Who’s Running Your Safety Program? A Guide to Building Your EHS Team

First, you need a safety champion – someone to lead the overall program and chair your safety committee. This person maintains accountability and keeps safety initiatives moving forward. They don’t have to do everything themselves, but they need to ensure everything gets done.

Training is absolutely crucial for safety and compliance – it really doesn’t happen unless you’ve trained employees properly. Trying to put this all on line managers usually results in incomplete or expired training. Having a dedicated coordinator helps ensure training stays current and documented.

When new chemicals come into your parts department, someone needs to update your HAZCOM program and ensure proper documentation. This role helps prevent gaps in chemical safety management.

Don’t forget about emergency response coordination. If an emergency happens, who’s going to be on the phone with first responders? Who’s going to coordinate your rally points and account for employees? Having designated people for these responsibilities prevents chaos during emergencies.

I think about the movie Kindergarten Cop all the time – I’m dating myself here, but it’s a perfect example. Day one, Arnold Schwarzenegger gets a fire drill with his kindergarten class, and they’re all screaming and running around with no idea what to do. But two months later, his team – his kindergarten class – is the most well-behaved, organized group when there’s an actual fire going on. That’s exactly what getting control of your safety program is about. Having a dedicated team means you’re not doing it yourself, and you’re not leaving your employees running around like kindergarteners during their first fire drill.

When you have clearly defined roles and responsibilities, your safety team can coordinate effectively during emergencies. Someone knows they’re responsible for calling 911, someone else is managing the rally points, and another team member is accounting for all employees. This coordination ensures you can relay critical information to emergency authorities when they arrive – like whether anyone is still in the building.

Finally, don’t forget about the management of applicable environmental regulations.  Establishing an Environmental Coordinator will help your team in identifying the operations that could have impact on the land, air, or water that surrounds your facilities.   Several regulations may require reporting into federal or local agencies such as Tier II reporting, hazardous waste reporting, or maintaining air permits to continue your operations.  Someone will need to stay on top of those reporting requirements and ensure all necessary actions are completed before they hit deadlines.