Engineering safety and health solutions is important. But at the end of the day, the role of a safety professional is about communication. Whether you’re speaking to frontline workers, convincing a group of executives to approve a budget increase or talking to a group of your peers, your skills as a presenter could make or break your career. More importantly, those skills could mean the difference between life and death for the workers on your team.
Companies are continuing to invest heavily in travel for employees. In 2017 alone, they spent $1.33 trillion, according to the Global Business Travel Association, and the amount is only expected to increase.
This is good news for several reasons. Not only is it a reflection of an improving global economy, but it also indicates that organizations are focused on strategic spending that helps workers build relevant relationships and grow their professional skills.
Occupational safety and health professionals from all over the world will travel to New Orleans next June to let the good times roll at Safety 2019. After their days of learning and networking at the Ernest N. Morial New Orleans Convention Center are over, many will hit the town and explore its live music scene, incredible seafood, complex history and spooky sights.
There are just a few weeks left before Safety 2018, and whether you’re traveling across the country or down the street, it’s time to start thinking about what you’ll bring to San Antonio.
Some people are using this time to put themselves in the right frame of mind to tackle their busy conference schedules, considering the more conceptual items on their packing lists, such as a sense of curiosity, the ability to enjoy the present moment and a patient, pleasant attitude.
Safety 2018 will be our 57th annual Professional Development Conference.
In that time, it has changed from an intimate luncheon to a larger-than-life safety convention and expo, hosting thousands of the world’s best safety professionals and dozens of industry experts from top-performing companies. When we launched it back in 1962, the theme was “The Next 50 Years” with a focus on “Man in the Space Age.” This year, we are also coming together to work toward a safer, stronger future, considering the technology of our time that sparks our imaginations and makes us wonder about our place in the universe.
We all know the allure of lists. David Letterman’s Top 10 lists were often a highlight of his late-night show, and consumer magazines and bloggers are masters at crafting headlines starting with, “3 Reasons for,” “4 Ways to” or “9 Steps of.”
Helping employees feel confident that they can perform their tasks safely is a key part of any training an organization provides. It's even better if you can help them visualize a variety of scenarios and practice how they will respond.
Companies assess employee perceptions for several reasons. In many industrial settings, they are seeking honest feedback about things like workplace safety culture, and trying to identify what they might need to improve.
It seemed to happen overnight. One day, most office workers were seated and most workers in manufacturing environments were standing. The next day, it was as if sit/stand workstations had completely flipped the script. In reality, the timeline to popularity for these versatile workplace add-ons extended over several years, beginning in full force shortly after 2010. But like all trends, sit/stand workstations quickly started to feel like the new normal for modern, healthy companies.
Most organizations want to improve safety performance. Traditionally, they have measured their efforts using incident-based metrics, meaning success or failure often hinges on the absence of adverse events. Too often, when setting goals to improve these types of metrics, organizations fail to consider what these goals will actually achieve.
Behavior-based safety (BBS) or human and organizational performance (HOP)? A more traditional mind-set about safety or the “new view’’? In recent years, there has been growing interest in how these different approaches to organizational safety can be used to prevent serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs).
At last year’s professional development conference (PDC) in Denver, we asked 10 occupational safety and health professionals a few questions. First, why do they choose to attend ASSE conferences year after year? Second, why should other people join them in San Antonio for Safety 2018? Here’s what they said.
Everyone learns differently. Some people process information by taking detailed notes, some people do their best thinking out loud in conversation with others and some people prefer to see visual representations of the subject at hand. Whether you fall into one of these groups or have a learning style all your own, Safety 2018 has learning opportunities designed to help you become a better safety professional.
It’s hard to forget the images of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, engulfed in flames following the April 20, 2010, explosion that killed 11 workers and poured more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Over the past 10 years, many in the OSH community began to notice that OSH programs focusing on compliance were not leading to a decrease in the number of serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs). Several factors may have contributed to this including treating all incidents equally, focusing on after-the-fact approaches rather than being proactive, blaming the worker or the use of low-level controls. This led many OSH professionals to reexamine industry thinking and promote the idea that a risk-based approach would lead to improved safety performance.
Storytelling is not only a great way to grab the attention of an audience, but also a great way to teach.
Safety professionals Abby Ferri, CSP, and Tim Page-Bottorff, CSP, CET, have each leveraged different types of stories to help students remember what they learn during training sessions. Both advise that the best approach is to vary your storytelling strategy depending on the specific audience, class and topic.
The first decision people make in the morning affects every other decision they make throughout the day. It’s a choice that goes beyond whether to hit the snooze button or reach for a glass of water.
“The day doesn’t decide how it’s going for me,” says J.A. Rodriguez Jr., CSP, SGE, global senior leader of environmental health, safety and sustainability at Raytheon. “I decide how the day’s going to go.”
Safety professionals face many challenges in identifying occupational risks and hazards, as well as instituting the proper controls to mitigate or eliminate them. Whether determining how to guard a machine press or handle nuclear materials, it is a tremendous asset for safety professionals to have a comprehensive understanding of engineering principles, and which should be applied in particular situations.
Thousands of the world’s best safety professionals are heading to San Antonio, TX, this June for a few days of networking, learning and fun. Need even more reasons to make the trip for Safety 2018? Look no further than the city itself, which is known for its rich history, delicious food and riverfront views.
