My First Safety Conference

Yesterday I attended my first safety conference, I telephone meeting between all nine Unilever ice cream plants in the US. The plant manager (the head honcho), Ken, at the facility I work at in Clearwater is the safety leader for all the plants, so he lead the conference. The meeting began with Ken going through three slides he made discussing numbers, noting largely the TRFR's (Total Recordable Frequency Rate) from 2009. In general, all the plants were at a different level when it came to safety, but within Unilever, ice cream had one of the highest TRFR's, which needs to be improved. Ken went on to discuss means of improvement, including new programs he would like to implement, and an observation that the ice cream plants in Latin America have a much lower TRFR, so their work should be analyzed. Lastly, one plant has gone 467 work days without an accident (an amazing accomplishment) so Ken asked the plant manager there to discuss what lead to such a great achievement. The plant manager there talked about how they strongly believe in open and frequent communication between the hourly employees and the management. Communication is important because it not only includes the employees, a basic human need, but it has the possibility of seeing things in a new perspective and creating changes for the better. There plant also has weekly safety meetings before the shift starts lead by the shift supervisor. I personal agree with that practice, I feel that discussing safety on a regular basis keeps it fresh in an employees' mind, which decreases the occurrence of a behavioral induced accident. Lastly, the plant manager shared that their plant has many fun programs, keeping safety fun and enjoyable. They have a race for safe ideas, in which 180 employees sat around in their break room coloring race cars and contributing 270 new safety ideas - based off the Daytona 500. They also had a program based off the March Madness games. It does not take many resources to make something fun, and when people are having fun, they're more likely to open up, listen, and reflect on what they've learned. After a few more comments from Ken, the conference came to a close. I really enjoyed sitting in on the safety conference, it was interesting to hear the numbers that we currently hold and our goals for improvement. I am pleased that there is a mentality that when we see someone doing it right, we observe and ask questions, maybe make changes, so we can become better as well.