{"id":222,"date":"2012-08-08T09:30:04","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T13:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ehscsi.com\/?p=222"},"modified":"2017-12-10T23:21:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T04:21:25","slug":"help-ehscsi-how-do-i-keep-employees-engaged-in-environmental-health-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/08\/help-ehscsi-how-do-i-keep-employees-engaged-in-environmental-health-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Help EHSCSI: How Do I Keep Employees Engaged in Environmental, Health & Safety?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently a Production Supervisor asked me:\u00a0 \u201cHow do I keep my employees engaged in environmental, health & safety (EHS)?\u201d\u00a0 This particular question was related to properly managing hazardous waste, but this is a common question among managers responsible for EHS programs.\u00a0\u00a0 I have found the following four tips helpful in maintaining employee engagement:<\/p>\n

\"employee<\/a>
Keeping employees engagement in EHS.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Explain the why.\u00a0 <\/strong>It is extremely important to inform employees, not only of \u00a0their roles in the environmental, health & safety programs but also the reasons behind the implemented processes.\u00a0 There are a number of ways to accomplish this outside of a typical job description; which is usually insufficient as many EHS functions cross a number of different jobs.\u00a0 One of the most effective is conducting an annual EHS refresher training in which relevant EHS goals are discussed.\u00a0 This provides an opportunity for employees to understand that compliance with governing regulations is not the sole motive behind processes and procedures, but rather creating a sustainable business with a culture of continual improvement.<\/li>\n
  2. Include collaboration.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>In implementing different EHS programs, I find it instrumental to discuss the approach with employees across the organization.\u00a0 Effective collaboration reduces time and effort expended on processes that are prohibitive or impractical for the employees that utilize them.\u00a0\u00a0 This also is an effective method for obtaining \u201cbuy-in\u201d before process implementation and facilitates a smooth transition.<\/li>\n
  3. Have fun.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>While EHS is not the most humorous of subjects, keeping trainings fun \u00a0and lighthearted is a great way to facilitate employee engagement.\u00a0 Incorporating funny stories, sharing comics or including a game or video in training are all effective ways to keep employees interested. \u00a0I recently included a game of \u201cWho Wants to Be a Millionaire\u201d to test employees\u2019 knowledge on\u00a0the contents of the training. \u00a0I have also been a part of a class that used team \u201cJeopardy\u201d as a way to incorporate competition to improve engagement.<\/li>\n
  4. Communicate responsibility and maintain accountability.<\/strong>\u00a0 A lighthearted environment makes it much easier to hold employees accountable for their roles and responsibilities.\u00a0 While employees may understand the why of the processes, they must also understand the how\u2014how to implement the processes for which they are responsible.\u00a0 I often accomplish this through ensuring that all EHS program requirements are documented in the company\u2019s document management system.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Do you have tips for keeping employees engaged? \u00a0Engage in the discussion, share a comment below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Recently a Production Supervisor asked me:\u00a0 \u201cHow do I keep my employees engaged in environmental, health & safety (EHS)?\u201d\u00a0 This particular question was related to properly managing hazardous waste, but this is a common question among managers responsible for EHS programs.\u00a0\u00a0 I have found the following four tips helpful in maintaining employee engagement:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[65,83,84,13,12],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ehs-management","tag-ehs-consultant-in-south-florida","tag-ehs-training","tag-employee-engagement","tag-environmental","tag-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehscsi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}