3 minute read
Safety Means Success
Safety Means Success
Labor and management working together towards a culture of safety
At the 75th annual SMACNA Convention in October 2018, a panel of three safety experts discussed effective strategies to improve workplace health and safety along with organization performance during the session, “Elevating Your Safety Program to a Safety Culture.”
One of the panelists, Donovan Seeber, vice-president of Corporate Safety at ACCO Engineered Systems, talked about how having a company-wide safety vision with safety as a core value is an essential ingredient for success. But what does having a safety culture really mean?
“To begin, there is a big difference between having a safety program and a safety culture,” says SMACNA’s Director of Market Sectors & Safety, Michael McCullion. “A safety program is great, but often it’s just a binder up on a shelf collecting dust,” he says. “It will cover things like all the requirements for OSHA compliance, written programs, getting all the personal protective equipment, and logistics.”
He explains that a safety program will have management or a safety director responsible for implementation, but in a safety culture everyone is responsible. “It’s getting people to believe in themselves and what’s important to them personally,” McCullion says. “It establishes an environment where they can feel comfortable reminding others to be safe.”
That means safety must be a core value of the business. McCullion advises taking a three-pronged approach from the organizational standpoint when promoting a safety culture mandate: productivity, quality, and safety. “What does your company believe in?” he asks. “What’s important when it comes to these three criteria?”
McCullion uses the example of a company going over its welding process. “Quality: you want a good weld, one that is strong. Productivity: you want to get x-number of welds done in a day. Safety: you don’t want anyone to get hurt. The answer is to combine the safety manual with the operations manual so that safety becomes a part of how things are done, not a separate entity. It simply becomes what we do, how we all do our jobs; it’s in our thought patterns.”
At SMART Local 105 in Glendora, California, Business Representative Al Hernandez knows that the establishment of a safety culture means success, not only for the workers, but for the company itself.
“One of the contractors in our Local 105 received a national safety award in 2018,” Hernandez says. “That’s because Xcel Mechanical Systems Inc. approaches safety by getting management on board first, and a big part of management buyin has to mean saving money.”
For example, having a low experience modification rate (EMR) can have a strong impact on a business. Lower EMR mean less risk assessment, and that means lower worker compensation insurance premiums.
“These days, some contracts won’t be awarded if the company’s EMR is too high,” Hernandez says. “Sometimes a company won’t even be allowed to bid on a project if that is the case.”
Xcel requires the general foreman or foreman to have OSHA 30 certification. After that, all other journeypersons, apprentices included, must have at minimum OSHA 10 to work on any of the company’s projects.
Hernandez notes that this approach benefits everyone on the job with a stronger safety culture for the employees and a lower EMR for management’s bottom line.
“One safety culture does not fit all,” says Randy Krocka, administrator for the Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute Trust (SMOHIT). “A safety culture for a large mechanical contractor isn’t going to work for a small company with, let’s say, twelve or fewer employees,” he says. “However, no matter the size, we’re seeing more and more that labor and management are finding ways to get on the same track when it comes to making safety part of doing business.”
SMOHIT holds a yearly Safety Champions Conference (February 24-26, 2019) where it tries to engage both labor and management in the process of creating and promoting an industrywide safety culture. “We have break-out sessions, purposefully mixing things up so we have a balance of management, labor, and safety professionals at the same table working through what they want their safety culture to look like in the future,” Krocka says.
Hernandez agrees that this joint approach to safety is becoming the norm. “I got into the trade in 1986,” he says. “Of course, there was safety in place already—ear plugs, eye protections, and hard hats. You weren’t even cited if you took off your safety glasses, but now you could end up going home for the day.”
This buy-in to a safety culture is happening at the local union level, as well. “In our apprenticeship program, one of the first things you must do is get your OSHA 10 card,” Hernandez explains.
“Also, right now there’s a lot of work around here in the petroleum industry, and anyone who wants to work in the refineries must have OSHA training. So our local JATC just passed a policy to reimburse the cost of taking the OSHA classes if a member completes and passes them. This helps the member get the work, and it benefits the contractor who then doesn’t have to cover the cost.”
Getting a safety culture into place won’t happen overnight. It takes time to cultivate a company’s business and personal values and then find ways to implement them. But this transition in the approach to safety is definitely happening as labor and management continue to work toward their common goals. ▪
From her desk in Calgary, AB, Canada, Deb Smith writes for trade and business publications across North America, specializing in profiles and stories within the hospitality, food service, mining, recreation, and construction industries.
