It Takes A Team: Employee Engagement Is The Key To Safe Laundry & Route Operations

A successful safety program requires plenty of hazard analysis and data. But achieving excellence in incident prevention takes more. It demands a management commitment to safety that’s consistently communicated to staff as a key priority. What’s more, managers must encourage aemployees to do their part to enhance safety. That was the consensus view among several laundry operators and safety experts we interviewed on this topic.

VISION—INCIDENT-FREE OPERATIONS

Chris Kientzel, safety and production specialist for Alsco Uniforms, St. Louis, describes the essence of incident-prevention initiatives, saying. “There are no secrets to an effective safety program. It’s not banners, slogans, T-shirts, or incentives. The key element will always be employee engagement.”

Dan Getter, manager of safety operations for UniFirst Corp., Wilmington, MA, adds that a successful safety program requires a shift in mindset, starting from the top. “An effective safety program has to be leadership driven,” he says. “Leadership provides the message that provides the vision for it, and they say that this is going to be the standard. With leadership’s support of the program, they would drive it down so that you end up with employee ‘ownership,’ which transitions into engagement at all levels of the organization.” Getter cautions operators on this point, adding that, “The leaders can’t do anything without their people. You need to transition from ‘Yes, that’s something we believe in,’ and move toward, ‘This is who we are.’ And you accomplish that through your people.”

Russell Holt, chief compliance officer for Superior Linen Service, Tulsa, OK, credits his company’s success in both hazard analysis and promoting safety awareness among employees with a 10-year-plus record of having zero incidents serious enough that the company had to report them to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Holt credits this success to an across-the-board commitment to safety. “It was that high level of commitment that helped fuel the remarkable achievements we have accomplished in safety, the results of which are a true testament to the hard work and dedication of both our management team and employees, who have made safety a crucial part of our company culture,” Holt says. “Working together, the management team and the employees have achieved something remarkable. We look forward to continuing our focus on safety to ensure that we maintain a safe work environment for all of our employees.”

Partnering with OSHA on incident prevention has helped Superior Linen, which last year earned its fifth Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) certification. This OSHA program is designed for small-to-midsize companies. Those that meet SHARP’s rigorous requirements for proactive safety policies and employee engagement in incident prevention, earn a two-year exemption from routine OSHA inspections. Thereafter, companies can qualify for a three-year exemption from such inspections.

Another company that’s earned SHARP certification is The Roscoe Co., Chicago. Israel Cartagena, maintenance, fleet and utility team leader, also oversees the company’s safety program. He emphasized the importance of leadership and staff working together to maximize safety in all aspects of the business. The Roscoe Co. has expanded on that idea with its “peer leaders” program. Managers tap experienced employees in different departments to take on added duties related to safety in their areas of the plant. “We have peer leaders, Cartagena says. “These are employees who are outstanding in their work areas. We use them for training and promoting safety activities in their areas.”

Kattie Dibert, safety coordinator for HandCraft Services, Richmond, VA, says her company pursues a broad-based approach on incident prevention. “For our safety program to be effective, there are multiple components that we focus on,” she says “The most important one for us is that our leadership team promotes safety from the top down and provides clear communication on our safety initiatives. Other components of our safety program that make it effective are employee involvement, regular facility audits, ongoing training, and continuous policy and procedure review.”

Stephen Jenkins, director of health and safety for Cintas Corp., Mason, OH, describes the challenge of advancing staff engagement in incident prevention as a two-sided exercise. Management must do its part, but encouraging hourly staff to contribute to the process is equally important. “Leadership engagement is what propels a location’s health and safety efforts,” says Jenkins, whose company has certified 127 facilities through another OSHA safety initiative, the Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). “Workers emulate the health and safety engagement of their leaders. Without engaged leaders, health and safety is at risk of being deprioritized, making the achievement of health and safety excellence difficult, if not impossible.” He further notes that “Every worker being continuously engaged in improving health and safety is essential for an operation to achieve health and safety excellence. Worker engagement enhances all aspects of a health and safety culture.”

As simple as that guidance sounds, for many companies the reality is that safety doesn’t get priority status until an incident or serious near miss occurs. To avoid this scenario, “Communication is key,” says Michelle McNeil, director of safety for the Healthcare Linen Services Group (HLSG), St. Charles, IL. She adds that an effective safety program requires several components, including “diligence, commitment, engagement and consistency.” Too often, companies don’t get serious about safety until an incident forces a change. “Most engagement happens when something happens, “ she says.” The trick is to get that engagement before that happens. I mean, that’s happened over and over again. Something major has happened, and it wakes the facility up.” It comes down to focus and giving safety priority treatment with other operational issues, such as production, McNeil says. “You know your safety is important. It needs to be treated like any other operation. It has to be up there with all of them.”

SHOW THEM YOU CARE

Kientzel says the manner in which managers formulate and implement safety programs is the key to success in incident prevention. Supervisors at all levels must consistently promote safety programs, whether on the route or in the plant as designed primarily to protect—rather than punish—employees. Operators must reiterate this message daily to get employees to buy in to incident prevention. It takes a team effort to get this done, says Kientzel, adding that, “I was told early in my career that ‘People don’t care what you know until they know you care.’ This rings true in every interaction that we have with our staff, and safety is right up there at the top.”

Bottom line? Driving staff engagement so that managers and hourly employees are looking out for their own safety, as well as that of co-workers and the community at large, is essential to preventing incidents.

JACK MORGAN is senior editor of Textile Services. Contact him at 877.770.9274 or jmorgan@trsa.org.