How to Improve Tier 2 Reporting and Curb EHS Turnover

For many EHS teams, compliance reporting for EPCRA, RCRA and other program areas usually involves team members who understand the requirements for filing accurate Tier 2 reports. Each person plays a vital role in the process. Unfortunately, for EHS teams in various industries, staff turnover can hamper reporting, let alone efforts to improve Tier 2 reporting processes themselves. 

Given the findings of a 2019 EHS Talent Report that showed turnover on EHS teams to be as high as 20% at the time, it’s safe to say the rate is still close to that now — if not higher. But it’s no reason to let employee movement derail your Tier 2 reporting outcomes. 

By using technology to standardize compliance data management and reporting, organizations can keep turnover from affecting the consistency and accuracy of their compliance process. The right EHS management software can help EHS teams sustain processes and still make sure Tier 2 reports are accurately compiled, formatted, submitted on time, and effectively recorded and retained. 

3 Ways to Overcome Turnover by Automating Tier 2 Reporting

There are several ways organizations can keep turnover on their EHS team from negatively impacting Tier 2 reporting. With digitization and automation as the foundation, Encamp Compliance Program Managers Madison Martin and Jennifer Mester identified three aspects of the reporting process that EHS leaders should proactively prioritize:

• • Maintaining Consistent and Accurate Data 
  • Automating Compliance for Tier 2 Reporting 
  • Centralizing Audit-Ready Documentation

In particular, these aspects address key EHS team members who have control of the entire process with the compliance knowledge stored in their brain and spreadsheets and formulas saved on their computer. They understand the details of reporting like no one else does. Should anyone ever leave, retire, or be redirected to other compliance priorities, however, the rest of the team must be able to operate with the same institutional knowledge and ensure continuity for reporting tasks.

This business case for centralized data processing demonstrates how Encamp’s EHS management software helps teams achieve data accuracy, reporting consistency, and a centralized document repository to combat turnover, and actually improve Tier 2 reporting overall.

Maintaining Consistent and Accurate Data

This is where standardizing data management and reporting processes comes in. The aim is to establish a strong foundation for compliance data and create a continuous data collection process, especially at the facility level. 

“Consistent data, even if someone leaves, is the most critical thing. If a certain person has been doing Tier 2 reporting, or any other (type of) environmental reporting, that person may have their own system for gathering and storing information, which may not make sense to the next person,” said Jennifer Mester.

Begin by pulling in a canonical set of corporate, facility, and personnel information to implement the foundation for compliance data. Then, after organizing the data in one place, identify the different channels data comes from (such as each facility) to establish data collection on a continuous basis for all relevant compliance and Tier 2 reporting information.

To ensure both the consistency and accuracy of the collected data, EHS teams and all stakeholders get a single point of visibility and control for corporate, facility, and contact data for every site being managed. Along with standardizing the data collection process, teams are able to monitor information across all sites in real time — ensuring that data is handled and validated consistently, regardless of who’s involved in the process. This is yet another step teams can take to improve Tier 2 reporting.

Automating Compliance for Tier 2 Reporting 

With EHS management software, EHS teams automate the reporting process for report submissions, processing mailers, and billing in accordance with various federal, state, and local regulatory requirements — all in one place. Such automation enables teams to standardize reporting and make the process repeatable year after year for all compliance and reporting stakeholders.

“Encamp pushes out reports the same way each year,” said Madison Martin. “So even if employees change, the report formats are consistent from year to year.” She also points out that EHS teams can utilize the Encamp platform to maintain user credentials for state and other reporting portals. As Martin noted, “Credentials are usually the first things that get lost when an employee leaves.” 

More importantly in the face of employee turnover at facilities, automating regulatory updates and notifications helps to meet a facility’s exact Tier 2 reporting requirements and ensures continuous compliance. EHS teams are able to use rule-based triggers to automatically catch regulatory updates or changes, and then automatically integrate any applicable changes in the platform’s compliance engine.  

To improve Tier 2 reporting and ensure compliance, automated notifications can help EHS teams eliminate almost 100% of reporting errors before they occur. Teams also reduce the number of facilities at risk of non-compliance by nearly the same percentage. Moreover, notifications have helped reduce the time to complete and file compliance reports by as much as 90% for some of Encamp’s fast-growth customers.

Centralizing Audit-Ready Documentation

Archiving past reports and associated documents is a function often overlooked by many EHS teams, which can be problematic in the midst of turnover. “The document retention aspect is really important,” Mester said. “It is not uncommon for a long-time employee to leave, and then no one can find critical records.” 

As a platform that simplifies environmental compliance data management, Encamp provides a single repository in which to store prior reports for future reference, including all data associated with those reports. Also by laying the foundation for an auditable and continuous environmental compliance program, and despite the employee turnover that occurs on many EHS teams, ensuring accuracy and mitigating risk across the entire data management and Tier 2 reporting process. 

How Encamp Can Help

With Encamp’s EHS management software for Tier 2 reporting, businesses and their EHS teams have a robust system that eliminates the discrepancies, wasted time, and potential errors from different people taking over data collection and reporting roles. Teams realize savings from reducing switching costs and lost time due to employee turnover. 

Teams also mitigate bad habit formation and lay the foundation for a department built on compliance. Instead of relying on an employee who is less familiar with Tier 2 reporting requirements to file a report — and to potentially train someone else improperly — Encamp lets you trust that reports are consistently compiled and submitted in a compliant manner.

Let us show you how Encamp helps your EHS team maintain accurate and consistent environmental compliance data and reporting despite employee turnover

Transforming the way enterprises stay in compliance 

Encamp is on a mission to create a world where good for business can equal good for the environment. We help enterprises transform compliance programs and human processes into a technology-driven system that lays the foundation for accurate and ongoing environmental compliance through a blended method of intelligent high-tech solutions and high-touch expert support.