Environmental Health & Safety Specialist

For more than 115 years, Ferrara has created sugar confections that enable moments of sweetness, celebration, and connection for candy lovers of all generations. Today, the company is the #1 sugar confectioner in the United States. Ferrara boasts a passionate team of nearly 9,000 employees creating and delivering hundreds of products sold under 20 popular brands like Brach’s®, NERDS®, SweeTARTS®, Laffy Taffy®, and Trolli® to more than 66 million U.S. households annually and popular Dori snacking products under brands such as Dori, Gomets, Pettiz, and Yogurte 100 in Brazil.

Additionally, Jelly Belly, known world-wide for its confections, was acquired in November of 2023.

Itasca, IL

The Environmental, Health and Safety Specialist (EHS) is responsible for maintaining the health and safety of the plant workforce and environment by monitoring and evaluating health and safety conditions; assuring compliance with applicable policies, procedures and governmental standards; and maintenance of the EHS Programs for the site. The primary objective is to ensure a safe and incident-free work environment including methodologies, initiatives and strategies that promote safe operations, safety awareness, training and continuous improvement to eliminate or control unsafe behaviors, environments and hazards.

• In addition to overall input to site environmental, health and safety initiatives, strategies, programs and procedures, responsibilities include:
• Deliver EHS programs to train employees in work site safety practices by promoting and leading to a site culture where Safety is engrained as a core value with all employees
• Drives key effective, sustainable implementation of Corporate and Site EHS initiatives, strategies, programs and procedures, responsibilities via hands on leadership, coaching and teamwork
• Facilitate, train and coach employees from onboarding to OSHA required annual training and other safety related topics to ensure compliance with government mandated training
• Collaborates with employees to identify and implement solutions to safety issues identified in inspections and investigations to eliminate incidents and preventing recurrence
• Effectively coaches and develops supervisors to be effective EHS leaders/coaches
• Reviews incident and injury reporting and analyzes data to identify trends
• Compliance with regulations and Company policies by routinely interacting with employees on the plant floor
• Analyze EHS programs, conditions and behaviors and recommends changes to continuously improve site EHS performance
• Provides key support with all site Environmental policies and procedures
• Leads and ensures thorough investigation of all incidents, in coordination with site leadership
• Fosters/develops a culture where everyone is actively engaged in performing their work in a safe manner and co-workers hold each other accountable to prevent at-risk behaviors
• Oversee regulatory compliance audits/inspections and associated record keeping
• In partnership with HR oversees worker’s compensation claims by working with the insurance company, injured employee and clinics from the opening of the claim and until the claim closes
• Collaborates with other key functions on initiatives including Engineering, HR, Quality, Operations, etc. to deliver on goals and plans.
• Thorough knowledge of basic industrial hygiene and occupational health hazards and regulations
• High attention to detail is needed to maintain awareness of existing and proposed safety codes/regulations and company guidelines plus maintain and analyze appropriate data
• Understanding of fire codes, standards, and regulations
• Awareness of applicable environmental policies, standards, guidelines, regulations, and local requirements (spill containment, facility waste stream & disposal requirements, etc.)
• First Aid, CPR, and AED skills and certification
• Strong computer skills, Microsoft Outlook.

To assist with teamwork and ensure a safe work environment in this 24/7 facility environment, this position requires the Specialist to work occasionally off traditional…