No Accident
Truce, Damian Alvarez
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Top 10 No Accident Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best No Accident episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to No Accident for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite No Accident episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
10/22/20 • 25 min
Nearly the entirety of Mike Letters’ career in safety has centered around vehicle safety. One of the biggest differences he’s made is also the simplest: slapping a sticker on company cars.
“We have a decal on the side of our vehicles as well as on the rear of every vehicle that’s our no-phone decal,” Mike says on this episode of No Accident. “That is a trigger for both the driver and for the general public — we want our driver to see that sticker as the last thing they see before they get in the vehicle. We want that to be that constant reminder every single day, every time they get back in their vehicle, to put their phone away and not be distracted.”
Those stickers, Mike adds, are also strategically placed on the rear of the vehicle near the company’s phone number (1-800-TERMINIX) so that anybody who observes an employee not following proper driving practices can call and report noncompliant activity. When Terminix first adopted the stickers in 2017, it received an average of 120 calls per month about aggressive driving; over time, however, its safety measures have decreased this number by roughly 50%.
Mike argues that simple tools of this nature and technology like TRUCE’s mobile app are a highly effective way of preventing distractions and thus avoiding accidents. However, Mike recognizes that these tools won’t work if the employee doesn’t buy in. In fact, he “doesn’t have time” for employees who refuse to participate in safety programs and/or let go of old behaviors and habits, and he advises letting such individuals go.
Mike also discusses the importance of companies creating a culture that not only values safety, but encourages employees to think of it as something they should do for the benefit of themselves and their loved ones.
“What are you going to do to ensure that you sit at the dinner table that night? It's not about the safety manager, it's not about the safety team. ... It's a personal responsibility,” Mike says. “If safety is all about the safety department or all about the driving, the bulletin board or a training program, then you haven't solved for safety at all. ... It's about creating a passion within the culture of your company.”
Featured Guest
👉 Name: Mike Letters
👉 What he does: As the East Division Safety Manager at Terminix, a Memphis-based pest control company, Mike looks for ways to keep both drivers and the general public safe.
👉 Company: Terminix
👉 Key quote: “Everybody wants to make safety fun. And if it's fun, then we'll be interested in it and we won't lose that interest. We won't become complacent. So that's a struggle. I have no silver bullet for that, but you definitely have to evolve, and that is the challenge every day.”
👉 Where to find him: LinkedIn
Safe Takes
⚠️ Technology can be a key partner in safety. By using phone apps that prevent accidents such as distracted driving incidents, you can quickly and efficiently implement safety procedures.
⚠️ Don’t hang on to employees who refuse to buy in. Mike says he “doesn’t have time” for employees who refuse to participate and/or let go of old behaviors and habits, so there is no reason for them to be working there.
⚠️ Safety is about personal responsibility and company values. If employees don’t see it as part of their job to keep themselves and others safe, and if company leaders don’t value that mindset, accidents will be inevitable.
Resources
⛑️ National Incident Management System –– Learn more about NIMS and where it gets its data.
⛑️ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — Learn more about NHTSA programs and tools aimed at helping to reduce death and injuries.
Top quotes from the episode:
“I really try and instill in our workforce that yes, you are professional pest technicians and certainly from our sales side, they're professional sales folks. But they are nothing without being professional drivers.”
“A large part of my job, a large part of what our managers do on a daily basis ... is manage the TRUCE compliance and ultimately, what that means is that they need to ensure that everybody is compliant on a daily basis with the TRUCE app on their phone so that they are first and foremost, protected from being distracted by a device that is issued by the company.”
“How do you put a price on life? I know the insurance company does a very good job at that, but for people that are our family members in our Terminix nation, it doesn't matter to me if that cost was $1 or if it was $10 million. All ...
11/05/20 • 27 min
Working in the oil and gas industry runs in the family for Justin Overstreet. About 20 years ago, he started working for his dad’s company, where he was in charge of documentation and other rudimentary tasks like testing employees after they watched safety videos. From there, he moved on to take both operations and sales leadership positions before later returning to the safety field.
Although it was an atypical path for a safety professional, Justin believes his diverse background made him even more prepared for his current role as Vice President of Safety at Wildcat Oil Tools.
“I've never been worried or concerned about taking on additional roles. And I've never looked at my role in a company as ‘I'm a safety guy,’” Justin says on this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE. “I've looked at it as: My job here is to enable operations or some other team to do the best that they can do. ... Whether you call me a safety professional, an account manager, an operations support manager or whatever — those things all go together.”
On top of focusing on the safety of Wildcat’s employees and customers, Justin’s current role has expanded to concern quality control, which means he’s working to ensure the integrity of what Wildcat does. On this episode, he explains how these responsibilities have changed the way he looks at safety culture — and why he’s so annoyed by the term “safety-first culture.”
“If your company is not a safety company like you're not going out and providing safety services or training services or whatever, safety should not be first in your company — making a profit should be first,” he says. “By [instead] saying, ‘safety always,’ what you're saying is ‘We also understand that in order for us to continue being in business, we've got to make sure that our employees and those people that we affect and touch are protected.’”
Justin also discusses why it’s OK to occasionally break the rules if it means using a practical solution, why sending local safety reps into the field can be counterintuitive (when you have managers who are already supposed to oversee that), and the importance of staying out of the way and letting employees do their jobs.
Featured Guest
👉 Name: Justin Overstreet
👉 What he does: As Vice President of Safety at the equipment and production company Wildcat Oil Tools, Justin works with operations to build, implement and maintain the company’s Quality Management System and overall safety program strategy.
👉 Company: Wildcat Oil Tools
👉 Key quote: “I've never looked at my role in a company as I’m a safety guy; I have looked at it as my job here is to enable operations to do the best that they can do or to enable some other team to do the best that they can do.”
👉 Where to find him: LinkedIn | Twitter
Safe Takes
⚠️ Safety doesn’t outweigh profit in terms of importance. They’re equals. Justin truly dislikes the term “safety-first companies” because he believes it undermines the importance of making a profit. Instead, he chooses to think of Wildcat as using a safety-always approach, meaning he teaches employees to always have safety at the top of their minds.
⚠️ When you’re trying to really hammer in certain safety lessons, don’t be repetitious for the sake of being repetitious. Justin suggests repeating what is necessary in order to get the point across, but doing so in a variety of ways so lessons are internalized rather than dreaded.
⚠️ Safety isn’t all about rules. Justin believes that a safe company is one that actively looks at every situation and actively identifies potential hazards — and mitigates those hazards regardless of policies or procedures.
Resources
⛑️ Safety-first culture –– This is the safety approach that Justin disagrees with.
⛑️ ISO 9001 — The type of quality control certification that Justin helps Wildcat maintain.
Top quotes from the episode:
“My teams get comfortable enough working with me through my interactions with them that they don't really ever question what I'm asking them to do or what we're working on. But my main goal, my main focus, is always to figure out a way to enable what they're doing and stay out of their way as much as possible.”
“Primarily our focus is on protecting our employees from predictable hazards, and then learning when we have things that come up.”
“I always think about it as safety always. And what I mean b...
Carrol Dugan | The Power of Influence
No Accident
06/10/21 • 28 min
Carrol Dugan took interest in the environment around her at a young age after realizing that “we only have this one environment that we live in.” This interest eventually led her to a successful career in environmental health and safety (EHS).
“I felt it was really interesting all the different ways that people could contribute in their daily lives to make it a better place,” Carrol explains on this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE.
Carrol now 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.
In her role at Hocking International, Carrol emphasizes how influential the EHS department 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.”
For Carrol, safety is not a standalone department, but something that must be integrated into all aspects of business functionality in order to increase efficiency, employee and customer engagement and larger market share.
“[EHS] really needs to be integral as part of an organization’s operations. It should be built into the way that people work so that it's not separate,” she explains.
Featured Guest
👉 Name: Carrol Dugan
👉 What she does: As the Director of Environmental Health and Safety at one of the leading custom chemical manufacturers in the world, Carrol helps companies achieve strategic EHS operational excellence by embedding best practices into core business practices.
👉 Company: Hocking International Laboratories
👉 Key quote: “[EHS] really needs to be integral as part of an organization’s operations. It should be built into the way that people work so that it's not separate.”
👉 Where to find her: LinkedIn
Safe Takes
⚠️ EHS is crucial to business operations. Carrol argues that environmental health and safety protocols should be built into the way people work to ensure a safe workplace and that employees are meeting all standards.
⚠️ Safety positively affects product quality. Efficiency is always important, but never at the expense of product quality. Optimizing operations and production increases efficiency and naturally reduces the likelihood of generating excess waste or creating hazards.
⚠️ Communication is key. It is important not only what EHS professionals communicate but also how they communicate. Keeping employees up to code on the latest safety standards is imperative.
Resources
⛑️ Hocking International Laboratories' LinkedIn –– See the company’s latest news stories, job postings, and insights.
⛑️ United States Environmental Protection Agency — Stay up-to-date on the latest environmental regulations and requirements.
⛑️ Occupational Health and Safety Administration — Carrol says Hocking International abides by both EPA and OSHA standards.
Top quotes from the episode:
“[EHS] really needs to be integral as part of an organization’s operations. It should be built into the way that people work so that it's not separate.”
“You really have to help people understand that in order to grow your business and have a safe workplace for the employees and meet all of your environmental requirements, it is critical that you conduct business in a way that achieves all those goals.”
“If you optimize your operations or your production and you're really increasing efficiency, you naturally reduce the likelihood that you're going to generate a lot of waste or that you're going to have a lot of hazards associated with that particular process.”
“If you have a terrible safety record, what does that mean for your product quality? It's all related. You can't have a really terrible safety record but really excellent product quality or really great turnaround time.”
“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 comp...
Joseph Tommasi | Trees, Sawdust and Safety
No Accident
08/05/21 • 31 min
Joseph Tommasi started his career clearing trees around utility lines and trained as an arborist in the early 1970s. He worked his way up as a crew leader, then a supervisor, and has been with The Davey Tree Expert Company since 1994.
Based in Kent, Ohio, Davey is employee-owned and was established more than 100 years ago.
From the office to the field, safety is an expectation that employees, managers, businesses and even clients expect when they do business with Davey. “There is an expectation that many of our clients — particularly our larger ones, but certainly individual homeowners — want nothing but a quality job executed well, and that there's been no harm done to anyone in the course of that work,” Joseph says on this episode of No Accident.
Joseph sees OSHA best practices as a starting point. “You can’t manage your safety program by regulation alone. Your program has to start off with communication and valuing your people, and your people need to know that.”
As the U.S. and Canada’s third-largest landscaping company, according to Lawn & Landscape — Davey has undergone significant expansion, but not without giving safety considerations a hard look first.
“Whether it’s new locations or entities, safety is a key factor that the acquisition team weighs early on during the due diligence process, even before we make any commitments.”
When Joseph started his career in safety, many industries viewed safety as the role of the safety department alone. Today, he sees a shift to safety as a holistic and integrated system that requires ongoing improvement across divisions. Joseph attributes an intensified awareness of safety among consumers and businesses to the events of September 11, 2001.
“Now it’s a two-way street. The people in the safety departments and the field, but also managers and supervisors, have to share the message of their safety programs and ownership of the process with each other.”
Featured Guest
👉 Name: Joseph Tomassi
👉 What he does: As the Vice President of Corporate Safety at the Davey Tree Expert Company, Joseph draws upon nearly five decades of experience in horticulture, management and safety to protect his workforce and help Davey thrive.
👉 Company: Davey Tree Expert Company
👉 Key quote: “Good things come from being persistent in trying to achieve safety excellence — company success, employee success, opportunity and profitability.”
👉 Where to find him: LinkedIn
Safe Takes
⚠️ Go above and beyond when communicating your expectations to your greatest assets, i.e. your employees and other team members. “Be honest and credible with them. They need to know they're going to be held to a standard of conduct, but that you're there to help them succeed.”
⚠️ Take a behavioral approach to address safety. Davey puts interpersonal relationships and human interaction at the heart of its Personal Excellence Program, which promotes OSHA compliance and ultimately success for its employees, management and customers.
⚠️ Adopt a continuous improvement mindset. It’s nearly impossible for a large organization to achieve excellence in safety at every single point with every single individual. But nevertheless, companies should aim for it at every opportunity. “Safety excellence is a value that has helped our company grow over time because people recognize how important it is to us and how it informs our work on a daily basis.”
Resources
⛑️ Lawn & Landscape Top 100 — a list based on 2020 revenue from landscape
profit centers. Davey ranks third on the list.
⛑️ Utility Safety — Page detailing the Davey’s commitment to safety
Top quotes from the episode:
“Doing the work of safety professionally increases productivity.”
“People today seek more in terms of safety and security than ever before. You can see it in the marketing and advertising on television. The expectations for professional organizations to address safety are high in the eyes of consumers.”
“[From an organizational perspective], I see that people are much more embracing of and asking for the opportunity to work together on continuous improvement and safety.”
“Safety is a wonderful career with opportunities across industries, and it’s become much more highly regarded as a profession.”
John Goodpaster | Start by Making Your Bed
No Accident
12/03/20 • 30 min
The first thing John Goodpaster does every morning is make his bed (sometimes even when his wife is still in it). As a former commander in the U.S. Navy, he thrives off of routine and structure, and those character traits have served him well in his post-military career.
John got into safety while he was running a parts distribution center in Michigan. He’d just finished his work supporting a SEAL team in Hawaii and, after a tough winter transition, was settling in when the company received an OSHA citation. He was then asked to transition into a safety position. According to John, if it weren’t for that citation, he’d likely still be on the logistics/operations side.
“The hardest thing was, when you're an officer in the Navy, you expect certain things to go a certain way,” John says on this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE. “In the service, they do things without having to be repeatedly told stuff. Whereas in the corporate world, sometimes you’ve got to spend more time to educate because they don't react the same way.”
Lucky for John, he has a master’s degree in adult and higher education from the University of Oklahoma, which helped him find a way to engage his employees in safety trainings and other educational settings. The trick, he said, is focusing on explanations rather than commands. You have to explain the importance behind safety precautions, he said, because that’s the only way to get buy-in.
Currently, John is the Director of Environmental Health and Safety at the Abilene, Texas-based company Briggs Equipment, where he’s drastically improved safety conditions.
“That was really when the ‘Safety First’ program came in, about when I came in in 2017,” he says. “At that point, we were spending multiple million dollars in workers' comp injury costs. We had a lot of cases. Implementing what we have, we are right now looking at being less than a $100,000 this year. ... We've [also] gone from having 50-60 accidents a year to now we're on track to be under 20.”
In this episode, John discusses the importance of getting out in the field and listening to the employees doing the dangerous work to gain a new perspective on safety, and how it’s possible to make safety-first a way of life rather than just a slogan.
Featured Guest
👉 Name: John Goodpaster
👉 What he does: As the Director of Environmental Health and Safety at Abilene, Texas-based Briggs Equipment, John uses his structured military background to lead award-winning safety initiatives.
👉 Company: Briggs Equipment
👉 Key quote: “It’s about taking care of people. Safety is all about the person. Nobody wants somebody to be put in a situation that they get hurt, or even worse, killed. So safety's all about risk reduction so that they aren't put in that risk situation.”
👉 Where to find him: LinkedIn
Safe Takes
⚠️ “Safety first” can and should be more than a slogan — it should be a way of life. John says his employer believes safety is much more than a catchphrase. It’s something the higher-ups recently designated as the organization’s fifth core value “because that's the foundation of everything we do.”
⚠️ Great safety leaders care about gaining perspective. Sure, you can sit in an office and calculate risks. But if you want to be effective as a safety leader, you have to get on-site and talk to those doing the dangerous work and get their input. (It also helps to get your hands dirty for more of a firsthand perspective.)
⚠️ If you want employees to engage with a safety program, explain; don’t command. John says he had to switch mindsets when he went into the corporate world from the Navy because adults outside the military don’t simply follow commands. To get them to buy into a safety program, he argues, you have to explain the dangers of not following certain precautions and elaborate on why your risk-reduction tactics are effective.
Resources
⛑️ Operation Iraqi Freedom –– The formal name of the Iraq War, which is the operation John was pulled back into active service for when he was working in a parts distribution center.
⛑️ 2020 Green Cross for Safety Award — The award for which Briggs Equipment, John’s employer, was a semifinalist this year.
Top quotes from the episode:
“That was the biggest transition. ... You’ve got to get their buy-in. You've got to get them convinced because in the milita...
Jack Frost | It All Starts With Leadership
No Accident
04/15/21 • 35 min
Safety isn’t just a job to Jack Frost; it’s a commitment. In 1998, just a short time after Jack had become a safety officer at a shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, he witnessed the horrific death of a fellow employee. It is a moment in time that has stuck with him forever.
“I made a commitment to myself. I couldn't save him, but moving forward, I would do everything I can to save the next person,” Jack shares on this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE.
Having witnessed first-hand the immeasurable cost of failed safety measures, Jack dedicated his life to ensuring no one else would lose their life while working at his company.
He has become a trailblazer in building and leading strategic health, safety, environmental and quality programs that get to the heart of business priorities — people, profits and performance excellence.
Those priorities are interconnected. When an incident occurs, companies lose time and productivity when they conduct investigations, which leads to a loss of revenue. They also lose reputability.
They suffer what he calls the “death of a thousand cuts” as these disparate elements collate and create significant losses in efficiency, productivity, financial and reputation. Therefore, companies should aim to set exceptional safety mandates. Those need to come from the top.
“If you set your [safety] standard high, you're going to reach measures you never thought you could. So setting that expectation, having that right attitude at the top, being consistent, and following up are critical elements to safety excellence.”
Though people and their safety are his core focus, Jack also recognizes the tethered bond between safety and financial success for a business, which can only be perpetuated by those in leadership roles.
Featured Guest
👉 Name: Jack Frost
👉 What he does: As Vice President of Environment Health Safety at Heico Construction Group, Jack improves plans for establishing the "why," "where" and "how" that bring ideas to successful execution with broad support across the organization.
👉 Company: Heico Construction Group
👉 Key quote: “People are fallible. They're going to make mistakes. And I think understanding those human performance principles is a critical element of improving safety.”
👉 Where to find him: LinkedIn
Safe Takes
⚠️ Hierarchy of controls take human mistakes into account. They use numerous layers of safety to ensure the protection of employees while understanding mistakes happen and having a plan every step of the way.
⚠️ Safety has a positive impact on the bottom line. Rather than halting production and processes for a safety investigation, losing time and money, safety controls help eliminate costs through prevention.
⚠️ Set high safety standards. When you set certain standards, you get what you ask for. High standards allow companies to reach new measures of excellence.
Resources
⛑️ Heico Construction Group — This group operates business units across three key segments: commercial construction solutions, industrial construction solutions and construction equipment.
⛑️ National Safety Council — Each year the National Safety Council presents the “CEOs Who ‘Get It’” award.
Top quotes from the episode:
“There are two parts to safety. It’s about leadership driving it and having consistency.”
“So how is it that one company has superior numbers and another company is struggling significantly? It all starts with leadership. You can have the best programs in place. You can have the best processes in place, but if you don't have the leadership commitment driving it at the very top, then it’s simply not going to happen.”
“One of my passions is [dismantling] hierarchy controls...When we use that approach, we're depending on one person to make the right decision every single time. And that's just not realistic. Understanding human performance principles is a critical element of improving safety.”
“The hierarchy of controls is the process of having stronger controls to prevent incidents from occurring.”
“In the safety field, we haven't done a great job as far as tethering safety and financials. In the past, I felt they were mutually exclusive. You'd talk about safety, but not the financial aspect of it. I think they should be married together because safety does have a direct financial impact.”
“If you set your standard low, guess what? You get what you asked f...
08/13/20 • 19 min
Brent Sanger originally dreamed of a career as an electronics engineer, so when he joined the military at age 18, he took a job fixing radios. But the work wasn’t as meaningful as he’d hoped, and when he got back from Operation Desert Shield/Operation Desert Storm, he became an Army medic.
That job felt right, and it led him to then join the fire service when he got out of the Army.
“It felt that it's where I needed to be,” Sanger says in this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE. “I wanted to help people. I was still young enough to kind of crave that adrenaline rush ... I wanted to make a difference. And I did, I made a difference in a lot of people's lives.”
He pivoted his career yet again after 11 years as a firefighter paramedic. Brent was moving from Georgia to California, and the latter only accepts fire certifications from those who attended a fire academy in the state. He didn’t want to go through that training all over again at age 40, so he got his commercial driver's license and went back to doing something he did often in the military: transporting materials.
After four and a half years, Brent’s next move was to leverage his experience in high-pressure environments where people were relying on him for survival to transition into the trucking safety sector. He took a job as an accident prevention specialist — his past experience helped a lot when speaking with drivers.
“When they know that they're talking to somebody that's been out there, that understands what life is like on the road, it really makes things click a whole lot easier,” Brent says.
It also helps him communicate the importance of drivers to executive leadership, which Brent says is crucial for getting a company onboard with the same safety procedures. He believes safety goals and vision starts at the top with management, but accomplishing those goals can only be done from the employees on up.
One key lesson he often teaches drivers is to learn from the mistakes of others, especially mistakes they see clearly displayed on social media.
“We can be safe by avoiding failure, but that takes a very long time,” Brent says. “The best way to do it is to learn from failure, and not just our own.”
Featured Guest
👉 Name: Brent Sanger
👉 What he does: As the Compliance/Safety Manager at Western Flyer Express, an Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based transportation (particularly trucking and railroad) company, Brent is primarily responsible for vetting applicants and evaluating current drivers.
👉 Company: Western Flyer Express
👉 Key quote: “Safety is ensuring everybody gets where they're going in the same condition they left to get there.”
👉 Where to find him: LinkedIn
Safe Takes
⚠️ Show employees you care about them as people when you’re evaluating them. An employee is much more likely to listen to — and remain loyal to — an employer if you express the value they bring to the company.
⚠️ Teach employees what’s in it for them, and to learn from other’s mistakes. When they hear of an accident or see photos of one on social media, employees are more likely to not make the same mistake themselves. And when they understand that safe workers make more money, they’re more likely to buy-in.
⚠️ Priorities change, but safety must remain a core value for every company. Brent says “it's important until it becomes an impediment to something else,” which means companies that don’t think of safety as fundamental to what they do, run the risk of not making it a priority.
Resources
⛑️ Operation Desert Storm –– Learn more about the mission during the Gulf War that helped Brent learn he wanted a career centered around helping people.
⛑️ Firefighter training — Brent pivoted his career into trucking when he moved to California so he wouldn’t have to go through the Fire Academy all over again. What does that training take?
⛑️ 3 types of driving distractions — This blog post covers some common ways drivers are affected by distractions and how they can be avoided.
Top quotes from the episode:
“I like to say I treated more patients with laughter and oxygen than I did my drug box. That's what I tried to do.”
“That truck can be replaced. The freight that it's hauling can be replaced. But we cannot replace the person that is the driver.”
“Safety starts at the top, but it's built from the bottom. You have to get that — the tired, old expression — ‘buy-in’ from everyone.”
“It's not a question of if something's going to happen, but when, and, if you make it (safety) a value, it becomes something that's near and dear to your heart.”
“I like to say that the goal that I have for my caree...
Jeremy Sawyer | Don't Overlook the Hard Work
No Accident
03/18/21 • 31 min
Few 18-year-olds know what an industrial hygienist is. So it makes sense why Jeremy Sawyer didn’t consider that major during his first year of college. After realizing physical therapy wasn't for him, he spoke to a counselor who opened his eyes.
“I said ... ‘The curriculum is really what I'm interested in — math and science — but I also want to be able to help folks,’” he recalls on this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE. “She pointed me in the direction of industrial hygiene.”
After working as an industrial hygienist for six years, Jeremy became a health and safety supervisor at a chemical company, which led him down a more safety-oriented path. Now, he’s Deputy Director of Environment, Safety and Health at California-based SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
Regardless of whether a workplace is more science-driven than profit-driven — like a lab — Jeremy said it’s still crucial to maintain a successful safety program. His approach to avoiding incidents is to first gain buy-in from the C-suite, which he does without focusing on the cost of injuries.
“When you're talking with leaders, you want to ensure that they understand that our most important resource and the reason that we are able to be successful is our folks in the field,” he says. “We need to make sure that they have the tools ... because if sites get shut down for whatever reason, then they're not making money.”
On this episode of No Accident, Jeremy also discusses the importance of not policing employees and showing that you genuinely care about their well-being.
“I think failure in our line of work can be absolutely catastrophic. Not in a financial sense, but in a people sense. We want to make sure that failures don't result in people getting hurt.”
Featured Guest
👉 Name: Jeremy Sawyer
👉 What he does: As Deputy Director of Environment, Safety and Health at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Jeremy uses his background as an industrial hygienist to maintain a people-first, money-second approach to safety.
👉 Company: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
👉 Key quote: “I think that is one of the most important facets of a health and safety program — it's a learning organization. Not everything all the time is going to be perfect. And so you take the opportunity to learn when those opportunities are presented to you.”
👉 Where to find him: LinkedIn
Safe Takes
⚠️ Don’t overlook the hard work. Jeremy emphasizes the hard work that goes into making a facility like SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory a safe working environment. He says to never take for granted the hard work that got you to where you are or you’ll risk not being to sustain your success.
⚠️ You can’t have a successful safety program unless management is on board. Jeremy said the most important first step to implementing a safety program is to explain the importance of safety to upper management in a way that’s not just focused on the numbers (i.e., what a certain type of injury or even fatality costs the company). Rather, it should be focused on people — the employees in the field.
⚠️ Don’t parachute into a worksite and police employees. One of the biggest misconceptions Jeremy has seen throughout his career is that health and safety departments exist to get workers in trouble. That’s why he finds it particularly important when traveling to sites he doesn’t frequent often to lean on the people who are there every day. He makes sure any safety messaging directed to employees after or during the visit is coming from those onsite leaders who the employees already trust.
⚠️ All safety messaging must come from a place of compassion. To make employees work safer, listen to their concerns and then show that you care about their perspectives and well-being. Taking the time to deeply understand the particular needs and concerns of the individuals at every site increases the likelihood of buy-in from employees.
Resources
⛑️ Daniels College of Business — Learn about the cohort program from which Jeremy received his Master of Business Administration at the University of Denver.
⛑️ Occupational Health Science degree — Explore the program (under a new name) that Jeremy attended as an undergraduate at Purdue University.
⛑️ Who are OEHS Professionals? — Read the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s definition of industrial hygienist (which they also call “OEHS professionals”).
Top qu...
05/27/21 • 30 min
Katherine Syverson has spent 40 years in manufacturing with a variety of businesses. To say she knows and understands the risks and needs of the field would be an understatement.
Now, as the Environment, Health and Safety Director at Life Fitness, the umbrella company for six fitness brands, Katherine uses the knowledge and experience from her manufacturing days to inform her policy practices.
“We use a lot of lean manufacturing tools and Six Sigma concepts in safety, just like we would in quality or operations or efficiencies,” Katherine explains on this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE. “We use those same tools and mindsets and kind of that continuous improvement mindset to constantly get better in the workplace around working in a safe manner.”
At Life Fitness, Katherine develops and integrates company-wide standardized, proactive EHSS programs and practices through collaborative leadership. In fact, she boasts about Life Fitness’s leaders’ dedication to safety.
“We had a global leadership meeting this past week and talked about safety as really being a highlight of continuous improvement and performance this year,” she says. “The CEO talked about the fact that safety is in everybody's basket. It's for everybody to be participating in affecting change around safety. So I see not only my own leadership but the leadership within the organization really being authentic.”
According to Katherine, it is truly in leaders’ best interests to invest in safety as a process flow because it is just as much an investment in employees as it is in the company’s future.
“[Safety] is not a cost savings; it's a cost avoidance. ... [That means] being able to think about it more as a business practice — like how can I make an improvement on the safety side of things that can ultimately affect business efficiencies and quality metrics?”
Featured Guest
👉 Name: Katherine Syverson
👉 What she does: As the Environment, Health and Safety Director at Life Fitness, Katherine develops and integrates company-wide standardized, proactive EHSS programs and practices through collaborative leadership.
👉 Company: Life Fitness
👉 Key quote: “[Safety] is not a cost savings; it's a cost avoidance.”
👉 Where to find her: LinkedIn | Facebook
Safe Takes
⚠️ Safety shouldn’t exist in a silo. Katherine emphasizes the impact of safety on all other aspects of business — it’s a business practice that affects efficiency and quality metrics.
⚠️ Safety is a process flow. Thinking about safety from a mindset of needing continuous improvement helps to constantly raise workplace standards and conditions.
⚠️ The key to a safe workplace is having everyone involved. It’s not just leadership — safety requires commitment from every employee.
Resources
⛑️ Eaton Honors 2014 Stover Award — Awarded to Katherine Syverson for her volunteer work with the Boy Scouts of America, Eden Prairie Fire Department and Community Emergency Response Team.
⛑️ Environmental Health and Safety Services (EHSS) — Federal program and training resources for those in the field.
⛑️ Manufacturers Alliance — Providing peer-to-peer training and education in the manufacturing industry.
Top quotes from the episode:
“I really have to work hard at helping people understand why we're doing what we're doing and give them enough background so that they understand the why behind it and the critical nature.”
“[Safety] is not a cost savings; it's a cost avoidance. So really being able to think about it more as a business practice like how to make an improvement on the safety side of things that can ultimately affect business efficiencies and quality metrics. So safety isn't disconnected all by itself in its own silo.”
“We've really shifted in terms of how we look at injuries. Today, we look at it really more as a process flow. We use a lot of lean manufacturing tools and Six Sigma concepts in safety, just like we would in quality or operations or efficiencies. We use those same tools and mindsets and kind of that continuous improvement mindset to constantly get better in the workplace around working in a safe manner.”
“We recognize leading indicators rather than lagging indicators. ... So you start measuring the things that create a more positive, more safe wo...
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FAQ
How many episodes does No Accident have?
No Accident currently has 37 episodes available.
What topics does No Accident cover?
The podcast is about Safety, Management, Software, Podcasts, Technology and Business.
What is the most popular episode on No Accident?
The episode title 'Regina McMichael | The Safety Ninja' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on No Accident?
The average episode length on No Accident is 28 minutes.
How often are episodes of No Accident released?
Episodes of No Accident are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of No Accident?
The first episode of No Accident was released on Mar 11, 2020.
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