SAFETY*5 DIGEST 👷♀️👷♂️ - The Best EHS Links Of The Week (W9-21)
- SkillSignal
- Feb 19, 2021
- 3 min read
Every week, SafetyFive brings you the most interesting EHS news in a digestible format. Contact us at hello@skillsignal.com if you want your story, award or research to be featured here for free.
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1. TAKE OUT YOUR AGENDA: 3 - 7 MAY IS FALL SAFETY STAND-DOWN
OSHA has officially announced the eighth annual national stand-down to prevent falls in construction will be held May 3 to 7.
We will be posting more about Safety Week and Fall Stand-Down on our channels.
2. WORKPLACE SAFETY REPLACES TALENT ACQUISITION AS THE TOP PRIORITY FOR BUSINESS LEADERS IN 2021
More than one-third of business leaders say ensuring a safe workplace will be more challenging over the next 12 months.
Oasis, a Paychex® Company, today released their Priorities for Business Leaders annual survey findings. Ensuring a safe work environment during the COVID-19 pandemic is the top priority among the 300 leaders of small and mid-size U.S. businesses surveyed. Shifting priorities due to COVID-19 has pushed attracting talent from the top of the list, a spot it has held for the past two years. Employee safety and well-being are now top priorities in the year ahead.
"2021 will be challenging as businesses, in particular small and mid-size businesses, navigate safely bringing employees back to work and adjust to the long-term impact of the pandemic," said Teresa Carroll, president, Oasis. "No matter the industry they serve, all businesses have had to adapt to new regulations and local and state mandates as the pandemic evolves. Likewise, whether employees have faced cutbacks or mental health challenges brought on by the pandemic, all workers have been impacted. In turn, this has brought workforce management and overall physical, financial, mental, and social employee wellness front and center among business leaders' list of priorities. As we see businesses recover from the pandemic and get back to work, Oasis is prepared to support clients through the unchartered territory that lies ahead."
3. A LOOK INTO TESLA'S APPROACH TO INDUSTRIAL SAFETY
Tesla has significantly improved its safety over the past few years by taking a more methodological approach and making a key safety hire. That has helped Tesla to improve its Total Recordable Incidence Rate (TRIR). However, the COVID-19 pandemic has resurfaced past problems and revealed how Tesla’s safety culture can be diminished when management prioritizes production over people.
Laurie Shelby, CIH, CSP, is the vice president of Environmental, Health & Safety at Tesla. She joined the company in 2017 to address its safety issues that were below the industry average at the time. Shelby was recruited because of her experience at Alcoa, where her contributions to its safety record were well-known.
In the three years prior to Shelby’s arrival, Tesla’s Fremont, Calif., plant had an above-average TRIR per 1000 cars produced:
2014: 8.4 (Industry Avg: 7.3)
2015: 8.8 (Industry Avg: 6.7)
2016: 8.1 (Industry Avg: 6.2)
On February 4, 2018, Laurie posted "Becoming the Safest Car Factory in the World". This is considered her safety manifesto. Under her leadership, Tesla now takes a more methodological, observative approach to safety. The company looks at every aspect of the working environment: equipment, ergonomics, people’s responses to hazards and how all these moving parts interact. The EHS team at Tesla emphasizes that they can only make safety improvements if they understand how the work is being performed daily.
4. NATIONAL GRID INTRODUCES AI TO IMPROVE UTILITY WORKER SAFETY
National Grid in the US is deploying Urbint’s artificial intelligence-based Lens for Worker Safety that identifies potential hazards to workers in the field.
Urbint Lens for Worker Safety uses artificial intelligence to enable field operators to identify high-risk tasks and take specific actions to prevent serious injuries and fatalities. The solution connects data on worksites, schedules, historical incidents and environmental conditions, and identifies leading indicators of hazards to deliver a clear and actionable picture of safety risk across job sites.
Urbint has received investment support from National Grid Partners, the utility’s venture capital arm.
National Grid has previously deployed Urbint’s AI-powered damage prevention technology to protect underground energy infrastructure from being struck by third-party excavators.
5. SJL PRESENTS BRANDY BOSSLE: R0AD WARRIOR
Have you ever wondered what tiny homes, big comfy chairs, compost toilets, and augmented reality have in common with travel safety? Yeah. We did too, so we talked about it with the intrepid Brandy Bossle. She's an emerging safety rockstar who represents everything this profession should become in the future. Tune in and learn how to make travel better (and safer). You won't be disappointed.
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