Tools to Manage EHS Risk

Tools to Manage EHS Risk

The ability to be proactive when it comes to incidents within the effective way to handle the hazards in each job step and
Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) industry plays a major improve the overall safety. Once the risks and potential
part in an organization’s safety overall. These organizations are harm are made evident, JSA can implement certain controls
focused on reducing job-related incidents, in order to promote for each step of the process and prevent the hazard from
a safer workforce and to maintain compliance with regulatory occurring. This not only improves risks at a granular level,
agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health but once again on the safety of the job overall, since the
Administration (OSHA). information is being stored at each location.

This is where an automated Risk Management tool comes in. An „„ Corrective Action: Corrective Action is another tool that
EHS System’s Risk Management tool allows an organization to integrates with Risk Management. It provides visibility into
mitigate risk and take proactive action against adverse events. whether or not the corrective action that was taken was
Risk Management also helps ensure compliance within truly effective or not. A root cause analysis is set up to inves-
regulatory agencies. One helpful Risk tool is the Risk Matrix. It tigate an incident and incorporates measures to correct the
allows organizations to effectively mitigate risk by determining issue from the root cause The system also allows an organi-
criticality and likelihood of occurrence. zation to vet the effectiveness of the corrective action. If a
high degree of risk is still present, the corrective action was
The Risk Matrix provides visibility into potential threats based not effective and the process will have to be repeated until
on severity and frequency, criticality of risk based on a numerical a satisfactory level of risk has been achieved.
scale, possible harm—from negligible to catastrophic—on an „„ Reporting: Even after risk has been mitigated, an orga-
“x” and “y” axis, the number of times the threat has entered the nization needs to be able to report on data and use the
system and the potential harm likely to occur if the threat is not results to ensure continual improvement. The EHS system
deterred. provides important data for all levels of the organization.
The challenge here is, while at the operational level EHS
Risk Management integrates with other EHS tools to provide a metrics prove valuable, these metrics do not translate well
holistic method of identifying and mitigating risk throughout in all areas of the organization. Executives and key decision
an organization’s enterprise: makers within the organization will often level risk as a
benchmark for challenges and improvement areas within
„„ Incident Management: The Risk Management tool the enterprise. Using risk data allows executives to make
allows an organization to manage and track the incidents decisions based on the top risks to the organization—and
that have taken place and provides visibility into this data continual improvement initiatives will take place dependant
to everyone across the enterprise, regardless of where they on this data.
are located. This is helpful if there is more than one location
because then all employees are kept up to date on all Once an organization has applied Risk Management to its EHS
adverse events that have occurred throughout the organi- system, it will be able to reap the benefits of improved visibility,
zation. Risk Management helps to make well-informed deci- better informed decision making, and continuous improvement
sions and take necessary action against all incidents, while that spans the enterprise, taking EHS initiatives beyond
keeping track of these adverse events through integration compliance.
with Incident Management.

„„ Job Safety Analysis (JSA): EHS companies can benefit

by taking a proactive approach to mitigating job risks. JSA
integrates with Risk Management to ensure that there is an

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