Importance of Health & Safety Reviews During EHS Due Diligence Projects

Although Health and Safety (H&S) has always been a key focus in environmental, health and safety (EHS) due diligence for TRC’s Transaction Advisory Services (TAS), more recently, clients have asked us to review worker H&S on a more granular level.

This has provided clients with additional information from which a buying decision may be made – which has caught the attention of clients from the top level, including managing partners, legal counsel and operations managers. The recent focus on H&S is a result of new and proposed laws and regulations, higher costs and risks associated with poor H&S performance and the goal of acquiring companies that are socially responsible when it comes to worker safety, no matter the size of an asset or deal.

To provide this level of review, TAS has utilized H&S subject matter experts (SMEs) witihin TRC. By bringing internal SMEs into the EHS due diligence process, we have been able to pose more specific questions and data requests, provide detailed reviews of H&S programs and policies, analyze safety performance metrics and comparing those to industry averages and utilze public databases to review H&S inspections, violations and citations. This review allows us to provide a risk and gap analysis of a target’s worker health and safety program and performance as well as required corrective actions to assure regulatory compliance and to reinforce performance expectations.

As part of this review, we also collaborate with our client’s legal and insurance advisors on H&S issues as it relates to a known or potenital legal matter or worker’s compensation claims experience. In many cases, we have identified red flags, signficiant issues, observations, recomendations and, in some cases, material costs associated with correcting those findings.

This has provided TRC’s TAS team with an opporunity to assist and support our clients post-transaction, and to improve the H&S program and performance, as needed. The type and extent of the post-transaction safety support varies with the specific target need identified during the H&S due diligence.

Some Examples of Post-Transaction Safety Support Include:

• H&S Compliance Assurance Program Development
• Strategic Safety Planning
• Implementation of a Safety Management System
• Safety Performance Improvement Program
• Employee and/or Conractor Training
• Worker Industrial Hygiene Program Development
• Development of Engineering/Operational Controls to Reduce Risk