About Dan McLean

Dan McLean is a senior content marketing manager for Intelex Technologies in Toronto, specializing in environment, health and safety (EHS) topics. He has been a journalist, market researcher, executive communications specialist and content marketer over his 30-plus year career in information technology.

EHS ROI Should Be the Endgame, Rather than the Start of Your Investment Pitch

The inherent value of occupational health and safety (OHS) for every business and organization makes it seem unimaginable that anyone would argue the importance or necessity of protecting workers on the job. 

So why can it be so difficult to obtain additional and necessary investment to improve safety performance? Perhaps the answer lies in the capitalist axiom that business is business, after all, and any investment made must be measured by a resulting payback.  

When it’s necessary to quantify environmental, health and safety (EHS) investment dollar benefits, return on investment (ROI) comes into play. And, while there are many tools and calculators available to help construct an ROI, before spending the time and effort to build a business case, it’s necessary to understand a couple of fundamental things – namely, for whom ROI is important and whether it is truly how a business thinks about safety.  

Related content: The ROI Read more...

ISO 45001 and ANSI Z10 Offer Valuable Safety Management Guidance

Industry standards exist to help set the foundation for a safety management system. For those who may not have a system in place or are looking to take an existing safety management system (SMS) to the next level, standards offer a guiding blueprint for the key and necessary components and practices. Two of the most common and ubiquitous are the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 45001 and the American National Standards Institute’s ANSI Z10.

ISO 45001 is described as the world’s first international standard for occupational health and safety systems. It provides a framework for improving health and safety performance and is intended to control the factors that may result in injury, illness or death on the job. ISO 45001 is also described as process-based and considers risks and opportunities. The standard explicitly mentions mental health as an element that should be protected by the program.

Another noteworthy feature of … Read more...

The Environment Ranks Highest as an ESG Priority for those Surveyed in Europe

New research from Intelex of EHS and ESG professionals in Europe finds that more than half of organizations surveyed are prioritizing environmentally focused ESG activities ahead of other ESG-related considerations.
New research from Intelex of EHS and ESG professionals in Europe finds that more than half of organizations surveyed are prioritizing environmentally focused ESG activities ahead of other ESG-related considerations.

Doing good for the planet is emerging as the primary area of environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) focus for those tasked to manage the progress of ESG initiatives in their organizations, according to recent research conducted across Europe by Intelex.

The environmental aspect of ESG consumes more attention than either of social or governance elements, according to a 2022 survey of more than 700 environmental health and safety (EHS) and ESG professionals from 10 European countries, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

The third section of the report, Engaging Workers Growing Business and Protecting the Planet, reveals more than half of organizations surveyed are prioritizing environmentally … Read more...

5 Ways EHS Professionals Can Support ESG Initiatives

As a result of corporate ESG framework requirements, EHS professionals are getting opportunities to be real business partners.

A move by organizations everywhere to adopt environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria could be today’s primary catalyst in transforming the future role of the environment, health and safety (EHS) profession.

ESG issues have taken on an increased sense of urgency for businesses around the world as public opinion becomes sensitive to social and environmental issues. Regulatory changes are expected to set the jumping off point for organizations, and investors and companies will need to have strong frameworks for identifying ESG risks with overall mechanisms and tracking capabilities as part of their management systems.

During an Intelex-sponsored EHS Today webinar in June discussing how safety professionals can support ESG initiatives, Ashley Gill, regional safety manager for Valicor Environmental Services, said there traditionally has been a disconnect between EHS professionals and business … Read more...

Research Reveals Employee Engagement is Key to Both EHS and ESG Performance

New research from Intelex finds that organizations continue to struggle with improving employee engagement in health and safety programs.

Workplace culture and employee engagement challenges are all too familiar within occupational health and safety. They are also likely to have a major impact on successful environment, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance, according to recent research conducted in Europe by Intelex Technologies LLC.  

The research report, Engaging Workers, Growing Business and Protecting the Planet, observes that improving EHS and ESG performance drives competitive advantage but that getting employees onboard with EHS initiatives may likewise slow ESG progress. 

The report, commissioned by Intelex, surveyed more than 700 EHS and ESG professionals from 10 European countries, including the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.  

The first chapter of the report, “Success is about people first and foremost,” focuses on several key research observations, among them: that … Read more...

OHS Research Needs to Focus on Why Incidents Don’t Happen

Because a workplace injury may not have occurred yet is not an indication of safety or a predictor of future safety.

Traditional lines of questioning in occupational health and safety research may not always get to the heart of the matter when it comes to truly understanding what’s behind keeping workplaces safe.

Safety research and investigations typically focus on the dissection and analysis of incidents that occur, but not enough query may be examining why they don’t. Hazards are not things thrown into worksites, says Ron Gantt, a director and principal consultant for Reflect Consulting Group, a company that specializes in helping organizations improve their safety management.

“Hazards are unintended side effects of work,” he says. “If all we do is focus on the negative and are not understanding how it is all connected to everything else going on in a job site then we may inadvertently not be helping…we … Read more...

The Data Collection Components of a Safety Management System

Safety Management Systems report essential business information, ensure compliance requirements, help to manage risks and improve operational performance.
Safety Management Systems report essential business information, ensure compliance requirements, help to manage risks and improve operational performance.

The scope and maturity of a safety management system (SMS) to manage safety risk in the workplace varies by industry type, location and company because some are more regulated than others and that dictates the level of maturity and robustness a system requires. However, there are common components every SMS has, including:

Incident Reporting to capture, track, investigate and report on all incidents and near-misses, including injuries and illnesses, spills, property damage and vehicle incidents.

Audit Management that includes scheduling, tracking, data collection and reporting for all internal or external audits to simplify and ensure compliance across all company locations and operating jurisdictions.

Document Control that improves document management across the complete lifecycle of an organization’s compliance efforts and activities. It’s important to control access to sensitive files, forms … Read more...

NSC Publishes Guidelines for Serious Injury and Fatality Prevention

Serious injury and fatality prevention is dependent on effectively identifying and controlling risk.
Serious injury and fatality prevention is dependent on effectively identifying and controlling risk.

The National Safety Council’s (NSC) Campbell Institute – Center of EHS Excellence recently released details of two frameworks described as “a new direction for research on leading indicators” for serious injury and fatality (SIF) prevention.

In a white paper titled, Serious Injury and Fatality Prevention: Leading Indicators, Cumulative Risk and Safety Networks, cumulative risk assessment and social network analysis are proposed as SIF prevention frameworks. The research involved a working group tasked to define a set of key leading indicators relevant for SIF prevention and interviews were conducted with nine Campbell Institute member organizations as the basis for the white paper’s recommendations.  

Representatives from organizations interviewed shared details about their data collection efforts and analysis strategies, leading indicators related to SIF prevention, leadership and employee engagement around SIF prevention and the challenges their organizations have … Read more...

Do Your Employees Have a Stake in Health and Safety?

Encouraging employees to be legitimate stakeholders in occupational health and safety is really a matter of listening, being open to and dealing with employees as equal partners in developing and implementing programs.

The greatest error in trying to create a safety culture is leaving everything in the hands of health and safety professionals, says Intelex Vice President and Global Practice Leader for Safety and Health Scott Gaddis. If you want to limit loss and drive performance, the entire workforce needs to be involved.

Employees as stakeholders of occupational health and safety should be tasked to step into safety leadership roles and responsibilities throughout an organization. It’s an approach Gaddis took earlier in his career while working as the global safety and health leader at Kimberley-Clark.

Relationship Building Is Key

As a “staff of one,” Gaddis says he was only going to be as good as his ability to build … Read more...

More Work and More Tech Needed to Take EHS to the Next Level of Success

The COVID-19 pandemic placed EHS in the spotlight and has tasked professionals to do more than ever in managing risks within and outside of traditional workspace confines.

The future of environment, health and safety will see the need for more technology adoption by organizations as EHS professionals take on much greater workloads and a role in total worker wellness largely due to the outfall of COVID-19.  

These were among the key observations and topics of discussion during the first day of the Verdantix virtual summit on Innovating for Sustainable Operations that focused on EHS and operations.

Next Level for EHS

During a session titled, Taking EHS to the Next Level of Success, presenters considered how the responsibilities and workloads of EHS professionals have been impacted as hybrid and remote working becomes more popular. 

Verdantix CEO David Metcalfe said the COVID-19 pandemic placed EHS in the spotlight and has tasked … Read more...