Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.
Issue link: https://digital.thesafetymag.com/i/1164813
15 2019 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER regional offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto. The company has 2,500 employees. Executives and senior management members make the effort to be pres- ent on Modern Niagara work sites. At a minimum of once per month, they perform documented site inspections. "As the business evolves, it's impor- tant that the field workers see that the executives come out and make sure they understand what's going on and understand what the craft is and what the hardships are on the job site," says Oliver. "They can emphasize with them and support them." Once an inspection is completed, either by senior management, middle management, supervisors or health and safety worker reps, any hazards or concerns identified are given a risk rank- ing. Each item identified is assigned to a particular person or group for rec- tification with an expected close-out date. All observations and hazards on each project are logged into the com- pany's health and safety management system. iPads and smartphones have been provided to all field teams, which Building and Construction Borger Group of Companies GOLD SILVER SILVER Plan Group MODERN NIAGARA is an "open source" to its partners, subcontractors and even competitors. "We don't use our safety program as a competitive advantage at the expense of any worker's health and safety — not our workers or anybody else's," says Erin Oliver, vice-president, employee health and safety. "Our competitor's workforce today might become our own tomorrow. We recognize there's a fluidity to the workforce." If the Modern Niagara safety team sees anything that doesn't meet it's "strict and stringent" safety standards, it does not hesi- tate to have frank discussions with sub-contractors. "We will also notify the executive what we've found and what we've actioned and made adjustments to," says Jim Warner, executive vice-pres- ident. "The bottom line is we are all accountable on it and we will fail if we don't collaborate and succeed together." Modern Niagara is a mechanical, electrical, services and controls con- tractor headquartered in Ottawa with allows for easy digitization of inspec- tions, creating real-time data that can be shared and accessed at any time. Data collected from all inspections generates more than 15 key grouping metrics that graph trends statistically over a period of time. The trends can also be segregated by project, supervi- sor, division, trade and much more. This allows the safety department in conjunction with management teams to develop comprehensive strategies to tackle the concerns that arise, Oliver says. One avenue Modern Niagara uses to engage workers in safety is the Stand Up Moment, a program premised on the concept of "See something, say something." Employees are encour- aged to identify hazardous conditions on site or report new ideas, innova- tions, tools, equipment or methods. "I had a foreman email me at 1 o'clock in the morning about a new type of hard hat that's coming out with cranial protection built in… That's a Stand Up Moment. And we are actu- ally going to look at those hard hats to see if they are worth the investment because head injuries are a phenom- enon of construction," Oliver says. Every day at Modern Niagara, work crews are given a Plan of Day card, which prompts them to perform an inspection of their work area, define their daily tasks, determine applicable hazards, record their concerns and explain how they will be mitigated. Signatures are required prior to start- ing work, as well as initials after each break in work. Modern Niagara also has a full library of high-level job hazard assess- ments (JHA) for the majority of the tasks that its employees perform, which are available via iPad and smart- phone. This means that if a supervisor creates a JHA for a particular task in Vancouver, a supervisor in Ottawa can peruse the library for that JHA. Also available on iPads and smart- phones is an innovative "playbook" that includes video clips on the proper execution of various tasks. With the touch of a button, a supervisor can access the video as well as a step- by-step, hands-on guide to properly completing a task. Something that is a bit unique at Modern Niagara is that the safety depar tment is included in the estimation phase of a new project. Safety specialists are often consulted about specific work tasks and the issues the estimating teams see from the project tender. "There is a cost to safety and to doing it correctly… There are times we actually lose a job because we have compensated for what's required on a job where someone else hasn't," says Warner. "Those are the jobs we don't want anyway." for specific jobs. The matrix identi- fies what training has to be done the first week, first month and so on. The training may include confined space, respiratory protection and chemical handling, for example. Staff members at operational facili- ties must receive at least 12 hours of training each year, while corporate administrative staff members must log six hours. But these minimums are exceeded every year, says Plener. In 2018, staff in operational facili- ties averaged 23.29 hours per person. Training is a leading key performance indicator within OCWA and is tracked and formally reported monthly across the agency and at the board of direc- tors' meetings. "That is something that, in an organization, really shows commit- ment because training takes time, but it also recognizes that training is really important — making sure that people are competent to do the tasks they are doing," says Plener. OCWA's Speak Up for Safety is an engagement initiative that asks work- ers to answer the question, "How do you ensure that you and your col- leagues work safely every day?" Each week, one answer is featured in the company newsletter. "It's very simple, but it gets workers to participate, to engage, tell us what they think and how they are doing the work safely," Plener says. In 2016, OCWA adopted a new safety management system, which has led to significant performance improvements. Lost-time incident rates have improved by 81 per cent and recordable incident rates have improved by 63 per cent. The new system has also allowed the agency to be more agile, quickly adapt to change and be less siloed. "Whenever we've had a significant incident, our people have acted very quickly in order to make sure that those that need to be informed are informed and all the processes we have in place are followed, so that whether it happens in the north or Superheroes east or wherever, everybody who needs to know knows very, very quickly," Plener says. "That way, we are able to look at it and we can address any actions that need to be done, whether it's local only or from the OCWA-wide standpoint." The executive management team at OCWA regularly conducts safety site tours. They listen to staff, ask them pointed questions about health and safety and solicit recommendations for what they can do to better support the workforce — and workers really appreciate these visits. "You have the senior leadership going out into the operations to see what's actually going on out there as opposed to just reading numbers or something that was sent into them, but primarily to really engage with workers and understand their thoughts on health and safety," says Plener. "[Our staff] was really in awe that the CEO was taking time out of his busy schedule to go out and talk to them about safety."