Clean ’15: Safety Takes Center Stage

Posted April 19, 2015 at 2:40 pm

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On April 18, the third day of the Clean Show in Atlanta, TRSA focused its educational efforts on safety, with a pair of presentations on the subject, including an address by former OSHA Administrator Edwin G. Foulke Jr. in the Sponsor Education Theater on the Clean Show floor.

Foulke opened with an overview of the top violations that companies are cited for, which include fall protection, hazard communication, lockout/tagout and machine guarding, among the top 10 for fiscal year 2014. He went on to detail ways that employers can strengthen their commitment to safety through having an employee safety committee,  as well as conducting detailed root cause analysis of both accidents and near misses, among others.

Foulke outlined the following ways to keep your company’s safety program fresh and your employees engaged:

  • Assign managers and employees to review policies and procedures
  • Ask for feedback regularly
  • Close the communications loop
  • Continuous improvement keeps your workplace safe
  • Never stop learning
  • Must have practical and operational safety plans with metrics to be successful
     

In the morning, Don Bock, owner, Seabright Safety Solutions, Santa Maria, CA, gave attendees tips for building a culture of safety excellence at their business, and how to get your business recognized under the SHARP and/or VPP programs. Bock drew on his time as Mission Linen Supply’s director of risk and safety, and how he was able to get buy-in from his employees regarding safe practices.

Bock suggested getting a read on the safety climate at your business, and outlined two tests to do so. “If achieving safety excellence and integrating that into the other elements of your business, including productivity, service and quality, is your goal, you probably want to assess where you are today,” Bock said. “Form 33 (an assessment of 58 different attributes relating to safety and health management) and the safety climate survey (a survey developed by Liberty Mutual Insurance) are two good tools to be able to get that done.”

For those interested in getting a gauge on their safety culture, form 33 is available here. To get a copy of the Safety Climate Survey, contact Bock at don.bock@seabrightsafetysolutions.com.

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