Entire staff takes ownership of safety
When employees at the Capital Regional District (CRD) in British Columbia found a toxic chemical spill at a landfill, they immediately cordoned off the area. They used radios to communicate to all 15 employees on site about the spill and held a meeting to determine the appropriate course of action.
They tested the chemical for flammability, toxicity and pH levels and made the decision to cover it in Floor-Dry to be absorbed. They shoveled the spill into a barrel for disposal, conducted the appropriate paper work and held a followup meeting to debrief staff on the incident.
Fortunately, this was only a mock chemical spill, but had it been real — and some unsuspecting employees, including the area manager, thought it was — employees at CRD would have known exactly what to do.
It’s preparedness activities like this that landed CRD the national best overall award at the North American Occupational Health and Safety (NAOSH) week in May, 2010.
“We have a very active safety community and it’s nice to have that recognized,” said Chris Nielson, senior manager of human resources at CRD. “But for us, the most important thing is staff knows when they come to work, they go home safe at night.”
The CRD is the regional government for the 13 municipalities and three electoral areas that are located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The urban centre of CRD is Victoria, which is where the organization is headquartered, but there are about 550 full-time equivalent employees across the region, said Nielson.
CRD provides services that municipalities could not typically provide for themselves such as water supply, solid waste management and emergency 911 services.
A wide range of health and safety activities makes CRD particularly noteworthy. During NAOSH week alone, which coincided with the district’s Water Week and Emergency Preparedness Week, CRD delivered more than 95 health and safety activities. While there is a small budget for these special events, regular safety training and workshops come out of the operating budgets for each area, said Nielson.
Different departments have access to different training, depending on the nature of the work, but there is never a shortage of opportunities. Employees can participate in a variety of safety training courses such as fire suppression, fork lift, injury prevention, working alone, safe escape and dangerous animal avoidance. They can also take part in health and wellness activities such as managing stress through meditation, office yoga and heart health lunch ‘n learns.
“Some areas are more frequent than others, but anytime there are environmental changes, like starting a new project, we offer safety programs,” said Nielson.
New employees are given a half day workshop where one of the district’s first aid attendants speaks about CRD’s commitment to safety and safety programming. In addition, safety orientation is provided in the first week of employment.
Every year, employees are engaged in a collision avoidance driving workshop where they bring their vehicles — whether it be a CRD smart car, back hoe, dump truck or personal vehicle — to a speedway and learn how to deal with difficult driving scenarios. CRD partners with Driving Unlimited in Pitt Meadows, B.C., to teach staff proper driving techniques to avoid “accidents that will happen on the road,” said Nielson.
“You’re put through slalom courses, they make you drive frontwards and backwards and they make you drive directly at an instructor who at the last minute points left or right to tell you where to turn,” said Nielson. “But they show you all this before hand and it’s very controlled.”
Since the program was launched in 2003, almost 600 employees have completed the collision avoidance training.
Another popular activity is the confined spaces workshop, which is offered a few times per year. Since the district is responsible for sewage treatment in the region, there are a number of treatment plants with lots of wet wells and tunneling, which make for many confined spaces. The training considers the worst case scenario: An employee working in an underground chamber fell and got stuck and was not responding to calls.
The staff learns how to enter the confined space, perform first aid, strap the dummy to the spine board and lift him out of the confined space.
All this training seems to be paying off since CRD does much better than the average for its industry in B.C. with about 25 to 30 lost-time incidents per year, said Nielson, and it is also in a merit position with WorkSafeBC.
The commitment to health and safety has been a strong part of the district’s culture since Nielson started working there in 1996. The district goes by the saying “Safety is everyone’s business,” and this rings true within the organization, said Nielson.
“Safety is owned by everybody,” he said. “There’s great support from the board of directors and the managers, but our staff really take ownership of their safety and the safety of others.”
Unsafe practices are simply not tolerated and employees won’t put anything in place that might run the risk of being unsafe because “that’s not how we were brought up; it’s not what we are,” said Nielson.
The next step for safety at CRD is to complete the certificate of recognition program through the B.C. Municipal Safety Association.
The program consists of a challenging auditing process that goes beyond traditional health and safety regulations. An organization must receive an overall score of 80 per cent to pass.
CRD’s other major focus for this year is to try to collaborate more with other groups in the area.
“We’re trying to figure out how we can start to outreach now to some of our municipal partners as well as some other groups,” said Nielson. “We want to build a community of safety.”
They tested the chemical for flammability, toxicity and pH levels and made the decision to cover it in Floor-Dry to be absorbed. They shoveled the spill into a barrel for disposal, conducted the appropriate paper work and held a followup meeting to debrief staff on the incident.
Fortunately, this was only a mock chemical spill, but had it been real — and some unsuspecting employees, including the area manager, thought it was — employees at CRD would have known exactly what to do.
It’s preparedness activities like this that landed CRD the national best overall award at the North American Occupational Health and Safety (NAOSH) week in May, 2010.
“We have a very active safety community and it’s nice to have that recognized,” said Chris Nielson, senior manager of human resources at CRD. “But for us, the most important thing is staff knows when they come to work, they go home safe at night.”
The CRD is the regional government for the 13 municipalities and three electoral areas that are located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The urban centre of CRD is Victoria, which is where the organization is headquartered, but there are about 550 full-time equivalent employees across the region, said Nielson.
CRD provides services that municipalities could not typically provide for themselves such as water supply, solid waste management and emergency 911 services.
A wide range of health and safety activities makes CRD particularly noteworthy. During NAOSH week alone, which coincided with the district’s Water Week and Emergency Preparedness Week, CRD delivered more than 95 health and safety activities. While there is a small budget for these special events, regular safety training and workshops come out of the operating budgets for each area, said Nielson.
Different departments have access to different training, depending on the nature of the work, but there is never a shortage of opportunities. Employees can participate in a variety of safety training courses such as fire suppression, fork lift, injury prevention, working alone, safe escape and dangerous animal avoidance. They can also take part in health and wellness activities such as managing stress through meditation, office yoga and heart health lunch ‘n learns.
“Some areas are more frequent than others, but anytime there are environmental changes, like starting a new project, we offer safety programs,” said Nielson.
New employees are given a half day workshop where one of the district’s first aid attendants speaks about CRD’s commitment to safety and safety programming. In addition, safety orientation is provided in the first week of employment.
Every year, employees are engaged in a collision avoidance driving workshop where they bring their vehicles — whether it be a CRD smart car, back hoe, dump truck or personal vehicle — to a speedway and learn how to deal with difficult driving scenarios. CRD partners with Driving Unlimited in Pitt Meadows, B.C., to teach staff proper driving techniques to avoid “accidents that will happen on the road,” said Nielson.
“You’re put through slalom courses, they make you drive frontwards and backwards and they make you drive directly at an instructor who at the last minute points left or right to tell you where to turn,” said Nielson. “But they show you all this before hand and it’s very controlled.”
Since the program was launched in 2003, almost 600 employees have completed the collision avoidance training.
Another popular activity is the confined spaces workshop, which is offered a few times per year. Since the district is responsible for sewage treatment in the region, there are a number of treatment plants with lots of wet wells and tunneling, which make for many confined spaces. The training considers the worst case scenario: An employee working in an underground chamber fell and got stuck and was not responding to calls.
The staff learns how to enter the confined space, perform first aid, strap the dummy to the spine board and lift him out of the confined space.
All this training seems to be paying off since CRD does much better than the average for its industry in B.C. with about 25 to 30 lost-time incidents per year, said Nielson, and it is also in a merit position with WorkSafeBC.
The commitment to health and safety has been a strong part of the district’s culture since Nielson started working there in 1996. The district goes by the saying “Safety is everyone’s business,” and this rings true within the organization, said Nielson.
“Safety is owned by everybody,” he said. “There’s great support from the board of directors and the managers, but our staff really take ownership of their safety and the safety of others.”
Unsafe practices are simply not tolerated and employees won’t put anything in place that might run the risk of being unsafe because “that’s not how we were brought up; it’s not what we are,” said Nielson.
The next step for safety at CRD is to complete the certificate of recognition program through the B.C. Municipal Safety Association.
The program consists of a challenging auditing process that goes beyond traditional health and safety regulations. An organization must receive an overall score of 80 per cent to pass.
CRD’s other major focus for this year is to try to collaborate more with other groups in the area.
“We’re trying to figure out how we can start to outreach now to some of our municipal partners as well as some other groups,” said Nielson. “We want to build a community of safety.”
