Malcolm Staves is the global vice president of health and safety at L’Oréal, a multinational giant in the beauty and cosmetics industry. Since joining the company about 16 years ago, Staves has worked to improve corporate safety culture not just at L’Oréal, but in the world at large.
L’Oréal has around 88,000 employees, and its global footprint includes manufacturing, distribution, research, and administrative sites, as well as retail stores. Based in Paris, Staves is responsible for the development and deployment of the group’s health and safety strategies, objectives, and management system. He also oversees a worldwide network of EHS professionals.
Staves began his EHS career at the European arm of a manufacturer in the mid-’90s. He has since made several major achievements at L’Oréal. In 2016, the company introduced its Safe@Work-Safe@Home initiative, which aims to share its health and safety culture with employees, their families, local communities, and other companies. In 2020, his team also won the RoSPA Health & Safety “Corporate Team of the Year” award.
Staves is a firm believer in exchanging ideas and inspiring safety. He was one of the first board members of the One Percent Safer Movement, and since 2008, he has been instrumental in developing the Leadership and Safety Culture program for global executives hosted by CEDEP in France. Staves was also honored to do a TEDx talk in 2022.
To learn more about Staves and his take on industry issues, please read the Faces of EHS interview below:
Q: How did you get your start in the field?
It really came by accident. As a chemical engineer, I have worked in industries like construction, steel, and heavy chemicals, primarily in process design and production management. I was headhunted by an environmental consultant. I took a chance and “jumped ship.” I worked on several subjects, and after some years, I went to my number one client taking on a European role supporting our sites in environmental areas. After I had taken our first site to the Environmental Management Standard (ISO 14001), I was asked to take on the health and safety role. This was in 1996, and the rest is history.
Q. Who has been your biggest influence in the industry?
Wow, that’s a tough question as there is no one such person. My external network of peers has always had a big influence, as has my internal network. If I had to choose, it would be between two people.
One was a person called Alain Fournol. He worked with me at Pechiney and Alcan and helped me develop our approaches to Visible Felt Leadership—this approach has revolutionized not only the companies I have worked for but other companies as well. It simply took the concepts of people-based safety and applied them to line management at all levels.
The other person, Mike Burgess, was working for DuPont Service (now DSS+) in the late ’90s, and he introduced me to the Bradley Curve, the concept of health and safety culture and driving towards interdependence. I now use an evolved version of this at L’Oréal, and it is at the heart of our global health and safety culture transformation strategy for all sites.
Q: What’s your best mistake, and what did you learn from it?
Buying a health and safety program from a consultant and taking it off the shelf. The program failed miserably after a couple of years. I learned the hard way that some consultants only want to sell their product and they don’t care if it’s not right for the company they are selling it to. They have to sell their product. I learned that developing something in-house is more powerful because there is ownership and it’s adapted to the company culture.
Since this experience, I have not purchased an off-the-shelf program in any of the companies I have worked for. I have worked with consultants to tailor-make programs instead. Our MESUR Visible Felt Leadership program at L’Oréal is an example.
Q: What are some of the biggest EHS issues at your organization?
Our biggest current challenges are in three main areas:
- Finding time on the shop floor for managers and EHS professionals to focus on health and safety—everyone is very, very busy, and it appears even more so this side of COVID.
- Talent management—both attracting and keeping talent (new as well as experienced).
- Upskilling of EHS professionals so they are “future fit.”
I don’t think these challenges are unique to L’Oreal.
Q: What’s your favorite and least favorite part about working in the industry? Would you change anything?
Nothing. I just love working in this industry and a profession that truly does make a difference by putting the health and safety of our employees and visitors at the heart and center of what we do. For me, it doesn’t get any better.
Q: What are your thoughts on safety culture? How can company leaders make safety a value within their organization?
Two different questions, yet they are linked! All companies have a safety culture, whether a good or a bad one! It’s important to know where you, your sites, and the company are on their culture journey. Once you know this, you are ready to start to develop the culture.
Cultural transformation is a journey, and it needs a strategy or roadmap. Most companies do not have this for health and safety, which I believe, based on experience, is a mistake. They think that designing programs or buying them will create culture.
At L’Oréal, we have a concept of “the right tool at the right time” depending on where you are in your cultural journey. If you get this right, by design, through integrating Visible Felt Leadership, employee involvement, and setting the right priorities, you will evolve the safety culture and all people will see safety as a value.
It’s also important to change the conversation and approach from trying to “make” people do something (or make safety a value) to taking them on a journey so that it becomes part of their DNA. Developing a safety culture where all see safety as a value is a “long game,” not a “short game.” It needs a strategy with a destination.
Q: What safety concerns or issues do you think need more prioritization in EHS programs?
High-risk management—for example, major fires and when things go bang. In today’s busy world, it’s so easy to forget about the catastrophic, low-probability events. They may never happen, but when they do, it could be a disaster for both people and the organization.
These are often the domain of the process safety professionals, and sometimes process safety is not in the occupational health and safety toolkit. For me, this needs to change, as the first priority of a health and safety professional is to ensure that no one dies or has an irreversible injury at work. At L’Oréal, we standardize approaches to high-risk management by using internationally recognized standards for issues like fire and explosion prevention.
Q: What will be the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles on the EHS industry?
It’s already here. It already is having an impact on many organizations, primarily in the environmental areas. The “S” for “social” includes human rights and health and safety. Health and safety (including mental health and other illnesses) are becoming more and more important in the corporate reporting world, which will result in more scrutiny by stakeholders including governments, investors, and rating agencies.
Consequently, there will be more focus on people sustainability within this agenda, and health and safety professionals need to know whether and how they will be impacted and start preparing. At L’Oréal we have already started this, and the work involved is not negligible.
Q: What are you most proud of?
My team.
Q: Do you have any advice for people entering the EHS profession?
Yes. 1) Create your network and share and “steal” with pride, 2) don’t forget your roots and the values you have within yourself, and 3) be curious and invest in yourself and your professional development.
Are you or a colleague an EHS professional interested in being profiled for the Faces of EHS series? Please contact Joe Bebon at JBebon@BLR.com.