Who Needs an Environmental Hygienist?

Exposure Risk. Even some small operations may be subject to considerable risk, such as laboratories, for example. If you are an academic institution with research facilities, you probably will want to have a full time environmental hygienist on board to manage the risks of students interacting with chemicals.

Interaction with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Having a high frequency of interaction with the EPA is a pretty good indication that you might need an environmental hygienist.

WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS?
According to simplyhired.com, the average salary for an environmental hygienist in the U.S. is $54,000 (they are quick to qualify this number with disclaimers about location, local job markets etc., but for our purposes I think this figure is reasonable), so ask yourself whether hiring a full time environmental hygienist will return that salary plus overhead in value to your shop each year. If you determine not to hire an environmental hygienist because you don’t need a full time resource, where does that leave you? Fortunately, you have options:

Hire an environmental services firm. One of the biggest benefits of hiring an outside firm for completing the environmental tasks is the obvious benefit of not having to add headcount. Additionally, a good environmental services firm will likely have a team of qualified environmental hygienists from whom to choose so you effectively broaden your bench strength without having to pay the added wages. Yet another advantage of an outside firm is its staff is able to see what other companies are doing and you are able to learn from other’s experiences.

The downside of going outside for environmental services is that you may pay more than you save. If you have a considerable amount of environmental work that needs to be done, or if you think you will need an immediate response to an environmental issue, an outside firm is probably not for you.

Deploy a regional environmental hygienist. As previously mentioned, many companies find it useful to deploy an environmental hygienist regionally so that one professional (or even a team) can service multiple locations. One advantage to having regionally deployed resources is that it allows for greater flexibility in resource leveling and helps spread the headcount burden across multiple locations. The downside of such deployment is that it may be tough to equally balance the hygienist’s time across multiple sites, and travel from one site to another can significantly reduce the hygienist’s productive time.

Hire a safety manager who has an environmental hygienist background. This option might be easier than you think. A large portion of the current population of safety professionals consists of degreed environmental hygienists or safety experts that have worked in an organization that has cross-trained them in environmental tasks. Many organizations have a single environmental health and safety function that is expected to deal with the spectrum of needs between environmental hygiene and traditional safety.

Hiring the right safety professional to fit the needs of your operation may seem like a daunting task, but by carefully researching your regulatory requirements, you can make a smart hire who keeps you in compliance, supports your overall business goals – and adds true value to your team.