Focusing on non-value add activities
Maybe it's not that you're short staffed,
Maybe you're overloaded with non-value add tasks.
Maybe instead of wasting your time on something low priority, that time can be better spent actually moving the needle.
Let me explain...
In our world, most of us have experienced what we would consider being "short-staffed". Maybe some also say "understaffed" which to most of us commonly refers to not having a team big enough to carry out the demands of the work to be done. But consider an alternative viewpoint. Maybe instead of blindly complaining about being short-staffed, maybe we ought to take a harder look at the activities we are tasked with? Here I want to unpack this a bit and get closer to understanding the things we commonly do and really answer whether those "things" are moving us in the direction they should. Answering, does this truly matter?
Here are 5 things to consider
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1. Prioritize Your Tasks:
We first have to get a complete picture of the things we do. In order to deload our work, or identify meaning in it, we have to get a complete picture of what our tasks are and where they fall in our priorities. Once we build out that list, we should start assigning some sort of priority to them. When doing this, you should really take the extremes: this is something that directly contributes to a potential fatality vs. this is meaningless. When I say contributes to a potential fatality, I mean something more imminent. Think approval of a fall protection system. Falling off a ladder is fatality potential but I wouldn't consider me personally doing a pre-use ladder inspection within this category. Think complexity, and overall risk profile. Start focusing your list on these things that are high to medium-high level. I realize we all do priority rankings every day which in most cases dictate the work we are doing right now. That should be part of this exercise now and once you do this I think writing it out not only helps communicate potential staffing needs to decision makers, but lets you see exactly what is being done and how much of it there is.
2. Automate repetitive processes:
Administrative tasks are incredibly burdensome for those of us who break up our time between office work and boots on the ground. With technology today there are so many easy, initiative and low cost solutions that can automate tasks that suck up so much time. There is a ton of room to save time and reduce the paperwork burden. Instead of paper copies of forms, look for electronic data collection systems like Google or Microsoft Forms. Look at some of the other reporting and recordkeeping activities you do. How can these be automated? Streamlined? Or...eliminated...
3. Address unhelpful bureaucratic checklists
If you were a part of our book club readHS, you will know that our last book was Paper Safe: The triumph of bureaucracy in safety management by Gregory Smith. If you haven't read this book yet, you need to. It really changed my perspective on almost everything I thought about how I do my job. In the book, there is a section of a chapter titled "Checklists". It speaks about how common checklists are as a workplace safety and health management tool. They are essentially ubiquitous in our field and a major tool that we rely on to reduce risk, or at least that is what we think is happening. Although Gregory states: "history has clearly demonstrated checklists can become a burden on the workforce which get ignored or dealt with in a cursory tick and flick manner" (Smith pg. 113). If that is the case, we really should be asking the question, what kinds of documents are we spending a great deal of time on? What is purely a tick and flick exercise and in the end, adds no value to actual risk reduction efforts? Some of you may argue that it exists in part to serve as a dedicated opportunity to stop and think while having a static, written list to go off of. My counter would be, is the person doing the checklist actually stopping and thinking or are they just completing the checklist? Meaning, is the presence of the checklist enough to solicit the behavior you're looking to achieve or are they only just blindly completing the checklist? If it's the latter, you have to ask, why have it at all? Do you have any evidence that keeping it helps? Do you have any evidence that keeping it hurts? To the former, it's very hard to say. To the latter, you may say, yes we do. The five minutes this takes each day, means we are losing almost 22 hours of productivity per year we otherwise could spend on something else. Mind you, that is just 1 checklist. What about all the others not included in that time?
4. Delegate where it is appropriate
How many of you are doing a task that should be someone else's? Not only someone within your function but even other functions like payroll, human resources, training etc. Some of us work for small companies. We may not have the option to delegate some of these things to others just by means of what functions even exist at the firm. But from the list you built from number 1, how many of those things aren't even within your scope of work? Better question, how many of you shouldn't be doing some of these things but do them because you're nice or a team player, or don't want to cause issues? Let's ask some questions to maybe uncover this. Are you...:
...managing documents related to safety procedures, policies or training records? If available, the Document Management group can take this on.
...performing daily routine inspections, toolbox talks or audits? Any reason why Line Management isn't doing this?
...inspecting and maintaining fire extinguishers? This is a piece of Facilities equipment; therefore, Facilities should be in charge.
...running random drug screening? I would challenge the firm why this is an EHS task vs. a human resources or compliance task
...maintaining a chemical inventory of chemicals on site? They aren't your chemicals and not your things to maintain. They are Operation's chemicals, therefore they are required to maintain an inventory and report to you what they have.
It's important to recognize that you don't have to do everything on your own. You should delegate tasks to others who have the skills and capacity to handle them or as we've seen, whose function they better serve than yours to begin with. If you don't ask, you will never know!
5. Review and Revise Procedures:
Take a critical look at your safety and health procedures and protocols. Are there redundant or unnecessary steps that can be eliminated? Are there more efficient ways to achieve the same objectives? By regularly reviewing and revising your processes, you can streamline your operations and reduce the time spent on tasks that don't contribute significantly to safety improvement. The whole point of this entire exercise is to look at eliminating waste. Many of our programs and procedures have waste built into them that is not value added. They are in many cases not executed by the intended audience and a lot of the time end up falling on us as burdensome administrative work. Ask yourself, is this helping make things safer or just gives the illusion of being safer?
Here's an example line item from a Lone Worker safety procedure:
"All managers must communicate this program to their workers who meet the definition of performing lone worker operations. Once approved, workers must sign the acknowledgement, and return it to the EHS office for evaluation. EHS will then assess and approve the workers' competency in understanding the program based on written responses to questions within the acknowledgement."
Okay, on its face, reading and understanding the program isn't a bad idea. Where it may get burdensome is the specific requirement that EHS reads and approves each acknowledgment. One has to ask whether this really helps anything at all? What does EHS reading these mean for a worker working alone? Is that the ONE thing that is truly going to help? Moreover, from what we understand about adult learning, without repetition and application, they will forget this information within a week. So again, is this waste? Is this something in our procedures we can update or eliminate? One less task for us to do, that in the end does not add the value once considered it would.
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Lastly, it is also important to continue investing in professional development. Continuous learning and professional development are key to staying updated with industry best practices. By enhancing your skills and knowledge, you'll become more effective in your role. This increased competence can lead to more streamlined processes and better decision-making, ultimately reducing the need for excessive paperwork and non-essential tasks. Complaints about being short-staffed can often be rooted in the frustration of safety and health professionals who feel overwhelmed by meaningless tasks. By taking proactive steps to prioritize, automate, delegate, review, and invest in your professional development, you can deload your work and shift your focus toward what truly matters: the worker and not the process. Remember, it's not always about having more staff; it's about making the most of the resources you have and ensuring that your efforts are directed toward meaningful outcomes.
