Health And Safety Manager

At Russell Stover, not only do we love chocolate, but we love our jobs! Every day we go to work exhibiting our values of excellence, innovation, entrepreneurship, responsibility, and collaboration. Working at Russell Stover you'll be part of the leading manufacturer of boxed, seasonal, and sugar-free chocolates. For over 100 years, our American-made brands – Russell Stover Chocolates, Whitman's, and Pangburn's – have been crafted with the finest ingredients to bring happiness to generations. Today, we produce over 55 million pounds of chocolate annually, and our legacy brands can be found in 13 company-owned stores and over 9,000 wholesale accounts. Join our team and let's continue making chocolate lovers happy!
A day in the life…
As the Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) Manager, you will play a key role in continuous efforts to reduce employee injuries and improve facility operations. You will ensure compliance with applicable federal, state, and local regulations through effective EHS program development and implementation. You will ensure EHS programs are updated, implemented, maintained, integrated into daily operations, and effective. You will also look over necessary records and make sure they are maintained in accordance with established guidelines.
In this role, you will contribute to the continuous improvement of our Safety Culture, be an active leader and resource to the operating departments, Safety Pillar, Safety Committee, and relevant teams. You will also educate employees on safety principles and research, communicate, and partner with operations for the resolution of safety inquiries and help identify and correct hazardous workplace conditions. You will provide safety accounting and loss intelligence to the facility not limited to compliance, risk, and accidents. As the EHS Manager, you will ensure employees receive medical treatment as appropriate and manage Workers' Compensation Claims. You will be directly reporting to the Plant Manager with a dotted line to the Senior Manager of Environment, Health, & Safety.
What you will be doing…
Program Management, Continuous Improvement, Auditing, KPIs

• Implement, review, and revise internal policies and practices to ensure they are current and effective
• Lead local safety pillar team implementing and driving continuous improvement initiatives
• Conduct hazard, risk, and ergonomic assessments and develop new or, where necessary, amend policies and procedures
• Prepare and deliver training materials and programs in support of required regulatory programs.
• Respond to regulatory requests as needed
• Enhance the site capabilities in critical hazard program management, including but not limited to hazardous energy control; fall protection, mobile equipment, and pedestrian interactions; powered industrial trucks; work permitting
• Work jointly with operations and engineering to improve operational efficiencies and reduce regulatory compliance expense
• Calculate risk reduction based on hierarchy of risk, measure real reduction upon implementation of countermeasures
• Track risk assessments and create reports for operating departments demonstrating the risk of specific jobs and tasks within the department
• Analyze incident reports and evaluate injury case studies. Lead injury and incident investigations and evaluations. Track incident metrics and apply findings.
• Workers' compensation claims management, reporting, and transitional duty assignments in accordance with work restrictions
• Oversee and ensure compliance with all OSHA and EPA regulations
• Develop and provide technical and administrative direction on all environment, health and safety policies, and programs applicable to manufacturing
• Assume leadership responsibilities for key kaizen and safety and environment improvement champions at all levels of the organization
• Provides support and assistance to plant management

Training and Development

• Coach and counsel Production Employees, supervisors, and managers on improving the safety of the work area and specific required tasks
• Develop, coordinate, and deliver training
• Lead and develop the Safety Committee to become a team of safety experts within each department
• Responsible for supervising and leading the Health & Safety Supervisor

This position may require working up to 12 hours per day, 7 days a week, including weekends and holidays.
Do you have what it takes?
(Basic Qualifications)

• Must live within area of Abilene Plant or willing to relocate
• Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
• Must be able to stand on hard, wet, slippery surfaces for extended periods of time
• Knowledge of OSHA and EPA regulations and compliance program management
• Excellent leadership, interpersonal communication, organizational, and time management skills
• Flexibility to provide support to all shifts as needed
• Bachelor's degree in Safety, Environment, Engineering, or related discipline or equivalent experience in an EHS role
• Must be able to bend, stoop, climb, reach, and lift
• 5-10 years experience in a manufacturing environment
• Occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds

Do you stand above the rest?
(Preferred Qualifications)

• RCRA hazardous waste compliance and hazardous materials handling experience
• PSM/RMP experience with anhydrous ammonia
• Bilingual in Spanish
• 5 years of experience implementing regulatory compliance in a food manufacturing environment
• Experience implementing OSHA, EPA regulations, NFPA, NIOSH, and ANSI standards

What it's like at the Russell Stover Plants

• Smell. You will enjoy a variety of deliciously sweet aromas and you may end your day smelling like chocolate!
• Activity. Some activities may require standing in one place for long periods, walking around, or climbing stairs/ladders, and routinely lift 50 lbs.
• Safety. Your safety is important to us, so we provide protective gear. We also go through an in-depth Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) training on your first day and continue to share safety tips daily
• Surroundings. You'll be working around different machines – Schubert's, forklifts, electric pallet jacks, and chocolate candy banks/steels.
• Temperature. You will be comfortable year-round with our climate-controlled environment. Our temperatures are consistently around 63°F but could fluctuate depending on your specific role.
• Dress code. Relaxed, with a few rules to follow for food safety, personal safety and in guidance with our good manufacturing practices (GMP). Comfortable, closed-toe shoes are required. Leather, imitation leather, or rubber boots or shoes must be worn in the kitchen and other areas when working around hot liquid/product or hot water.

At Russell Stover Chocolates, we don't just accept difference — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products, and our community. Russell Stover Chocolates is proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.
We provide equal employment opportunities to all people without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, protected medical condition, genetic information, military service, veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by law.
Employment by Russell Stover Chocolates is contingent upon I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification, passing the urinalysis drug screen, education verification, and satisfactory reference and background checks.
Make Happy. Work Happy.