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Because they are often seen as a "necessary evil" by the companies they are meant to protect, HSE professionals themselves sometimes become convinced that their only role is to manage problems. This is a real shame, because by thinking this way, companies miss out on great opportunities. By failing to place HSE risk management at the heart of their strategic objectives, they lose the chance to uncover opportunities for improvement, build robustness, and increase the motivation and efficiency of their employees—in short, they fail to reap all the benefits they could expect.
An article co-authored by:
Bernard Fort founder of Tennaxia & Laurent Aillet founding director of Résilience et Adaptation
HSE risk management before the pandemic
In general, there are unconscious reasons that explain the lack of appreciation for HSE risk management functions (Quality, Risk Management, etc.): our natural aversion to risk generally drives us toward denial and forgetfulness. For example, who gets into a car thinking that they have suddenly increased their chances of dying in a violent accident?
Furthermore, when we cannot avoid risk, and since our thinking is not always as rational as we would like, we reassure ourselves however we can—even if it means relying on two subterfuges:
- The talisman effect, where the mere possession of a symbol (for example, having appointed a safety officer) calms anxiety and leads one to believe that the risk no longer exists;
- The association effect, which leads us to confuse the message with the messenger, turning the safety officer into a representation of the danger they are actually supposed to prevent, thus triggering a kind of instinctive rejection.
The two effects are not as opposite as they might seem. Hire a safety officer, give them an office with little power to act, and you will have both a reassuring talisman in your building—a symbolic mastery of your fears—without having to confront them in your executive committee meetings.
Finally, there is also a perfectly rational logic for limiting prevention functions within corporate decision-making processes. In an economy based essentially on flows of exchange, inventory increasingly becomes a brake on this acceleration, an obstacle that must therefore be eliminated. Yet what is prevention, if not value stored for use on the day of an incident? What is the value of a fire extinguisher (or a face mask) on a balance sheet during calm times? Couldn't that money be better invested in a more profitable flow to generate its own returns? It is therefore perfectly normal for the natural tendency of organizations to be to sideline stock-creating functions in favor of flow-creating ones.
In short, until recently, prevention functions felt unloved, and there were often objective reasons for this: they were unconscious reminders of our inherent fragility and, by the very definition of their role, prevented flows from running quickly and smoothly.
The COVID-19 crisis
Many things have changed with the COVID-19 crisis. Just as a leader's view of a function changes the day they are notified of legal proceedings following an accident or receive an insurance premium hike after a major fire, the utility of prevention missions has been laid bare: the hypothesis of a major crisis has, unfortunately, materialized not only within the company and at the national level, but, worse still, internationally. That is quite an occurrence in risk assessments, and few HSE risk managers would have dared to envision such a scenario.
What have EHS professionals actually done since the start of the pandemic?
As one of the few functions that is both entirely cross-functional and expert in all company processes—thanks in part to the establishment of the Single Risk Assessment Document (DUER – Article R. 4121-1 of the Labor Code)—EHS experience and expertise provided the foundation upon which company reorganization was made possible.
Mobilized at high speed and in connection with near-daily feedback from real-world work situations, the function integrated countless experiences to keep businesses running. For example,
- by reconfiguring workshops and offices,
- by optimizing personnel flows, from working hours to parking lot operations,
- by organizing remote work, by creating orientation videos,
- by promoting the homemade production of masks,
- by strengthening the IT network,
- by revising high-risk workflows (waste management, shift changes, contact with customers and subcontractors, etc.),
- by drafting new, practical, and actionable protocols,
- by revising the DUER to incorporate the impact of these measures on other risk scenarios, and so on.
But above all, through its cross-functional role, the EHS department maintained social cohesion as best as possible between employees, staff representatives, management, and leadership. Through productive dialogue, stakeholders who were just as uninformed as the rest of us at the time managed to organize themselves as if by a miracle. Suddenly, the "reserves" of human energy and commitment within the EHS function revealed their vital utility.
A new approach to EHS risk management
The world has changed: the EHS function has moved from the tedious status of "problem identifier" to the much more enviable role of "work facilitator." It is the department that made work possible in most companies over the past few months. Its analysis, expertise, and commitment became the lifeline for bewildered organizations.
Let’s keep this in mind! Those who work in prevention and EHS risk management be proud of their mission and their work! Leaders must also objectively recognize the essential role of HSE managers.
We should not assume that what just happened was merely a bump in the road and that we must return to the absolute priority of just-in-time over inventory. First, because the economic consequences of the pandemic will compound the health impacts already underway. Second, because this pandemic could well be the gateway to a new, more tumultuous era: one defined by the effects of climate change, the accelerating loss of biodiversity, the end of cheap oil, and their potential consequences in terms of control and the restriction of freedoms…
Managing risks professionally is a vital necessity. Those who anticipate and prepare for these pressing challenges only emerge stronger. Since the spring of 2020, the HSE function has proven itself to be a key driver of business success. Now is the time to provide it with the technical resources and the necessary standing within organizations so that it can fully realize its potential and deliver all the added value that companies deserve.
Photo credit: Headway