Manitoba NAOSH Week

2016

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WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, MAY 1, 2015 winnipegfreepress.com Preventing loss, protecting people since 1964 www.safetyservicesmanitoba.ca 204.949.1085 OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY TRAINING & CONSULTING Top left: Manitoba co-chairs of NAOSH Week, Laura La Palme and Mike Gordon (Photo by Darcy Finley). A safety fashion show at Bison Transport, and safety demonstrations at Red River College and Bison Transport. Photos courtesy of Red River College and Bison Transport 2015 MANITOBA NAOSH AWARD RECIPIENTS BEST OVERALL Valeant Pharmaceuticals MOST INNOVATIVE Black Cat Blades BEST REPRESENTATION OF A THEME Red River College BEST COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Triple E RV BEST NEW ENTRY Costco, St. James Location INDUSTRY LEADER Barkman Concrete BEST COMMITTEE INVOLVEMENT Bison Transport JUDGES' CHOICE Pollard Banknote Awards Wise MANITOBA COMPANIES EMBRACE NAOSH WEEK ACTIVITIES By Pat Rediger TO THE Nobody should be silent on the issue of workplace safety — that is, unless you're taking part in a spe- cial kind of awareness event. During 2015 North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week, Barkman Concrete pro- duced silent movies to promote safety in its Stein- bach and Winnipeg offices. Other activities includ- ed trivia, timed challenges to test employees' safety knowledge, fire drills and a poster contest for chil- dren to encourage safety in the home. A barbecue was hosted by the Joint Health and Safety Commit- tee in each facility and there were prizes to be won throughout the day. B arkman received the Industry Leader award at the 2015 Mani- toba NAOSH Awards, which recognize workplaces for their safe- ty and prevention efforts during NAOSH Week. "NAOSH Week is an excellent tool for reinforcing existing safety poli- cies and for raising awareness of the importance of safety in the work- place and at home," says Barkman safety coordinator Brenda O'Neil. "We all become complacent in our jobs and lives, and NAOSH Week reminds employees of the importance of safety and their roles in preventing in- cidents both in their work and non-work environments." During NAOSH Week in 2016, Barkman has another exciting batch of activities planned, including an indoor golf challenge that incorporates skill-testing questions, a silent auction and safety puzzles. Black Cat Blades in Selkirk was another winner in 2015, earning the Most Innovative award. Health and safety coordinator Doug Eames says the company had a week-long series of events and activities that covered three shifts. These included a kick-off barbecue, a forklift chal- lenge, lunch-and-learn classes featuring topics such as healthy eating and ergonomics and events that included employees' families, such as creating an emergency exit plan for their homes. The company also created a safety poker game in which employees answered safety-related questions, earning a card for each correct answer. "We will carry forward events from the previous year, such as the forklift challenge and safety poker," Eames says. "We'll be adding a safety Jeopardy! round, a safety shootout, and a survivor obstacle course for the frontline supervisors and managers. The theme has also changed to 'Health and Safety: A Mind Engaging Tool.' " Eames adds that NAOSH Week is a great opportunity to reinforce important messages. "Habits follow with everything you do and a safe habit keeps your co-workers and family safe." Red River College (RRC) won the 2015 award for Best Representa- tion of a Theme. RRC safety and training coordinator Kerilyn Zielinski says initiatives included a celebration barbecue, information displays and demonstrations by SAFE Work on Wheels and Capital Safety, which showed instructors and students from the construction trades the ef- fectiveness of fall protection, eye protection and more. One unique initiative was a Safety Sleuth Search and Find Contest, in which questions were posted in a daily news email that goes out to all staff. "A different safe work procedure was featured each day of NAOSH Week. To find the answers and submit them, the participants visited the RRC safe work procedure database located on the website. The winners had to correctly answer the daily questions as well as a bonus ques- tion," Zielinski says. "The purpose of the contest was to raise awareness about the college's safe work procedure database and the procedures that could be found within it." This year, NAOSH Week will be even bigger. RRC plans to combine its barbecue and information displays into a new event called the Red River Safety Ex, and it's planning a Safety Den – a version of CBC's Drag- ons' Den, but with a safety and health spin. "We are asking staff and students to 'step into the den' to pitch their ideas of how to enhance safety and health at the college. The dragons – or judges – are leaders from across the college," Zielinski explains. Bison Transport, which was recognized with a 2015 NAOSH award for Best Committee Involvement, lives by the safety motto, "It's always about how a driver drives the next mile." "It's a critical thought process that the driver has to contemplate, and our drivers have the privileged right to decide. They are professional drivers and we give them the ability to make a professional decision," says Bison executive chairman and CEO Don Streuber. "If they believe it's unsafe to proceed for the next mile, they should not do so. When they need to make a judgment as to how to treat the next mile, some of the factors are road conditions, vehicle conditions and driver conditions — whether they're tired or not. All of this has re- sulted in a dramatically lower number of accidents." Bison Transport employs 26,000 people and the company makes an effort to ensure that each and every one of those employees puts safety at the forefront. "We have an orientation on hire that happens and we offer profes- sional development several times a year, which includes a classroom computer lab and access to a full-motion driving simulator that we've created," Streuber says. "We have a variety of courses, such as changing driving conditions, preparing for winter driving. Others are probably more defined by driver behaviour such as speeding, etc., and we use pre- dictive analytics and data captured from our equipment to help design a training program specific for drivers' weakness and help them improve." "NAOSH WEEK IS AN EXCELLENT TOOL FOR REINFORCING EXISTING SAFETY POLICIES AND FOR RAISING AWARENESS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE AND AT HOME." S U P P L E M E N T T O T H E W I N N I P E G F R E E P R E S S , A P R I L 2 8 , 2 0 1 6

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