

Above all, a reputable consultant wants every employee to return home from work each day in the same condition they arrived at work. Whether you want to start fresh with your HSE initiatives or refine your current program or respond to a specific incident, never underestimate the power of a third-party expert to support a culture of health and safety.

Chris Henderson is HSE Director of Stream Data Centers‘ Critical Environments Services practice.