According to reports, environmental health and safety managers are both well-paid and in high demand.
Not only is the EHS job market growing, but the pay is significantly higher than the national average. According to Ziprecruiter, environmental health and safety managers earn an average annual salary of $89,092.
One of the reasons for this is that environmental health and safety managers shoulder a lot of responsibility. If they don’t perform all of their duties well, this can result in serious injury. As well as compliance breaches, decreased productivity, and legal claims and ramifications.
Do you want to find out what some of the official job duties are of those working in health and safety management? Keep reading to find out.
Identifying Potentially Hazardous Materials
A critical responsibility of environmental health and safety managers is identifying hazardous materials in the workplace. These include harmful chemicals, radiological materials, biological materials, and any other materials that pose a danger to both humans and the environment.
Besides identifying hazardous materials and their sources, environmental health and safety managers are also responsible for collecting samples for analysis. Along with this, it is their duty to implement exposure control plans.
EHS managers are also responsible for ensuring the safe disposal of hazardous waster and materials.
Maintenance of Material Safety Data Sheets
Material safety data sheet maintenance isn’t the most glamorous sounding responsibility. However, it is a critical part of the effective management of hazardous materials.
To stay compliant and uphold safety standards, environmental health and safety managers have to ensure that safety data sheets are properly maintained. They also need to make sure that all data sheets are readily available when needed.
Nowadays, most environmental health and safety managers accomplish this through SDS management software.
Another administrative task that health and safety management personnel are in charge of is maintaining records of discharge of hazardous waste or pollutants. They are also responsible for documenting and keeping records of employee exposure to pollutants and dangerous waste materials.
Recommending Equipment Upgrades or Changes
Another key component of almost every environmental health and safety manager job description is monitoring equipment-related safety.
One of the first tasks that newly hired EHS managers usually do is inspecting equipment and machinery. After this, they draft inspection reports to detail their findings.
Depending on their findings, environmental health and safety managers will then make certain recommendations. These might include equipment upgrades or changes.
They might also recommend changes in other areas of a facility besides its equipment.
Developing and Implementing Safety Policies
Another integral job duty for environmental health and safety managers is developing safety policies.
These policies guide the rest of the EHS staff and the organization as a whole in regards to safety procedures and standards.
Environmental health and safety managers have to ensure that the policies they draft are effective for their organization. They also need to make sure they align with state and federal laws and safety standards.
Once they have developed company safety policies, environmental health and safety managers also have to ensure these are implemented.
Safety policies require regular reviews and updating. Environmental health and safety managers also need to implement routine inspections to ensure that safety policies are being upheld.
Facilitating Employee Education on Health, Safety, and the Environment
Another integral job duty of environmental health and safety managers is facilitating employee training and education on health and safety matters.
This usually includes training for:
- Safe operation of equipment and machinery
- How to reduce body strain and injuries from repetitive tasks through proper ergonomics
- Emergencies
- Fire
- Workplace violence protection
- Online safety and cyber security
Environmental health and safety managers are responsible for identifying training needs, organizing training, and overseeing its implementation. They also have to schedule ongoing refresher training on relevant topics.
Promoting Awareness and Supporting Employees’ Mental Wellbeing
Besides addressing physical safety, environmental health and safety managers are also increasingly addressing mental health in the workplace.
Promoting employee mental wellbeing has a host of proven benefits. These include, enhanced performance, heightened productivity, and increased morale.
Unfortunately, workplace environments and pressures often reduce mental wellbeing rather than support it. To combat this, EHS managers can evaluate what factors are impacting employee mental health and devise steps to reduce these.
Besides this, environmental health and safety managers can also take action to increase awareness around mental health and create a support system for employees.
Investigation of Accidents
If an accident occurs at work, health and safety management is responsible for investigating it. Through a thorough investigation, EHS managers can determine the cause of the accident. They can also determine how similar accidents can be prevented in the future.
EHS staff are also responsible for administering emergency first aid until medical help arrives.
We Make SDS Management Easier For Environmental Health and Safety Managers
These are some of the primary job duties of environmental health and safety managers.
Although material safety data sheet management is one of the least glamorous, it is vitally important. Unfortunately, SDS management can quickly get complicated and arduous if you don’t have the right tools.
Here at KHA, we specialize in providing software and services for managing Safety Data Sheets (SDS).
We have extensive experience in the industry (having been in the SDS market for more than 36 years) and hundreds of satisfied customers.
Our SDS software is easy to use and easy to scale. It can be implemented into businesses of any size, ranging from the very small to international corporations.
We are passionate about simple, transparent pricing without hidden costs. We also observe price matching. If a competitor offers you a better price, we will match it.
Are you interested to see how our tools can level up your SDS processes? Contact us to schedule a free demo today.
