8 Culture

“Corporate culture doesn’t happen by accident.  And if it does, you’re taking a risk”

• Monique Winston, Chief Executive Officer, Optima Lending Services[1]

8.1 Overview

The blunt truth about EHS culture: It is a war between making money (e.g., production and operations) and doing what is best for employees and the environment including complying with EHS laws and regulations.  I can list of numerous incidents and disasters where the company culture leaned towards production and operations and EHS suffered.  These examples go back over 100 years when the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire killed 146 garment workers[2] up to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico incident that killed 11 oil-rig workers and release over four million gallons of crude oil[3].

This does not mean that the company or organization cannot make money: it is a balance that needs to be struck and a recognition that investing in a strong EHS culture can reap long-term financial benefits.  One way to improve culture is to illustrate that short-term money-saving measures may cost more in the long-term due to poor employee retention, increased cleanup, insurance and legal costs, and regulatory fines.  As you will also see, if you culture needs changing, changing the culture often does not require monetary investment, but it does typically require time and effort often by those employees in senior leadership roles.

The first step in this process is determining what company culture you have:

“Recognizing and managing your company’s culture is critical to understanding and managing EHS and sustainability performance. Performance is driven by employee behaviors, and employee behaviors are driven by the intangible aspects of your company’s culture that are not written down in policies, programs and procedures. All behavior is rewarded, whether it is desired or unwanted behavior, whether an employee recognizes it or not, whether a manager recognizes it or not, and it is the intangible aspects of employee perceptions, beliefs, values, motivations and attitudes that guide and drive employee behaviors.”[4]

Changing a corporate culture does not happen overnight and you are unlikely to succeed if you are the only one trying to make the change.  Some examples of methods to improve a company’s culture include:

• Demonstrating management, leadership and commitment to EHS
• Charting the course, sometimes known as creating the vision for the EHS system
• Defining the roles and responsibilities for all levels of management and employees in the management system
• Making sure that individuals are held accountable for their roles and responsibilities
• Creating a climate (culture) that actively fosters meaningful employee participation in the entire EHS programs
• Encouraging employee participation at all levels of the organization

In the following sections I will discuss these endeavors in more detail.

8.2 Management Commitment

“People do not care what you know until they know that you care.”

• John Maxwell

8.2.1 Management Commitment Overview

If your senior leadership (e.g., upper management corporate personnel, vice presidents, etc.) is not comfortable or behind an initiative, the initiative will likely fail.  To fully implement an initiative, you need to get management to not only support the initiative, but also visibly support the initiative.

8.2.2 Company Opportunities

You may want consider training senior leadership on establishing a strong EHS culture and/or providing talking points and ideas.  Although senior leadership may feel it is unnecessary to receive training, in my experience discussing EHS issues does not come naturally.

Some example objectives for senior leadership could include:

• Discuss an EHS topic during a conference calls
• When speaking with facility personnel, provide positive affirmations for good EHS efforts and measures (e.g., leading indicators such as climate and audit scores) and discuss goals to improve poor EHS measures
• Follow up on EHS incidents and inspections
• Ask questions about EHS efforts and compliance issues when talking to plant or site personnel
• Support the EHS auditing program and/or participate in an EHS audit
• Involve employees in EHS decision-making
• Encourage and allow time for EHS training especially during busy production times
• Make time to listen to employees’ compliance concerns
• Participate in EHS-related meetings and get involved in planning and scoping activities.
• Provide the EHS departments an opportunity to speak to the senior leadership so they better understand the issues confronting their facilities.
• Have senior leadership receive training on participative management styles (i.e., instead of authoritarian management style).

Similar goals can be established for other leadership roles such as managers and superintendents.  These objectives can be added to management’s performance management objectives.

8.3 Employee Involvement

“People Support What They Help Create”

–  Unknown

8.3.1 Overview

Employee participation is the promotion of employee awareness, instilling an understanding of the compliance system and allowing employees to take ownership of the process and program[5].  Employees who are encouraged to offer their ideas and whose contributions are taken seriously may be more satisfied and productive.  Employees are also likely to take ownership of programs they create and buy-in to these EHS initiatives.

8.3.2 Company Opportunities

Some example objectives for involving employees include:

• Solicit input on programs and/or set up an employee EHS committee
• Have employees participate in internal audits and inspections
• Have employees assist with incident investigations
• Have employees lead training and discussions

8.4 Responsibility, Expectations and Accountability

As part of an EHS culture, companies should consider:

• Explaining responsibilities
• Communicating expectations
• Holding personnel accountable

8.4.1 Performance management

“It’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

– Upton Sinclair[6]

Performance evaluations should focus on leading (e.g., audit results, completed training), not lagging (e.g., number of spills) indicators.  Section 15 provides a discussion on leading versus lagging indicators.  Performance evaluations should not include measurements that might discourage reporting, which could be viewed as encouraging illegal activities.  For example, the number of workplace injuries and illnesses should not be included as a measurement of safety performance since a related bonus could be construed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as paying employees not to report incidents[7].  Instead, performance management objectives should focus on corrective actions resulting from the incidents (i.e., did the employee implement measures to prevent future injuries and illnesses?).

Available guidance suggests that to achieve effectiveness, EHS metrics and goals should comprise a significant portion of a manager’s bonus: I had an employee tell me that he heard, at an American Society of Safety Engineer’s (ASSE) presentation, that they recommended 25% of a manager’s bonus for safety items.  I have not been able to find that documented anywhere else, but the implication being that if the value is too low, production related issues may over-ride conflicting environmental compliance.

General suggestions on performance management includes:

• Emphasize success and not failure
• Where appropriate and feasible, recognize personnel in an open and publicized way
• Develop and implement a clear, unambiguous and well-communicated achievement and reward system
• Recognize people who recognize others.[8]

8.4.2 Reasons for Incorporating Environmental Compliance into the Performance Management System

The Department of Justice (DOJ)’s Environmental Sentencing Guidelines provide fine mitigation (e.g., reduced penalty amounts) if line management includes environmental compliance in operating performance reviews and requires positive reinforcement[9].

8.4.2.1 Company Opportunities

Some example performance management objectives could include:

• Discuss EHS compliance and use this as part of the performance evaluation
• Communicate EHS compliance expectations
• Assign EHS compliance responsibilities and accountability
• Promote employee EHS compliance accomplishments
• Develop an EHS compliance participation program for operational employees.

Ideally, a company would establish EHS performance management objectives for all employee levels.  You could use the leading EHS indicators for the facility (managers and superintendents), region (vice presidents) and business unit (presidents) as measurements.  Another performance management objective would be to discuss EHS compliance during meetings and conversations (e.g., two discussions per year). 

8.4.3 Discipline

Companies may need to address non-conformance with EHS regulations and requirements with some type or form of discipline.  However, you should focus on discipline and not punishment.  Punishment implies malice while discipline implies correction.

8.4.3.1 Reasons for Discipline

Many of us might not like disciplining employees for EHS issues.  In addition to punishment and deterrents, there are other reasons to take corrective actions with employees.  Taking corrective actions with employees can protect you and company leadership from criminal prosecution and it can provide a defense against Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) citations and from the Department of Justice (DOJ).  The Department of Justice’s Environmental Sentencing Guidelines state[10]:

“In response to infractions, the organization has consistently and visibly enforced the organization’s environmental policies, standards and procedures through appropriate disciplinary mechanisms, including, as appropriate, termination, demotion, suspension, reassignment, retraining, probation and reporting individuals’ conduct to law enforcement authorities.”

Section 10 addresses discipline further.

8.4.3.2 Company Opportunities

Companies should consider clearly defining and enforcing discipline for EHS compliance issues including, but not limited to:

• Violations of EHS laws and regulations, including permit conditions
• Failure to report injuries and illnesses, spills, releases, inspections, complaints and known violations within an acceptable timeframe
• Noncompliance with company EHS policies and programs

You should avoid disciplining personnel for injuries and illnesses, spills, releases, inspections and complaints: You want them to report these items, so disciplining for these items can be counterproductive.  Therefore, you should only discipline employees for failing to report these items.  Reporting of known violations is not as straightforward: You want employees to report these items, but if they are responsible you may need to discontinue their employment or risk violating the Department of Justice’s Environmental Sentencing Guidelines.

8.4.4 Consistent expectations

Consistency in dealing with positive and negative compliance helps foster a strong culture.

8.4.4.1   Company Opportunities

Your company should consider answering the following questions on how you handle EHS programs:

• Who is responsible and have you told them they are responsible?
• Should the EHS Department or other department, be responsible for telling facilities when they are out of compliance and helping them out or should they be responsible for self-discovery?
• Should the EHS Department tell the facility about compliance issues the first time and then let them remain out-of-compliance or continue to remind them?

8.5 For Additional Information

• “7 Insights Into Safety Leadership” by Thomas R. Krause and Kristen J. Bell, The Safety Leadership Institute, United States of America, 2015
• “The Advantage, Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business” by Patrick Lencioni, Jossey-Bass, 2012
• “Change the Culture Change the Game” by Roger Connors and Tom Smith, The Penguin Group, New York, New York, 2011
• “Developing an Effective Safety Culture, A Leadership Approach”, by James E. Roughton and James J. Mercurio, Butterworth Heinemann, ,Boston, Massachusetts, 2002
• “Essential Practices for Creating, Strengthening, and Sustaining Process Safety Culture” Center for Chemical Process Safety of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, John Wiley and Sons, New York, New York, 2018

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8.6 References

[1] Quotemaster.org website, Quotes about organizational culture, accessed August 7, 2022 (https://www.quotemaster.org/organizational+culture)

[2] “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (Brown Building)” National Park Service website, accessed August 7, 2022 (https://www.nps.gov/places/triangle-shirtwaist-factory-brown-building.htm)

[3] “Deepwater Horizon – BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill” Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website accessed August 7, 2022 (https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/deepwater-horizon-bp-gulf-mexico-oil-spill)

[4] “Company Culture And EHS / Sustainability Performance, What You Do not Know Can Hurt You” Peylina Chu, PE, Global Corporate Consultancy, Antea Group, Brian C. Duesler, CHMM, Abbott Nutrition, Antea USA, Inc., October 2011

[5] “Developing an Effective Safety Culture, A Leadership Approach”, by James E. Roughton and James J. Mercurio, Butterworth Heinemann, ,Boston, Massachusetts, 2002, page 117.

[6] Good Reads Upton Sinclair quotes (https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/23510.Upton_Sinclair)

[7] “Clarification of OSHA’s Position on Workplace Safety Incentive Programs and Post-Incident Drug Testing Under 29 C.F.R. § 1904.35(b)(1)(iv)”, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Memorandum from Kim Stille Acting Director Enforcement Programs, October 11, 2018 (https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2018-10-11)

[8] “The Race Without a Finish Line: America’s Quest for Total Quality (Jossey Bass Business and Management Service” by Warren H. Schmidt and Jerome P. Finnigan, Jossey-Bass, 1992, page 255.

[9] United States Sentencing Commission “Report from Advisory Group on Environmental Sanctions” Memorandum dated December 6, 1993 from Phyllis J. Newton, Staff Director “(a) Minimum Factors Demonstrating a Commitment to Environmental Compliance (1) Line Management Attention to Compliance.“operating performance reviews” (https://www.ussc.gov/Guidelines/Organizational_Guidelines/Special_Reports/ENVIRON.pdf)

[10] United States Sentencing Commission “Report from Advisory Group on Environmental Sanctions” Memorandum dated December 6, 1993 from Phyllis J. Newton, Staff Director a) Minimum Factors Demonstrating a Commitment to Environmental Compliance,  (6) Disciplinary Procedures.

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