TRSA Hosts HR, Health and Safety Summit
TRSA recently held its annual HR, Health and Safety Summit in Milwaukee. TRSA members in both the human resources and health and safety fields gathered to attend a day of professional development designed to enhance their skills. They also participated in education sessions catering to their individual fields.
The day began with a welcome session from Joyce Marter, mental health thought leader at Joyce Marter Enterprises and author of The Financial Mindset Fix, where she performed a “mental triage” for the workplace. Attendees learned the various benefits of providing a space for positive mental health including increased retention, productivity and morale, and gained practical tools and resources to recognize these challenges reducing accidents, injury and healthcare costs. Attendees also received free copies of the aforementioned book.
After Marter concluded, the summit continued with a series of breakout sessions. For the HR track, the attendees learned about changes in new HR laws for organizations in a session led by Jason Keck, partner at Fisher Phillips. Keck led HR professionals through the most pertinent legal updates for 2024 and best practices to mitigate risk in the workplace. The HR track followed with a session on retaining and developing employees hosted by Katie Cosgrove, partner at Cosgrove Partners. Cosgrove spoke on strategies that operators can implement to retain personnel to compete with generational gaps, threats to culture and much more. Kortney Overzet, vice president of people development and culture at Spindle, also spoke on employee retention in the following breakout session. Overzet shared her perspective on how to leverage recognition programs, reward opportunities, and Work Human, a platform where employees can build up points and redeem them for various perks and experiences. The last session in the HR track focused on attracting top talent as well as retaining them. Lori Stanger, vice president of people and culture at Wildman Benefit Group, shared her strategy for aligning rewards with company values and getting the cost structure right. Stanger also shared some tips on gathering feedback and designing cost-efficient programs that can help your organization gain a competitive edge.
Simultaneously, the safety and health personnel attended their own breakout sessions that began with the topic of instilling safety into a company’s culture with Charlie Edelman, the corporate safety director at Unitex Healthcare Laundry Services Inc., Elmsford, NY. Edelman discussed assessing current safety practices using risk assessments and inspections to mitigate potential risks for your team in the workplace by promoting open communication and empowering your employees to contribute to safety initiatives. Edelman was joined on stage by Colin Giles, the regional safety manager at Unitex. The Unitex team was followed by a panel discussion on chemical safety essentials. After the panel, a team of Cintas’ executives consisting of their Director of Health and Safety, Stephen Jenkins; and their Ergonomics Engineer, Sydney Kelley, engaged with the audience in an interactive session on laundry cart selection and how practicing safe ergonomic movements can enhance productivity and promote happy lives outside of the workplace. The safety and health track finished with Brian Varner, owner of Safety Solutions for Healthcare, who delivered a speech on how to create and use a safety KPI dashboard for your organization.
Both professions reconvened for the final two general sessions. The first centered on AI solutions for production ergonomics. Kriz Mizen, head of loss control at CompScience, spoke on how AI also can support human workers by providing real-time feedback, guidance and assistance, as well as enhancing their skills and capabilities. He shared his insights and best practices on how to leverage AI for production ergonomics, as well as the benefits and challenges of AI implementation. He also showcased a CompScience product that allows AI to look back at security footage and make safety assessments.
In the final session, Samlane Ketevong, the senior director of certification and accreditation at TRSA; and Varner debuted their plan for a new and improved certification for Safety and Health.
The HR, Health and Safety Summit was immediately followed by the Midwest Production Summit the following day. Click here for a recap of the Midwest Production Summit.