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By dint of being perceived as nothing more than a "necessary evil" by the companies they are supposed to protect, EHS preventionists themselves are sometimes convinced that they are only there to manage problems. This is a real shame, because it means that companies miss out on great opportunities. By not putting EHS risk management at the heart of their strategic objectives, they miss out on the chance to discover opportunities for improvement, to create robustness, to increase employee motivation and efficiency... In short, they miss out on all the benefits they could hope for.
An article co-authored by :
Bernard Fort founder of Tennaxia & Laurent Aillet founding director of Résilience et Adaptation
EHS risk management before the pandemic
Generally speaking, there are unconscious reasons for the lack of interest in EHS risk management functions (Quality, Risk-management...): our natural aversion to risk generally pushes us towards denial and oblivion. For example, who gets into a car thinking they've suddenly increased their chances of dying in a violent accident?
What's more, when we can't avoid the risk, since our thinking isn't always as rational as we'd like it to be, we reassure ourselves as best we can... even if it means resorting to two subterfuges:
- The talisman effect, in which the mere possession of a symbol (for example, the appointment of a prevention officer) calms anxiety and leads to the belief that the risk no longer exists;
- The association effect, which leads us to confuse the message with the messenger, making the preventer a representation of the danger he is supposed to prevent, thus provoking a kind of instinctive rejection.
The two effects are not as opposed as they seem. Hire a preventionist, give him or her an office with little capacity for action, and you'll have both a reassuring talisman in your buildings, and therefore a symbolic mastery of your fears, without having to confront them in your management committee meetings...
Finally, there is also a perfectly rational rationale for limiting the preventive functions in companies' decision-making processes. In an economy based essentially on trade flows, stock is increasingly becoming a brake on this acceleration, an obstacle which must therefore be eliminated. But what is prevention, if not value stored for use on the day of the incident? What is the value of a fire extinguisher (or a face mask) on a balance sheet in calm weather? Couldn't this money be better invested in a more profitable flow of goods? It's only natural, then, that the natural tendency of organizations is to move away from inventory-creating functions in favor of flow-creating ones.
In short, until recently, prevention functions felt unloved, and often there were objective reasons for this: they were unconscious reminders of our intrinsic fragility and, by the very definition of their function, prevented flows from turning quickly and smoothly.
The covid-19 crisis
Many things change with the covid-19 crisis. Just as an executive's view of his job changes the day he is notified of his legal liability following an accident, or receives his insurance premium increase after a major fire, the usefulness of prevention missions is revealed in broad daylight: the hypothesis of a major crisis has, alas, been realized not only within the company, at national level, but, worse still, at international level. That's quite an occurrence in risk ratings, and few EHS risk managers would have dared such a scenario.
What have EHS people actually done since the start of the pandemic?
As one of the few totally cross-functional functions with expertise in all the company's processes, including the creation of the Document Unique d'Evaluation des Risques (DUER - Article R. 4121-1 of the French Labor Code), EHS experience and know-how were the basis on which the company's reorganization was made possible.
Fast-tracked and linked to almost daily feedback from real-life work situations, it has integrated countless experiences to enable companies to function. For example
- by refitting workshops and offices,
- optimizing staff flows, from working hours to parking operations,
- by organizing telecommuting and producing welcome videos,
- by promoting the crafting of masks,
- strengthening the IT network,
- reviewing risk flows (waste management, shift changes, contacts with customers and subcontractors, etc.),
- by drafting new, practical protocols,
- by revising the DUER to integrate the impact of measures on other risk scenarios... etc.
But above all, the EHS function's cross-functional role ensured that the day-to-day social links between employees, employee representatives, management and top management were maintained as effectively as possible. Thanks to fruitful dialogue, players as uninformed as we all were at the time managed to organize themselves as if by a miracle. Suddenly, the EHS function's "stocks" of human energy and commitment revealed their vital usefulness.
New EHS risk management
So the world has changed: the EHS function has moved from the dull status of problem identifier to the far more enviable one of work enabler. In recent months, it has made work possible in most companies. Its analysis, expertise and commitment have become the lifeline of disorientated organizations.
Let's keep that in mind! Those who work in EHS risk prevention and management must be proud of their mission and their work! We also need managers to take an objective view of the essential role played by EHS managers.
Let's not think that what has just happened was just a bump in the road, and that we need to return to the absolute pre-eminence of flow over stock. Firstly, because the economic consequences of the pandemic will pile up alongside the health effects already underway. Secondly, because this pandemic could well be the gateway to a new, more tumultuous period: that of the effects of climate disruption, the accelerating disappearance of biodiversity, the end of abundant oil and their potential consequences in terms of control and deprivation of freedoms...
Professional risk management is a vital necessity. Those who anticipate and prepare for these pressing challenges are all the stronger for it. Since the spring of 2020, the EHS function has become one of the keys to corporate success. Now is the time to give it the technical resources and the position it needs within organizations, so that it can express its full potential and deliver all the added value that companies deserve.
Photo credit: Headway