A word from our Managing Director Jacquie Niemiec
My oldest daughter started kindergarten this year, and as she got on the bus her first day of school, I realized that I had no control over her safety while she was at school all day, nor could I watch over her to make sure she was making the right decisions. When she peeked out the bus window and waved goodbye with her great big smile on her face, I realized she was overjoyed to start making decisions for herself and she instinctively knew someone would be concerned about her safety.
Workers should feel the same; they should know they have a safe work environment that allows them to focus on their jobs, be productive and come back home safe at the end of their shift to their families.
I recently was asked what my goals are for EHS Today. Coming from a business perspective, I know the person asking me the question was expecting me to say "increased revenue growth and profit," but I told him it's more than that. My vision for EHS Today includes empowering our readers to become transformational leaders within their organizations and encouraging stronger safety cultures that involve everyone from the C-suite to the worker.
Part of my mission and our mission is about truly listening to our readers to determine what type of content – management articles, how-to articles, articles about enforcement or trends, analysis and statistics – helps them grow into stronger leaders to ensure their workers are safe.
EHS Today is not alone in sharing that message. Multiple manufacturers exhibiting at the recent National Safety Congress shared their vision for helping to build safety culture by listening to customers and determining what's important to them and their workers. Many of these providers of safety equipment operate manufacturing facilities and employ workers whom they strive to keep safe. They seek to maintain strong safety cultures and empowered workforces. Talking to them, I realized that we all are in this together.
For the last 10 years, I have been the EHS Today digital director. I understand the importance of the making sure our content is accessible via print, web, mobile, tablet and social to ensure we provide our readers our content in the way that works best for them. I not only have seen an evolution in how our users consume our content, but in how our readers needs have matured as well. We no longer just report on occupational hazards, provide updates on regulations or print basic how-to articles; we have evolved with our readers and now analyze sophisticated safety management systems, offer advice about leadership and employee engagement, focus on risk management and elimination of risks and embrace the power of leading indicators.
Ten years ago, the No. 1 goal shared by EHS leaders was complying with new and existing OSHA regulations. Based on the 2014 EHS Today Safety Survey, their top priority now is getting employees fully engaged in safety.
It's not just about complying with regulations. It's about helping employees return home safely at the end of their shifts. It's about that feeling I get when I walk through the door at the end of the day and see my little girls and realize we're all safe.
It's about making safety a part of everything we do. It's about family.