No Accident

In this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE, we hear from Barton McMillin, who’s worked in the industry for more than 25 years and currently serves as the Vice President of Environmental, Health, & Safety at Ericsson.

He discusses why engagement with a safety culture is a great measurement of a company’s success, why it’s important to think of safety in the proactive sense rather than simply compliance, and why safer employees are more lucrative for the business.

“I am the safety guy, but I'm also here to help the business,” he says. “And helping the business is to make sure that the business understands what risks we're taking and how it's affecting our people.”

He also explains why a good safety professional is someone who genuinely cares about their employees’ safety inside and outside of work rather than simply being focused on productivity and how much money an injury could cost the company.

Tony Wallace is the Global Vice President of Safety, Health, and Environmental Quality at industrial gas company Linde. In this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE, he explains why Linde’s leaders take a hands-on approach to safety, and the importance of viewing it as a disciplined group effort that helps the whole business, rather than just individuals.

“When our senior leadership goes into the field … they’ll walk around and ask questions like, How are you doing on your safety?” he says. “Talking to the employees and asking the question, What are some things we can do to help make you and your site safer? and then following through. It’s making that connection with our employees and our lineman.”

The COVID-19 pandemic reminded Tony of the impact that everyone’s safety decisions have on one another.

“My background is being able to understand how and why we do things — not simply what the safety answer is, but how we do it together to ensure we can accomplish all of our goals,” Tony says.

Is “safety culture” a concept of the past?

In this episode of the No Accident podcast presented by TRUCE, Robert Schindler, Vice President of Safety at Arch-Con, discusses how the commercial construction company goes beyond simply having a “safety culture.”

“Once you incorporate safety into the production side of things and you plan safety into your work, you're so much more effective when you're out in the field putting that work in place. You're able to be more efficient … Efficiency is what allows us to be successful,” Robert says.

Tune in to the episode to hear how safety is integrated into every aspect of the company’s DNA — and how that pays off.

While some safety leaders measure success or failure by the number of injury reports, Bianca Castagna, leader of the Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) program at the GE Aviation plant in Auburn, Alabama, prefers to think further ahead.

“If we define safety by the strength of our defenses against hazards, rather than just avoiding injuries, we will have better outcomes,” she tells the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE.

To understand those hazards, Bianca asks the employees on the floor about their safety concerns and how they protect themselves. Having identified these defenses — as she calls them — she investigates further to make sure they’re effective, sufficient, and being properly maintained.

In addition to preventing accidents, Bianca says that employees who know their company cares about their safety are more productive.

“If people are safe and healthy at work, they’re more likely to make better quality parts, and to be productive and feel a sense of ownership in what it is they’re producing,” Bianca says. “It's all about getting products out the door to our customers, so they can be satisfied and we can make money.”

The Hierarchy of Controls theory holds that removing a hazard is the single most effective measure an organization can take to ensure the safety of its workers and customers.

Yet anyone who’s ever run a successful company knows that often it’s easier said than done.

“Somebody once said if you want to eliminate motor vehicle accidents, don’t drive. This isn’t realistic,” Alex Guariento, Trimac Transportation’s Vice President of Safety, says on this episode of No Accident. “There has to be an operationally based safety effort that allows you to operate in a manner that protects your employees and still allows you to remain in business.”

Trimac’s fleet carries hazardous materials, not people, yet Alex says drivers must have the same kind of people skills as their counterparts transporting passengers do.

“They need to interact with our customers at the end of a run. Our customers expect professionalism, which includes safety. The driver needs to project this and communicate it to them.”

At The Davey Tree Expert Company, safety is an expectation that employees, managers, businesses and even clients expect when they do business with the 100+ year-old company.

On this episode of No Accident, presented by TRUCE, host Kathleen Finato talks to Joseph Tommasi, who has been in the environmental and landscaping industry for over four decades. Today, Joseph is Vice President of Davey’s Corporate Safety division.

Joseph knows the risks that Davey’s field workers — who work high up with cutting tools near electrical power sources — face, firsthand. Yet his role goes beyond protecting each worker. He believes that investing in safety ensures not only the wellbeing of Davey’s workforce. It ensures the company’s success because it helps protect important capital for the company..

“Our most important asset is our people,” says Joseph. “We need to protect that asset, which means we look after them, and they look after each other.”

Tune in to learn how investing in safety promotes larger business interests, why Joseph believes you can’t manage a safety program through regulation alone, as well as the changes he’s observed over a 40-year career in safety.

On this episode of No Accident, host Kathleen Finato talks to Travis Post, who’s worked in construction safety and operations for nearly 30 years. Since September 2018, he’s served as the National Director of safety at Fremont, California-based construction company Petersen-Dean, Inc.

Travis tells us about the injury that set him on the path toward a career in safety, details his belief in employee-based safety (and cites specific examples of it at play) and explains why a company’s profit will suffer without a proper safety program.

Yes, safety is another investment for companies to prioritize, but Travis says all good, successful businesses are willing to invest in safety because it will prevent potential incremental and productivity losses.

“What my safety department does is we protect profit,” Travis says. “That's our sole function and how we do that is through the safety program, through the workers' comp process, through modified duty.”

Torrey Garrison is the Vice President of Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) and of Leadership Development at Performance Contractors, an industrial construction company based on the Gulf Coast. From Torrey’s perspective, EHS professionals shouldn’t let a limited view of their role box them in but instead, use safety to their advantage by getting out of the box and investing in new strategies and solutions for their business. Because he believes that safety isn’t just the right thing to do — it’s a selling point for a business.

“A lot of times, we get our foothold into speaking with the C-suite by saying, ‘Hold on, let's talk about the money aspect of this’ — and then we can blend doing the right thing back [into the conversation],” he says on this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE.

Torrey is actively working to change the view of safety from a “necessary evil” to a positive that can be used to promote the company. In fact, he’s joined sales and marketing meetings with clients who are eager to hear about Performance Contractors’ winning safety record — something that separates them from competitors.

Carrol Dugan serves as the Director of Environmental Health and Safety at Hocking International Laboratories, one of the leading custom chemical manufacturers in the world. Having worked in the business for more than 20 years, Carrol is a seasoned environmental health sustainability leader, helping organizations optimize their operations and excel in environmental health and safety (EHS) as a way to grow their business and generate larger market shares.

On this episode of the No Accident podcast presented by TRUCE, Carrol discusses how influential EHS departments can be on business practices.

“The power of influence is so critical for EHS professionals. We're not just technical resources that can interpret rules and standards or design engineer equipment. We really serve as a resource for the company to help them understand what it means to be compliant, but also move beyond that and really help drive the business.”

Katherine Syverson serves as the Environment, Health and Safety Director at Life Fitness, the umbrella company for six different brands that encourage a full spectrum of active lifestyles. At Life Fitness, Katherine develops and integrates company-wide standardized, proactive EHSS programs and practices through collaborative leadership.

After 22 years in environmental health and safety, Katherine now spends much of her time working directly with senior leadership to help them better understand the business’s need for safety protocols and process flow. On this episode of the No Accident podcast presented by TRUCE, Katherine discusses the necessity of integrating safety into all aspects of business and manufacturing.

“Safety is in everybody's basket. It's for everybody to be participating in affecting change around safety,” Katherine explains.