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/358706
18 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com Gold: Morguard Investments Category: Retail and Services Gold: Vancouver Airport Authority Category: Transportation Off to a flying start T his past year, a new employee safety orientation was launched at the Vancouver Airport Author- ity. The system is a highly interactive computer-based training module. It includes two electronic guides — one for employees and one for managers — to help guide a new hire's fi rst few days and weeks at the company. "The focus is really trying to educate people and raise the bar on hazard recognition and how to report safety issues and really trying to build that culture," says Dan Strand, manager of health and safety. The instructor-led portion of the orientation also got a facelift to make it more interactive and risk assess- ment-based with team and individual exercises and mock scenarios. "There's the theory of sitting at a com- puter but it has to be followed up; it has to be felt by the employee that this really is part of the DNA of the team — this isn't theory, it's actual," says Craig Richmond, president and CEO. The airport authority recently rolled out a new safety and incident management system. It allows for one common platform for report- ing incidents, accidents and hazards, developing action plans and tracking resolutions, says Strand. The 400-employee organization was in need of a system like this due to its sheer size and the wide range of potential hazards. "When you tie it all together, you need something to track it — to track all the things that come up logically through to the decision-makers and people deciding what the next workfl ow is," says Richmond. "And if you identify hazards, you don't want to have it get lost in the vast amount of paperwork." Every year, employees participate in a Foreign Object Debris (FOD) walk. The most recent walk saw 200 volun- teers from the airport and community gathering at 4:30 a.m. to crawl the air- fi eld and aircraft movement areas for garbage and loose debris. When the walk fi rst started about 20 years ago, they would collect truck- loads of trash, but there is progressively less every year, says Richmond. "A little bolt, a plastic bag or a piece of plastic out on the operating surface of the airport or even in the grass that could be blown onto the concrete, that's very dangerous for air- craft engines and it could cause real damage," he says. The airport authority has a wellness program that has been in place for 15 years and has evolved with employee input. The program rewards and incen- tivizes behaviours by giving employees "wellness points" for a variety of dif- ferent activities that they can cash in for up to $210 in gift cards. They can get points for activities such as yoga, boot camp, tai chi or bicycling to work. Last year, nearly every employee signed up for the program and more than one-half received the maximum number of wellness points. SILVER: • Air Canada B eing accountable for the safety of not only 1,400 employees but also millions of tenants, retail vendors, shoppers and offi ce workers calls for a cohesive approach to administering safety policies and procedures. In addition to its own real estate assets worth $13 billion, Morguard Investments in Mississauga, Ont., manages 53 million square feet of commercial space for malls, offi ce buildings and other businesses across Canada, as well as 14,000 multi-unit residential suites. Such diversity poses immense challenges for "getting everyone work- ing from the same page," according to Suman Bhasker, national manager of health, safety and security at Morguard. Challenges include complying with varying provincial safety rules and following industry best practices for a range of clients and far-fl ung properties. Morguard's solution was to establish a corporation-wide safety framework comprising four key elements: • internal audits • properties' self-assessment of occu- pational health and safety programs • online training • rewards and recognition. This formula clearly struck the right balance. Between 2010 and 2012, reportable workplace injuries dropped from 16 to three. Compli- ance with the corporation's policies and procedures — which go beyond legislated requirements — rose from 60 per cent to 85 per cent. A critical factor in Morguard's suc- cess is meaningful communications that resonate with disparate groups. "What convinces one person to work safely may not work for another, so we must get messages out in a variety of ways," says Bhasker. "Everyone needs to buy in to the importance of safety and the need to share responsibility." For example, tenants of a 20-storey building may wonder why they have to evacuate regularly for fi re drills, while a business might want to see the return on its safety investment. John May, Mor- guard's director of risk management and insurance, points out that easily acces- s i b l e e l e c t r o n i c communications are vital to unifying safety across the board. A comprehensive online library allows employees and committees to access massive amounts of information for training and daily use. Regular emails keep OHS commit- tees and supervisors at all properties informed and updated. "Integrated communications ensure that safety isn't something that employees and clients (only) do outside their jobs. Rather, they help ingrain safety in everyday processes," says May. Cementing Morguard's safety philosophy are good policies and procedures. "Our company president signs off on all policies," says May. "And that relays the message that safety is our fi rst priority and we all share responsibility." Keeping millions safe