Edition No. 8

Developing and Implementing Your HSE Management System

What to Look At—What to Avoid

If your company does not have a Health, Safety and Environmental Management System (HSE-MS) in place now, you may be required to implement one soon. Company size, resource availability or markets served will not necessarily dictate when and if implementation will happen. And even though your organization may have many of the components in place already for an easy transition to ISO 14001 or OHSAS 18001, the road to an effective HSE-MS can be fast, furious and paved with various pitfalls.

There are many reasons why organizations implement Health, Safety and Environmental Management Systems that conform to ISO 14001 and/or OHSAS 18001 standards. Identifying occupational health and safety hazards and risks and the environmental impacts of your company and employees is a given. However, more and more customers are demanding HSE-MS as a requirement for doing business. An HSE-MS can improve HSE performance resulting in pollution prevention, safer workplaces and fewer injuries. But even more than that, these systems are being used by organizations to gain a competitive edge. And as corporate social responsibility initiatives gain momentum, HSE-MS takes on an even more critical role within the organization. (See our accompanying article in this issue of Priority Press on Corporate Social Responsibility.)

Also in this Issue...

Program Development

Let’s look at the process for developing and launching this type of program. An initial assessment of the components that an organization may already have in place (for example: compliance programs, management reviews, document control) can be a part of the gap assessment or POI (Prioritization of Issues) that begins the process. The five main ingredients of an HSE-MS include:

1. Policy
2. Planning
3. Implementation and Operations
4. Checking and Corrective Action
5. Management Review

Both ISO14001 and OHSAS 18001 have many more sub-categories within these five areas. For more information, please refer to http://www.osha.gov and http://www.bsi.org.uk.

Potential Pitfalls

The pitfalls of implementation can be obvious – and not so obvious. Some companies set overly aggressive deadlines for registration and have a tough time meeting them. Others allot too much time, don’t use it effectively, and then are in a frenzy trying to reach completion. Many companies face three or four month deadlines to hit a registration target; others plan for a longer-range target of 12 to 16 months. One of the biggest pitfalls is having a timeline that extends too long resulting in procrastination. Often, the crisis of the immediate takes precedent over a long-range plan. By setting several smaller milestones along the path (like hazard identification and risk assessment, operational control procedures, compliance audits and internal audits), implementation teams can stave off the tendency to push the bulk of the deliverables into the final segment of the project.

Other pitfalls include a lack of management support, poor cross-functional communication, and poorly-defined ownership of the program.

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI can be looked at with a number of questions. Can you calculate your facility energy and waste reduction savings as a result of the program? Can you estimate the reduction in injuries, reduction in workers’ compensation costs or increase in productivity that can be attributed to the program? What are the more tangible results, like an increase in product sales or the marketability of your products in areas of the world not previously available because of the program?

EORM has proven experience in helping clients develop and implement complete Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Management Systems that conform to ISO 14001 and/or OHSAS 18001 standards. We work with organizations that want to integrate these systems with existing ISO 9000 Quality Management Systems (QMS) and/or other Business Management Systems (BMS) including: Human Resources, Accounting, Operations, Six-Sigma, 5-S, Lean Manufacturing, and Just-In-Time (JIT).