CITEC's 15th Annual Safety Day was held on May 24th with about 80 people in attendance. It was certainly one of our best attended events since before COVID, reflecting that it is time, once again, to focus on every-day safety matters.
As usual, Jeff Prebish, our OSHA Area Director, was one of our most popular presenters. It's great to have OSHA around as a reference, especially when they aren't in your facility for an inspection or an incident. Jeff's main point is often that the OSHA standards are the "passing grade," the bare minimum that a company needs to do. Compliance is good, but building a culture that keeps workers safe is a more important job.
What we heard most about throughout the day were questions around turnover and new hires; how to build a culture of safety when there are so many new people around who don't know the power of the tools they are working with, and don't understand the need for compliance, let alone really thinking about how to build a safety mindset into everything they do.
These are tough questions, and ones that we will focus on building answers to over the next year. One thing we do know however, is that companies with strong safety cultures retain workers. This isn't shocking. A strong safety culture demonstrates respect, and is the foundation for continuous improvement.
It was great to be in the room with so many safety professionals for Safety Day this year, working to build the kinds of safety programs that keep workers coming back to work. If your program needs a refresh, feel free to give us a call for a cost-free consultation on your best and most accessible next steps. And join us for Safety Day next year, mid-May 2024.