Arianna Howard, Managing Partner and Co-founder of Syncra Group and lead of ASSP’s AI in Safety Standards-Based User Group joins us to share how AI tools can offer solutions for addressing issues in your workplace, but first you have to know which problems you’re trying to solve. She discusses the importance of using AI as a learning tool to better understand the conditions the workforce is facing and better address hazards. She also shares how AI can help EHS professionals save time and work more efficiently by improving processes and procedures.

Lauren Bauerschmidt, Senior Manager, Standards and Technical Services at ASSP, joins us to help you get up to speed on the latest developments in ANSI/ASSP Standards. She shares recent updates to A10 construction and demolition standards and Z359 fall protection standards, as well as the publication of the Z310 standard for risk management. She also discusses how these standards are developed and how you can get involved to help others improve conditions on their jobsites.

Personnel nets and debris nets play a crucial role in protecting workers and the public on and around construction and demolition sites. William Greeley, chair of the ANSI/ASSP A10.37 subcommittee and Ed McKechnie, chair of the ANSI/ASSP A10.11 subcommittee, join our latest episode to share how the A10.11 and A10.37 standards can help you properly design, test and install nets for your jobsites.

Organizations can encounter many pitfalls as they work to implement a safety management system. Greg Zigulis, President of Sixth Sense Safety Solutions, joins our latest episode to share common mistakes to avoid and how you can help get your team on the right track. He discusses how standards like ANSI/ASSP Z10 can provide organizations a framework for developing a safety management system that suits their specific needs for addressing hazards and managing risks on their jobsites.

How is AI technology impacting the construction industry? Boris Kiprovski and Whitney Williams of Skanska join us to share how they’re using these tools to input regulations and gather safety data, as well as find ways to improve conditions for workers on their jobsites. They offer advice for employers and EHS professionals as to how to effectively implement these tools at their organizations to drive positive results.

Todd Hudson, president of Maverick Safety Training, shares how AI can help EHS professionals roleplay different conversations and improve their communication skills with those in their organization. He discusses how to effectively prompt AI tools to provide feedback that will be helpful in discussions with everyone from frontline workers to C-suite executives. 

Mark Katchen, managing principal of The Phylmar Group and co-author of “Ethical Decision-making in Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety: A Comparative Case Study Approach,” discusses common ethical dilemmas EHS professionals may encounter, and how to address them in a way that best supports worker safety and health. He also shares the importance of understand and following the safety profession’s code of conduct, and that of your organization so that you can serve as an example to others.

ASSP President Linda Tapp and Wyatt Bradbury, principal of Health and Safety at Avetta, share how our Standards-Based User Groups (SBUGs) will help EHS professionals put consensus standards into action and improve safety.

They discuss how the SBUGs will bring together industry stakeholders to share knowledge, develop best practices and offer insights into how to implement voluntary consensus standards in real-world environments. 

The SBUGs will initially focus on reducing the risks of falls from height, protecting workers from hazardous energy and using artificial intelligence (AI) to anticipate and reduce risks.

Dr. Elif Erkal, associate director of research and strategy at the Construction Safety Research Alliance, shares why metrics like total recordable incident rate (TRIR) don’t tell the whole story and offers alternatives for more proactive safety management. She discusses how tools like high energy control assessments can help EHS professional identify high-energy hazards and the importance of a balanced scorecard to ensuring the effectiveness of controls. 

Additional Resources

The Statistical Invalidity of TRIR as a Measure of Safety Performance

Moving Beyond TRIR – Measuring & Monitoring Safety Performance with High-Energy Control Assessments

Construction Safety Research Alliance – Safety in the Boardroom

Edison Electric Institute – The Power to Prevent Serious Injuries & Fatalities

Impact of Energy-Based Safety Training on Quality of Prejob Safety Meetings and Control of Hazardous Energy in Construction

Wyatt Bradbury, Principal – Health and Safety at Avetta, joins us to discuss the hierarchy of controls and its role in helping reduce risks in the workplace. He shares why it’s important for EHS professionals to examine the effectiveness of the controls at their job sites to help ensure they are reducing risk to an acceptable level. He also explains “active” and “passive” controls, the “transition of illusion” between engineering and administrative controls and why EHS professionals should prioritize “passive” controls and reevaluate residual risks.