We touched upon the SHEQ culture numerous times already, and we cannot stress the importance of it enough. Developing the right culture has a tremendous impact on SHEQ within the company and how the company operates. This perception isn’t always good, but it can be switched around by using the right methodologies and solutions.
A great way to measure the perception is by identifying whether there is a Push and Pull approach from the SHEQ management point of view. Push basically means that the SHEQ department is pushing all day long to get employees moving. This is happening in a large number of companies and frustrates SHEQ managers a lot. They are the only force to move SHEQ activities forward. The Pull situation is where SHEQ is driven by the organization, the SHEQ department is primarily consultative and helping out when required. The SHEQ management is deeply integrated in the organization. This is the situation you want to reach eventually. To get to this, there are a couple of things that will help.
Keep It Simple
We all know the phrase, “Keep It Simple, Stupid”, originally introduced by the US Navy. This design principle is not only applicable to complex engineering projects but has huge advantages for SHEQ management as well. Lots of management systems are too complex for employees. They need to search for documents or forms on servers or within a DMS, without much guidance.
Moving to a dedicated platform for SHEQ will already makes things much clearer, employees know now they need to go to the platform to find the required documents. The easier the management is built up to, the more the Pull will come from the organization. This way employees can find what they need. The SHEQ department doesn’t have to send the documents again and again and also doesn’t have to send reminders all the time.
Ease of Use
In order to further allow the organization to Pull the SHEQ management, it has to be very easy for employees to integrate with the SHEQ management system and incorporate it into their day-to-day work. When SHEQ activities don’t feel like a necessary evil, they will put a lot more effort without really realizing it. The activities are going so seamlessly while they provide significant information to the SHEQ department of improvement projects.
Within this situation, employees will come to the SHEQ department to get access to the tools required. The SHEQ department will have a completely different role in the organization. The SHEQ activities should be embodied into the day-to-day work to really reach this next level.
Providing the right tools to work with for the employees will make this a lot easier. Readily available information via a mobile app becomes a necessity for people to easily interact with the SHEQ management system. Make sure these things are in place for people to leverage.
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