Cause and Effect

It’s hard to believe that I started my career journey nearly 30 years ago. If you had asked me at the start of that journey if I would be where I’m at today, helping to manage the safety, health, environmental and community (SHEC) activities for West Chicago, Ill.-based Sims Recycling Solutions Inc., the world’s leading electronic recycling company, I would have said, "No way."

It’s been an interesting road to say the least, one with many highs and many lows. Throughout my career I have held various positions in the chemical, plastics, composites and recycling industries. In every one of these positions some aspect of my job function and responsibilities has involved safety.

During my career I have been injured by corrosive chemicals, experienced run-away chemical reactions, been exposed to chemical fumes, been cut by sharp objects and exposed to dangerous traffic patterns. Until recently I really hadn’t thought much about the level of risk I allowed myself to be exposed to; it was all part of doing the job. Now that I have influence over the health and safety of several hundred employees across North America, the risk levels at our facilities are constantly on my mind.

Every company I’ve worked for has had safety programs and someone in charge of managing those programs. As a matter of fact, I’ve been managing safety programs and systems at various companies for more than 15 years. For many years I never placed risk assessments and risk management high on my priority list. Like a lot of SHEC professionals, I was too busy managing the day-to-day aspects of my safety programs to take the time to step back to determine the root causes for risky conditions and behaviors and the accidents and injuries they led to. When I think about this, I find it to be rather strange.

Prior to working in the SHEC field full time, I worked as a process engineer. We constantly monitored our processes using statistical process control charts and other analytical tools and whenever we had a problem we always investigated to see if we could identify the root causes. Why? Largely because we had a quality management system that required it and, secondly, because we didn’t want to repeat the same mistake twice. When I made the switch from process engineering to health and safety, I brought with me my project and process management skills, but I left behind what I had learned about management systems.

I think it is fair to say that most professionals who are just starting their careers in the safety field tend to focus on legal compliance. Am I doing what the laws require and can I prove it? This is the classic way of managing safety through program management. For some safety professionals and the companies they work for, this method can be quite successful, but rarely does it evolve into a system that controls risks. Unfortunately it usually takes several serious accidents or a fatality to initiate the change to a proactive safety management system that includes risk assessments and thorough root cause analysis.

Many different methods are available for performing root cause analysis, and it takes some experimentation until you find the one that works for you and your organization.

Whatever method you decide upon, root cause analysis should not be exclusive to the SHEC professionals within the company. Root cause analysis teams with member outside of the safety field bring a wider scope of experience and knowledge about the equipment or the job to the audit, making the investigation more robust than if it were left entirely up to a single SHEC professional.

Another key to managing risk is performing regular risk assessments. Risk assessments, and associated risk identification, must be performed on a continual basis. The goal is to eliminate or reduce risks to their lowest possible levels, which will help reduce the potential for incident or injury and help in the establishment of risk prevention practices.

For any safety or risk management system to be successful, it must be documented. When it comes to performing risk assessments, the process must be formalized and carried out with the express purpose of continuously identifying safety hazards in the workplace. Another key element required to complete a successful risk assessment is having a competent, well-trained team performing the assessments. Just like root cause analysis, risk assessments should not be the exclusive territory of the SHEC professionals within a company. It takes a range of individuals to adequately perform a risk assessment. A second or third pair of eyes is much better than if it is left up to a single SHEC professional entirely.

Risk assessment should be formalized with the establishment of a systematic risk-ranking system used to identify which activities, processes or equipment are most likely to cause an injury or damage and the potential level of severity. Once you have established and documented the risk hierarchy within your operation, it is essential to communicate the findings and the measures taken to reduce the risks to all relevant personnel.

The author is safety, health, environmental and community director for Sims Recycling Solutions North America (www.simsreyclingsolutions-na.com), based in West Chicago, Ill.