Managing a large environment, health, and safety (EHS) team presents unique challenges. Classic business literature, including works by Henri Fayol, Peter Drucker, and Stephen Covey, highlights key managerial responsibilities such as strategic planning, organizing resources, inspiring teams, and making informed decisions. Managers must also monitor progress, mentor employees for long-term success, and maintain clear communication with stakeholders. These timeless principles remain relevant across industries. However, traditional methods can falter without clear goals or structured approaches, leading to inefficiencies. Thus, the question arises: can Scrum principles improve EHS management efficiency and outcomes?
1. Define Roles and Responsibilities
In Scrum, defining roles and responsibilities is critical to establishing a clear framework. The Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team each have distinct roles that need to be clearly defined. The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring the Scrum framework is understood and followed, helping the team remove obstacles and improve processes. This role can be held by the EHS manager or their deputy, who use Agile tools to teach the team to work more effectively and address issues like resource shortages and interdepartmental delays.
The Product Owner defines task priorities and manages the product backlog, representing stakeholder interests. In the EHS context, the department’s main stakeholders include both internal actors (e.g., company leadership, employees, HR, and legal) and external parties (e.g., regulators, headquarters, and local communities). The EHS manager gathers input from stakeholders, conducts surveys, and holds EHS leadership meetings to represent stakeholder interests and approve plans. The Development Team consists of specialists who work on tasks from the sprint backlog, which could include a team of EHS specialists with diverse skills or a single EHS manager applying these principles to manage the EHS pillar or committee.
2. Create a Prioritized Task List
Creating a prioritized task list is essential for clarifying goals and ensuring that the most important tasks are addressed first. This is achieved through the product backlog, which is a prioritized list of all tasks and requirements for the project. For an EHS team, this might include all planned activities for achieving safety KPIs, ensuring compliance, and protecting employees. The tasks are then prioritized based on importance and deadlines.
In practice, the EHS manager would compile this list, incorporating input from stakeholders and team members. The product backlog serves as a living document that can be continually updated and reprioritized as new information becomes available or situations change. This adaptive approach allows the EHS team to remain flexible and responsive to emerging needs and priorities. Regular review and updates to the product backlog ensure that the team remains focused on tasks that offer the highest value and impact.
3. Break Down Tasks for Specific Time Frames
To make the workload more manageable, tasks are selected from the product backlog for the current sprint, typically lasting one to four weeks. A sprint backlog comprises product backlog tasks to be completed within this period. The key is to break tasks down into smaller, manageable pieces, usually between 30 minutes to 1.5 hours in duration. This approach ensures each task has a clear outcome and can be tracked easily.
For example, creating a new procedure might be broken down into actionable tasks: researching relevant legislation, client requirements, and best practices; drafting the procedure; discussing the draft with stakeholders; revising the procedure; then finalizing approval and managing related activities like system registration and communication. Conversely, smaller tasks like scheduling audits with multiple supervisors could be consolidated into a single task. This breakdown makes it easier for team members to focus, track progress, and make tangible contributions to broader project goals.
4. Establish Clear Outcomes
Defining clear outcomes for each sprint helps the team understand what success looks like and keeps everyone aligned with the goals. The increment, or the finished product of a sprint, should result in a tangible and usable outcome. Each large task should be subdivided into specific, actionable steps, and smaller tasks should be combined if necessary to achieve a clear result.
For instance, a large task like updating a safety manual could be divided into several smaller steps, each with its own clear deliverable. Completed tasks should lead to a broader outcome that contributes to the overall project’s objectives. This process ensures that the team remains focused on producing meaningful results and can demonstrate progress regularly. By the end of each sprint, the delivered increment provides a clear indication of what has been achieved and sets the stage for subsequent sprints.
5. Implement Regular Check-ins
Regular check-ins are a cornerstone of Scrum, helping teams stay on track and address any impediments promptly. Daily or weekly scrum meetings ensure continuous communication within the team. In these sessions, team members discuss what has been done, what is planned next, and any obstacles encountered. The Scrum Master facilitates these meetings, ensuring they remain focused and productive.
For an EHS team, weekly meetings might be more practical than daily check-ins. During these sessions, each team member provides a brief update on their progress, planned activities, and any challenges they are facing. These meetings help the team maintain visibility into each other’s work and foster collaboration. Additionally, tracking completed tasks—using tools like sticky notes or digital trackers—keeps everyone informed and allows for quick identification and removal of obstacles. This structured approach to communication enhances transparency and accountability within the team.
6. Hold Review and Feedback Sessions
Review and feedback sessions are integral to continuous improvement in Scrum. Combining sprint review and retrospective meetings into a monthly session can be effective for EHS teams. These sessions provide an opportunity to review outcomes, gather feedback, and identify areas for improvement. They facilitate a culture of continuous learning and adaptation.
During these meetings, the team collectively reviews completed tasks, discusses what went well, and considers what could be improved in future sprints. Stakeholder input is also valuable in these sessions, helping align the team’s efforts with broader organizational goals and priorities. Feedback from these meetings informs adjustments to processes and planning, ensuring the team remains on track and responsive to changing needs. By incorporating regular review and feedback sessions, EHS teams can continuously refine their approaches, enhancing efficiency and effectiveness over time.
7. Develop a Detailed Action Plan
Developing a detailed action plan is critical for long-term success. An annual action plan that incorporates stakeholder feedback provides a roadmap for achieving strategic goals. This plan should be broken down into monthly projects, ensuring that goals and targets are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
For an EHS team, the annual action plan might include initiatives such as compliance audits, training programs, and safety protocol updates. Each month, the team initiates projects aligned with these initiatives, ensuring progress towards broader goals. The action plan serves as a guiding document, helping the team prioritize efforts and allocate resources effectively. By translating strategic goals into actionable monthly projects, the team can maintain focus and momentum throughout the year.
8. Track and Record Progress
Effective progress tracking is essential to the Scrum framework. Using a system to monitor completed tasks, such as sticky notes or an Excel impediment log, helps the team stay organized and accountable. Collecting and reviewing these records weekly provides valuable performance insights, highlighting areas of success and opportunities for improvement.
In practice, the Scrum Master plays a key role in tracking progress. They tally completed tasks, record impediments and their resolutions, and gather feedback from the team. This information is then reviewed during weekly meetings and used to adjust plans and priorities as needed. Transparent progress tracking ensures that all team members are aware of their contributions and the team’s overall performance. This transparency fosters accountability and motivates team members to deliver high-quality work consistently.
9. Foster a Supportive Team Environment
A supportive team environment is crucial for sustaining high performance, especially during high-pressure times. Scrum principles encourage mutual assistance among team members, recognizing that collaborative efforts lead to higher overall output. This approach reduces the risk of critical tasks being neglected and fosters a culture of mutual support and collaboration.
For example, during periods of overlapping reporting deadlines or after a workplace incident, team members might need to assist colleagues with heavy workloads. Encouraging this kind of teamwork ensures that all critical tasks are addressed, and no one person becomes overwhelmed. Recognizing individual contributions and celebrating team successes also boosts morale and strengthens team cohesion. A supportive environment helps maintain high levels of productivity and job satisfaction over time.
10. Link Performance to Incentives Thoughtfully
Linking performance to incentives can motivate team members, but it must be done thoughtfully. Connecting bonuses to task completion requires balancing quantity, quality, and complexity of tasks to avoid inflated metrics and demotivation. For an EHS team, individual task targets should be tailored to each member’s role and responsibilities.
For instance, safety officers performing daily audits might complete more tasks than EHS managers handling complex, organizational responsibilities. A Scrum-based bonus program should consider these differences to ensure fairness. An experiment tying bonuses to task counts showed increased productivity but also highlighted the need for a nuanced approach. Combining performance metrics with measures of task quality and complexity ensures that incentives align with broader organizational goals and maintain team motivation.
11. Ensure Goal Alignment and Adaptability
Managing a large environment, health, and safety (EHS) team comes with its own set of challenges. Classic business literature, with contributions from icons like Henri Fayol, Peter Drucker, and Stephen Covey, emphasizes vital managerial tasks such as strategic planning, resource organization, team motivation, and informed decision-making. It is also essential for managers to track progress, mentor employees for their long-term development, and ensure transparent communication with stakeholders. These age-old principles have stood the test of time and remain applicable across various industries. However, sticking solely to traditional methods can result in inefficiencies, especially when goals are unclear or approaches are unstructured. This brings us to an important question: can the adoption of Scrum principles enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of EHS management? Scrum, with its emphasis on agile methodologies, cross-functional teams, and iterative progress, might offer a structured but flexible framework that could address the shortcomings of conventional management strategies.
