EHS Scorecard as path to OHSE transformation

In management systems, quality, health, safety and environment are highly important aspects and issues. For continual improvement of quality, efficiency and systems, balanced scorecards have been used as a technique for benchmarking HSE performance. As there is no single measure of QHSE performance, a basket of measures is required. This umbrella of measures provides information on a range of quality, health, safety and environment activities.

We formally assign proactive safety activities…

  • To most employees
  • Only leaders
  • Only hourly employees
  • We do not assign activities

We assign proactive safety activities and…

  • Establish activity completion goals
  • Establish goals and monitor progress with numeric scoring
  • We do not establish goals

They cannot emphasise enough the need for more proactive or upstream measures of performance. This translates to more concrete things to measure like the number of training courses or inspections. The digital EHS scorecard approach aims to address the absence of a systematic approach in deriving QHSE measures and how they link to the risk control process, such as,

  • Where you are relative to where you want to be
  • What progress is necessary and reasonable in the circumstances
  • How that progress might be achieved against specific restraints (for example, resources or time)
  • How that progress might be achieved
  • Priorities and effective use of resources

There are three levels of control for this kind of health and safety management system (HSE, 2001): (taken from letsbuild)

Level 3- effective workplace precautions provided and maintained to prevent harm to people at the point of risk.

Level 2- risk control systems (RCSs): the basis for ensuring that adequate workplace precautions are provided and maintained.

Level 1- the key elements of the health and safety management system: the management arrangements (including plans and objectives) necessary to organise, plan, control and monitor the design and implementation of RCSs.

Measure so you have confidence in your results. Measure to understand how the many process inputs not only affect the results, but also each other, in the longer run. Many of the clients we work with realize transformative improvement not just by doing more, but by doing things better. Without measuring the interconnectedness of activities and results how confident can an organization be as to the question of “why” between your inputs and outputs?

It was necessary to select indicators into an operational framework that would facilitate the identification of different perspectives on health and safety problems. The organisation must understand that the scorecard is a long-term exercise. It is a tool for implementing business strategy. If it is used consistently management can compare “apples” with “apples”.

Management must have the maturity to use the results of the scorecard for continual improvement and not look for faults in the measures if they see something they do not like. Digital EHS scorecard can help build and transform the OHSE culture from the ground up.

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