The Safety Meeting

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, we speak with Jeff Costlow, Novara’s Director of Energy Solutions, and Taylor Thorn, VP of Technology Solutions, about the gap between compliance and commitment. They discuss how clean audits and complete paperwork can still lead to jobsite injuries if a broader safety culture is not in place. They explain how programs built around documentation often ignore changing workplace conditions, and that lax leadership can undermine safe worker behavior. Jeff shares how involving crews in decision-making increases buy-in, while Taylor highlights how to encourage engagement through point-of-work hazard conversations and by reframing near-miss reports as operational intelligence. We talk through how safety technology can help, but only if that safety culture is built from mutual respect and real trust.

• (00:00) Welcoming Jeff Costlow and Taylor Thorn
• (02:37) Why Checklists Fail
• (03:28) Leadership Sets Culture
• (05:19) Daily Engagement Habits
• (07:20) Stop Work Without Blowback
• (08:21) When Safety Tech Helps
• (11:57) Adoption Pitfalls and Tool Overload
• (13:48) Signs of Real Buy In

Resources & Links

• Explore more on the Novara blog: Novara Blog
• Upcoming webinars and on-demand sessions: Novara Webinars
• Learn more about Novara: Novara.com

Thanks for joining another episode of The Safety Meeting, the podcast that makes you smarter about current trends and best practices in workforce safety. From employee engagement to actionable data, and everything in between, tune in to hear how you can work more safely.

If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Safety Meeting in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, we talk with Dr. Christopher Warren, a certified safety professional and founder of Artificionomics, about treating AI as a workplace exposure that can create cognitive, behavioral, and decision-environment hazards. He explains how industrial hygiene principles can be applied to AI by anticipating where it’s introduced, recognizing and evaluating exposures, implementing human override controls, and confirming outcomes. Dr. Warren outlines the psychological risks of algorithmic monitoring, and argues that safety leaders must act ahead of regulation.

• (00:00) Welcoming Dr. Christopher Warren
• (02:55) Understanding Artificionomics
• (05:02) Psychological Risk Signals
• (06:03) Monitoring and Scoring Effects
• (07:22) Human Dignity at Work
• (08:41) Talking to Executives
• (09:59) Industries Doing It Right
• (11:18) Common Automation Mistakes
• (12:23) First Steps for Safety Managers
• (14:49) Regulation and Leading Ahead

Resources & Links

• Explore more on the Novara blog: Novara Blog
• Upcoming webinars and on-demand sessions: Novara Webinars
• Learn more about Novara: Novara.com

Thanks for joining another episode of The Safety Meeting, the podcast that makes you smarter about current trends and best practices in workforce safety. From employee engagement to actionable data, and everything in between, tune in to hear how you can work more safely.

If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Safety Meeting in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, we talk with Eric Wiechmann, an account executive in risk services at TrueNorth and former ag safety manager, about agricultural hazards and safety practices. He explains how the scale and speed of the industry, and how constant seasonal demands, drive risk. We discuss how prioritizing hazards, managing fatigue, and continuous training for all employees, are key safety strategies in ag. Wiechmann stresses that using claims data to spot patterns, and getting out in the field can help safety managers build a trust-based safety culture.

• (00:00) Introducing Eric Wiechmann, Account Executive at TrueNorth
• (02:28) Hazards Specific to Agriculture
• (04:30) Why Engulfments Persist
• (07:35) Combustible Dust Explained
• (10:38) Prioritizing Many Risks
• (14:52) Training Without Downtime
• (19:02) Using Claims Data Wisely
• (20:58) Where Safety Leaders Can Start

Resources & Links

• Explore more on the Novara blog: Novara Blog
• Upcoming webinars and on-demand sessions: Novara Webinars
• Learn more about Novara: Novara.com

Thanks for joining another episode of The Safety Meeting, the podcast that makes you smarter about current trends and best practices in workforce safety. From employee engagement to actionable data, and everything in between, tune in to hear how you can work more safely.

If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Safety Meeting in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, we talk with Novara’s Mulango Akpo-Esambe and Rachel Hook about how microlearning can help support safety training programs. They explain how microlearning’s short, targeted lessons focus on a single topic, task, or behavior, and share ways to segment complex topics without oversimplifying. Mulango and Rachel share research that shows that relevance, timing, and reinforcement are key factors in workers retaining safety information and adopting new behaviors. Lastly, we discuss tips to spin up a new microlearning program: focusing on piloting one specific behavior before scaling, and to measure success using observation and safety indicators rather than completion rates.

• (00:00) Welcome Mulango Akpo-Esambe and Rachel Hook
• (01:27) Why Traditional Training Fails
• (03:54) Microlearning Defined
• (06:13 Breaking Down Complex Topics
• (08:25) Timing and Spaced Learning
• (11:19) Designing for Behavior Change
• (15:25) Measuring Real Impact
• (19:46) Implementation Tips and How to Start a Microlearning Program

Resources & Links

• Explore more on the Novara blog: Novara Blog
• Upcoming webinars and on-demand sessions: Novara Webinars
• Learn more about Novara: Novara.com

Thanks for joining another episode of The Safety Meeting, the podcast that makes you smarter about current trends and best practices in workforce safety. From employee engagement to actionable data, and everything in between, tune in to hear how you can work more safely.

If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Safety Meeting in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, we follow-up with Colby Ankeney, Director of Heath, Safety and Environment at Silvi Materials, and with Novara solutions engineer Arlo Amos to unpack how they built Silvi’s safety data system. Colby explains moving from scattered spreadsheets and unclear tracking to a disciplined, conditional “choose your own adventure” workflow in Novara Flex, efficiently deploying fewer than 30 forms across their organization. They discuss selecting KPIs that leadership cares about, and why incident counts may rise at first with access to accurate reporting. Our conversation covers mobile-friendly workflows, avoiding check-the-box inspections, and the principle of defining data targets before building forms.

• (00:00) Welcome Colby Ankeny and Arlo Amos
• (01:49) Effective Conditional Form Design
• (03:33) KPIs that Leaders Care About
• (06:02) Designing for Honest Data
• (06:54) Avoiding Check-the-box Compliance
• (10:26) Understand Workflows Before Building Forms
• (11:26) Staying Aligned With Leadership
• (12:23) Wrap Up and Resources

Resources & Links

• How Silvi Materials Built a Mobile-First Safety Culture
• A Data-Driven Guide to Improving Workplace Safety
• Explore more on the Novara blog: Novara Blog
• Upcoming webinars and on-demand sessions: Novara Webinars
• Learn more about Novara: Novara.com

Thanks for joining another episode of The Safety Meeting, the podcast that makes you smarter about current trends and best practices in workforce safety. From employee engagement to actionable data, and everything in between, tune in to hear how you can work more safely.

If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Safety Meeting in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, we speak with Colby Ankeney, Director of Heath, Safety and Environment at Silvi Materials, about earning leadership buy-in by treating safety as a core leg of the business. Colby describes inheriting a spreadsheet-heavy program with unclear metrics and explains how he built a data-first approach with a lean team, starting with a gap analysis and easy wins tied to projected outcomes. He shares how Silvi cut injury rates, reduced severity, and delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual savings through improved claims management and targeted resource shifts. He details projects like ending low-value DVIR inspection efforts to focus on real-time jobsite coaching that reduced at-fault accidents by 25%. Colby emphasizes ROI, adaptability, and sustainable process improvements that support workers, operations, customers, and the bottom line.

• (00:00) Welcome to Colby Ankeney, Director of HSC at Silvi Materials
• (01:08) The Messy Starting Point
• (03:58) Safety as Business Strategy
• (05:51) Proving ROI With Data
• (07:44) Redirecting Low Value Work
• (09:58) Building a No Ego Team
• (12:04) Talking Leadership Language
• (15:25) Changing Legacy Processes
• (16:58) Wrap Up

Thanks for joining another episode of The Safety Meeting, the podcast that makes you smarter about current trends and best practices in workforce safety. From employee engagement to actionable data, and everything in between, tune in to hear how you can work more safely.

If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Safety Meeting in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, Caroline Miller, a Novara solutions engineer, discusses how to strengthen safety programs by pairing seasoned expertise with data collection and analysis. She explains common gaps in instinctive decision-making, and how digital tools, good forms, and team buy-in can give safety managers new visibilities. Drawing on her past experience, she explains how using a defined set of key metrics drove engagement, action, and measurable safety compliance improvements. She unpacks the mindset shift from lagging to leading indicators, highlights data quality practices, and shares tips for navigating tech adoption and trustbuilding during change.

• (00:00) Welcoming Novara’s Caroline Miller
• (02:35) Navigation Experienced Instincts and Data-driven Decision-Making
• (04:29) Building Data Driven Programs
• (09:05) From Compliance to Forward-Focused Strategy
• (11:53) Keeping Safety Programs Personal and Human
• (14:45) Winning Buy In and Trust
• (17:11) Tracking Leading Indicators
• (20:23) Improving Data Quality
• (22:04) Getting Started: “Crawl, then Walk, then Run”

Thanks for joining another episode of The Safety Meeting, the podcast that makes you smarter about current trends and best practices in workforce safety. From employee engagement to actionable data, and everything in between, tune in to hear how you can work more safely.

If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Safety Meeting in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, we talk with Haleyanne Freedman, Novara’s own manufacturing sector expert, about why near misses in manufacturing may go unreported, and how to fix that. Haleyanne explains that production pressure, a lack of immediate consequences, the paperwork burden, and fear of blame or discipline may suppress reporting. She emphasizes how supervisor behavior, no-blame investigations, visible feedback loops, and leadership accountability can help. She even outlines a 90-day plan: first, diagnose cultural friction, then simplify and broaden access to reporting tools, and lastly, publicly communicate corrective actions and safety trends.

1. (00:00 Introducing Novara’s Haleyanne Freedman
2. (01:02) What Counts as a Near Miss and Why They’re Underreported
3. (04:00) Psychological Safety on the Floor
4. (07:06) Leadership and Supervisor Impact
5. (10:18) Turning Around Safety Culture
6. (14:38) Building a Better Reporting System
7. (17:49) Closing the Loop After Reports
8. (21:01) Lessons from High Consequence Industries
9. (25:42) A 90 Day Action Plan

Thanks for joining another episode of The Safety Meeting, the podcast that makes you smarter about current trends and best practices in workforce safety. From employee engagement to actionable data, and everything in between, tune in to hear how you can work more safely.

If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Safety Meeting in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

In this episode of The Safety Meeting’s Safety Lab, we delve into the relationship between physical injuries at work and mental health. Highlighting a comprehensive meta-analysis by Granger and Turner involving data from 147 studies with 1.5 million people, we discuss the bidirectional connection between workplace injuries and mental health challenges. We explore the impact of injury severity and frequency on mental health, and unpack the importance of integrating both psychological support and physical rehabilitation, for an employee returning to work.

1. (00:17) The Link Between Physical Injuries and Mental Health
2. (01:26) The Cost of Treating Physical and Mental Health Separately
3. (02:25) Underreporting and Its Impact on Safety Metrics
4. (03:45) How Injury Leads to Mental Health Issues
5. (04:27) Understanding Uncertainty and Illness Theory
6. (06:39) Mechanisms Connecting Physical Injuries to Mental Health
7. (08:01) The Role of Cognitive Reframing in Early Intervention
8. (08:27) How Mental Health Challenges Lead to Physical Injuries
9. (10:08) Practical Applications for Safety Programs
10. (12:40) The Importance of Nuanced Measurement in Safety Management

Thanks for joining another episode of The Safety Meeting’s Safety Lab, the podcast that makes you smarter about current trends and best practices in workforce safety. From employee engagement to actionable data, and everything in between, tune in to hear how you can work more safely.

If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Safety Meeting in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novarro, we talk with Jason Wernex, Director of Safety at Utilitra, a 350-person, woman-owned engineering, technology, and construction firm with a mix of office and field workers. Jason explains how Utilitra moved from paper-based safety processes to a digital system, achieving over 90% adoption in the first year. He shares how user experience, configurability, and flexibility helped his team encourage engagement and demonstrate quick time-to-value. His takeaways: invest time up-front, follow a clear roadmap, start with familiar processes, and launch with groups likely to become ambassadors.

1. (01:19) Introducing Utilitra’s Jason Wernex
2. (04:58) Utilitra’s Implementation Game Plan
3. (06:03) Digitizing Near Misses & Audits First
4. (07:25) Leveraging Ambassadors and Unexpected Self-Serve Adoption
5. (09:26) Why Adoption Hit over 90%
6. (10:58) New Use Cases, and Cross-Department Momentum
7. (14:54) Culture Shift and Reporting Transparency
8. (17:06) Keys to Success: Flexibility, Fast Fixes, and Designing for the End User

Thanks for joining another episode of The Safety Meeting, the podcast that makes you smarter about current trends and best practices in workforce safety. From employee engagement to actionable data, and everything in between, tune in to hear how you can work more safely.

If you'd like to receive new episodes as they're published, please subscribe to The Safety Meeting in Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It really helps others find the show.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.