EHS Coordinator - Professional Development

Do you know that work environment that overflows with respect and love? That was how I felt from the first day at Pactiv Evergreen. A very quick summary of the first month was as follows: I started the first month listening to people development, with managers mentioning terms like "safety walks" and ended up learning more about safety culture and the Plant's cultural change process in relation to this topic. And then I thought: am I in the clouds? People development, safety culture, diversity, and inclusion, altogether? Yes, I think I'm in the right place!

 So let’s share a bit of the conclusion I reached in this first month of Pactiv Evergreen:

1. There may be affection at work

The human side of the organizational world still exists!I confess that I had lost a little hope in this regard. Sometimes the world of business can be a little cold ... I missed that genuine concern for people, with their development and evolution not only as professionals but as human beings. Sometimes they are simple attitudes, which I observed that exist at Pactiv, such as, greeting each other when arriving at a meeting, wanting to know (really) how the family is doing, the colleague's children... Or having a moment among all managers to talk about the employees' careers, with clear examples (homework very well done by them!) of their performance and behaviour and openness to listen to the opinion of others. Or even the way I was received by the areas that I will serve, with great affection the availability to explain to me about what they do and how I can help.

Small daily gestures solidify the culture of an organization.

2. Wear your safety boots and go to the floor

I found that working as an Environmental, Health and Safety Coordinator in manufacturing is exactly that sentence above. And I never thought I was going to enjoy it so much! Being able to see or even touch the final product is really cool.

Watching the entire industrial process and seeing those giant machines at work is a sight to behold! In human resources, this ends up being a little bit in the imagination since we are talking about people and relationships. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the HR world, but living in that other world is really opening my mind and expanding my knowledge.

Even working in human resources, I always insisted on the idea that I had to be close to the production, not only to understand well about it but physically close, to actually sit there. I really bothered my old team to sit next to people in the area. And here at Pactiv, I could see that it is no different. Being present, sharing ideas and sitting on the side make all the difference.

3. Environmental Health and Safety

Being EHS Coordinator means close connection with people. A health and safety coordinator is a strategic position that works in a business partnership with the human resources department and the leadership team. It is a relationship of trust, humility, and sometimes it is necessary to have challenging conversations. It is a servant position in which employee’s lives matter (e.g. physical health, mental health, and well-being).

For me, what is still being a process of adapting to this new role is the fact that I do not necessarily have a clear delivery of numbers when I arrive at the end of the day. As much as my day-to-day here is really dynamic, I don't have that feeling of "today I delivered X vacancies or my team delivered X percentage". Anyway, everything is an adaptation process.

For me, Pactiv's culture proved to be exactly that: human beings rediscovering themselves, reinventing themselves, learning and learning... And everyone is looking for the same horizon: become a better person, for themselves and for others.