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#77: The Women of Safety Partners, Inc.
81 Plays3 years ago
Safety is never a straight path and it wasn't any different for Jennifer Reilly. Now President and COO of Safety Partners, Inc., we learn how Jennifer and the organization are encouraging young women to start a career in safety.
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Transcript
Introduction and Career Beginnings
00:00:03
Speaker
This is the Accidental Safety Pro brought to you by HSI. This episode was recorded July 12th, 2021. My name is Jill James, HSI's Chief Safety Officer, and today I'm joined by Jennifer Riley, President and COO of Safety Partners. Jennifer is joining us today from the Greater Boston area. Welcome to the show.
00:00:25
Speaker
Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. We're recording this pretty early for our producer's time zone. Here we are. Here we are. Jen, really excited to hear about your journey in safety and how you've gotten to be the president and CEO of Safety Partners, but I know you didn't jump in right there.
00:00:54
Speaker
Yeah. What's your journey to health and safety? Yeah. I think like many safety professionals, it's never a straight path. But I've always really loved science and knew that I wanted to do something in science. Out of undergrad, I studied biology and was really considering and more aggressively, I guess,
00:01:19
Speaker
pursuing a clinical role. I wanted to help people, talk with people, have a lot of interaction.
00:01:26
Speaker
but
Academic to Industry Transition
00:01:26
Speaker
I did find myself after graduation in a research lab and an academic research lab. That was a mixed experience for me. I think when you're first starting out in your career path, it's always good to learn what you really enjoy doing and learn those tasks and things that you don't necessarily care for. That was pretty pivotal and thinking, I'm not sure that research is really for me, but I loved the science piece of it.
00:01:54
Speaker
How long did you do that? Just for two years in the academic setting. And so then I decided to take a step into industry and started as a researcher in a small startup. So about 20 people and just a very different experience. I had great mentorship. I had great colleagues and and it was an opportunity at a startup to wear many different hats.
00:02:22
Speaker
So, you know, one of those hats was the onsite biosafety officer, as well as almost doing some lab management, operational type of responsibilities and then doing the research. And that just that role really resonated with me. And I felt like I was really hitting my stride. I liked doing a lot of different things. And I loved being connected to the science and
00:02:48
Speaker
And so I took a couple of—you know, I worked at a couple of other companies after that in similar roles. But the last company I worked for before joining Safety Partners, I was really indoctrinated into the safety
00:03:06
Speaker
again, another startup really small at the time. And we needed someone to help manage the lab operationally, help get the permits and all the safety program up and running, as well as do some of the research because again, small startup, you're doing a bunch of different things. And it was really getting into that safety piece and learning really on the job.
00:03:30
Speaker
how much I loved it, how much I loved making, enabling the science, making things run more efficiently, and just felt like, hmm, this is really where I want to be. And there
Focus on Safety and Management Development
00:03:44
Speaker
was a point that as we were growing pretty aggressively that I had to make a decision, do I want to continue doing research? Or do I want to focus on the safety and the lab management and the operations?
00:03:57
Speaker
So it was an easy answer for me. So I was really lucky. And I said, I definitely want the I guess middle management role track at that point. And so when you're when you're making that decision in your head, and like you said, like you said, you're really kind of finding your stride in that piece of it. What, what was it about it? And
00:04:22
Speaker
And then, you know, when you're developing yourself, I mean, I don't know if you're developing yourself, but when you're finding who you are as a manager and, you know, kind of defining that for yourself, did you have mentors along the way that you were that were advising and guiding you on that? Or how did you develop yourself into that management role? Because that's a thing.
00:04:44
Speaker
Yeah, it's, it's definitely a thing and I did, I had some great colleagues. But I'd have to say it wasn't till I would say, really, in my current role that I
00:04:58
Speaker
have realized the value of having your own, you know, everyone says your own personal advisory board or your own group of colleagues and that you can be truly authentic with and put yourself out there and ask for advice and ask for help. So I had a few of, you know, a few of those individuals along the way that I would bounce ideas off of or
00:05:22
Speaker
Um, especially just, you know, managing other people in the lab. And it wasn't a direct line management, but it was, you know, how do you get them to follow the safety procedures and you know, that influence without authority. And so.
00:05:37
Speaker
I definitely would bounce things off of fellow colleagues that I respected and finding my own type of mentorship in those roles. What do you think of this? This is what I'm thinking of saying. This is what I'm thinking of doing. Feeling comfortable to do that, I think, is really valuable. Yeah.
00:05:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, interesting. Yeah, so yeah, what happened next? You know,
Balancing Career and Family
00:06:04
Speaker
you've been doing, it sounds like you were kind of, you like startups and you were kind of honing your craft in operations and management and kind of leaving that research piece behind a little bit. Yeah, was that hard to do?
00:06:22
Speaker
It was hard in some sense because I think it's always scary to make a decision and wonder, am I reaching a point of no return? If I make this decision and I decide I don't really like this path, can I go back? Is the technology in the lab going to change so much? Am I going to forget how to do what I was doing? A natural question.
00:06:47
Speaker
I definitely went through that in my head, but at the time I was also, I had two small children. So I got married and was raising my family and wanted more work-life balance. I was going to work on the weekends a fair amount. So it just seemed like a natural progression that helped make that decision. Sure.
00:07:16
Speaker
So then I had the good fortune of, I had, you know, at this point I was part-time and I was going to take the summer off. And in my current role, the current, you know, the founder and CEO of Safety Partners, you know, she caught wind that I was taking the summer off. And so I should back up and say I had met
00:07:45
Speaker
met her when I was working at the first industry role that I had, and she was just starting Safety Partners. Yeah, so let's talk about, if you don't mind, I'm sure they can look up your company name, but what is Safety Partners? Yeah, let's talk about that.
00:08:05
Speaker
Yeah, Safety Partners is a professional services firm that we go in when there's hazardous materials, hazardous processes, hazardous equipment, and we want to wrap a workplace safety program around those hazards. So we really cut our teeth in a consulting role. We call ourselves consulting safety officers, but essentially we're EHS managers on a consulting basis.
00:08:30
Speaker
We're going in there working with companies that have this need and maybe they don't have the need for a full-time role so we can go in on a part-time basis and make sure that safety is happening. From the more obvious, do you have the right permits in place and the right written materials and training, and then developing from there.
00:08:56
Speaker
So,
Career Growth at Safety Partners
00:08:57
Speaker
you know, we have a repertoire of about 200 plus clients that we serve each month with our 65 employees. Wow. Wow. Wonderful. And so you met the founder when she was starting up the, you had worked together somewhere else. So that, I mean, this is part of your progression in your history. So interesting to hear this part. Yeah.
00:09:18
Speaker
So it was really great because she would ping me every once in a while and say, are you ready to join? And to me, I was very risk averse and I felt like, here's this small consulting company. Is this going to be a steady income for me? Just feeling nervous about making that commitment.
00:09:43
Speaker
but clearly recognizing that somewhere down in my future, I could see myself working at Safety Partners because I know that I'm really starting to enjoy that work. I checked the box of, am I going to like that career pivot? But it was more about stability. In my mind, working at a startup was less risky than working at this small consulting firm, which people would probably disagree.
00:10:12
Speaker
I mean, but that's also part of our profession, right? I mean, you know, we are just by nature of the work that we do risk averse and then you throw in like a startup and a consulting firm and you really have to weigh in your mind. Yeah. Which one's less risky? Exactly. So, you know, I went through that and, um, and so just kept in touch
00:10:38
Speaker
over the years, and as I had progressed at other positions, until I found myself at, again, this inflection point of, I think I'm going to, you know, work part time, take the summer off, spend some time with the family, and then decide in the fall, you know, what was next. And so, at that point,
00:10:59
Speaker
You know, a little birdie whispered in her ear and she called me and said, well, I have this contract. It's one day a week and would you like to come on board? And and then I thought, one day a week, that sounds sounds pretty good. Not as risky. Yeah, you know, I could still have lots of fun summertime. Yeah. And then work one day a week. And and I loved it. I loved the the company I was assigned to work and support.
00:11:25
Speaker
I really just loved the work. I loved that looking at what they need and how could I enable them to do it safely and put processes in place. And I think that's that operational piece. It's, you know, you're building a safety program. And so to me, I found a lot of
00:11:42
Speaker
job satisfaction in that and getting them to a place where I felt as though they could work efficiently partly because they had good procedures in place to do things safely and to enable the science that they were getting done. When you were first starting out with this, it's primarily in lab settings, yes? Yes, it's always been in lab settings. Exactly.
00:12:09
Speaker
So, you know, through Safety Partners, we really strive to grow the business organically and, you know, promote from within. And I've had a lot of great opportunities to continue to take more responsibilities as I learned more of the business side of things, as well as the safety aspects. There's, you know, regulations are always changing.
00:12:33
Speaker
Um, so it's definitely a very dynamic environment. And so I'm now happy to say that I've, uh, through the years again, taking, uh, increased responsibilities and in my role now I've been here 14 years and, you know, don't look back. Well, and there's, there's something pretty unique about where you're at right now. So do you want to share that with the audience?
Women in STEM and Mentorship
00:13:03
Speaker
Tell me a little more. Yeah, right. Well, you live it every day, so maybe it doesn't seem as unique to you. But when I heard that you are at a woman-founded, woman-owned business in safety, in STEM, I'm like, wow, I have to talk to this person.
00:13:21
Speaker
So tell us what that's like. Yeah, that's really amazing because again, for the last 14 years, I've had the great support system of a woman-owned and woman-run company just working in the field, supporting STEM. So it just gives you a very different view when you're talking with colleagues who are struggling
00:13:51
Speaker
with maybe inequity in the workplace. And here's, I have this opportunity to live it every day. And I do feel incredibly lucky that it's, you know, it's been acceptable to say that it's, you know, it's been acceptable to say, you know, I have to go pick, I have to be the mom.
00:14:11
Speaker
Whereas that isn't always necessarily accepted in all work environments. So that work-life balance has definitely been a real positive influence. And so as we look to recruit and hire more great consultants, I'm always looking for that
00:14:34
Speaker
that younger demographic, I guess, that they're looking to make their next career pivot. I want to show them how great it is to work for this company. Yeah. In addition to work-life balance in what you've identified with being a woman-owned company, what other gifts do you think that has brought?
00:15:02
Speaker
So it's also just a very collaborative environment. I find that
00:15:14
Speaker
there isn't the competition that maybe you would imagine. So part of that just collegial environment, everyone's trying to learn and kind of pull everyone else up along the way. So I find that that's been pretty amazing. Yeah, interesting.
00:15:34
Speaker
in a really good way. So as you, you know, because of what it is that you all do, and because you're woman owned, you have the ability to maybe really promote women in STEM.
00:15:49
Speaker
Can you talk about how that works in your company and do you do things outside of safety partners to help women realize this career path? Yes. It's actually been about a year now. Last July, I joined the Board of West.
00:16:10
Speaker
So West is women in the enterprise of science and technology. So it's a learning organization supporting women early in their careers, you know, early to mid-level careers.
00:16:23
Speaker
And so, you know, by participating in that board, it's all about networking. It's about what types of seminars and webinars and tools can we add to the toolbox of these young women professionals to help them in science and technology careers.
00:16:44
Speaker
So that's been really amazing to see there's various mentorship roles and see someone go from coming to these networking events, being pretty shy, and how they turn on their extra version and learn how to network better and see them get the next role that they're looking for or learn how to advocate for themselves.
00:17:11
Speaker
or in a better way, you know, self-advocation in the workplace. And so that, you know, for me personally has been a really exciting role. You know, you had asked earlier about, you know, along the way as I've taken these pivots and, you know, did I have mentors and I truly wish I
00:17:31
Speaker
when I was at that point in my career was involved with Westmore. So the ability to increase our membership with a younger demographic learning, you know, just starting out in their career is really amazing. Yeah. Yeah, I will have to, if it's appropriate, Jen, let's let's include a link to West in the show notes so that people can find it if they want to.
00:17:57
Speaker
Yeah, that would be great. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us, tell us, I mean, I West is an organization I've not heard of before. So tell us more about, you know, how did it, how did it get going? And who is it for? Is it for people who are just new in their careers or is it all ages or how does it work?
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah, so it is for, I mean, it is for all ages, but it's really meant to be a learning organization. So what are the various tools and things that people need to know and just a safe place, I guess you could say, for, you know, women, but it's not just exclusively women, but early career stage to learn,
00:18:46
Speaker
you know, learn those characteristics, I guess, that are going to help them be successful. So it's, you know, again, that we provide a lot of programming that's focused on
00:19:01
Speaker
early professionals in STEM environments, but also tenured professionals that are looking for a pivot. They're looking to stay within science, but take a different role or they're between opportunities and how we can support that process as well. I suppose many of us have
00:19:26
Speaker
a difficult time or not knowing how to ask for a wage increase or negotiate a salary. That kind of stuff. Is that some of the things that Wes helps people with as well? Yeah, that's exactly a great
00:19:44
Speaker
It's that career advice piece. How can you take the next step in career advancement or look at alternative career options and build your leadership skills? Really, that skill development is a large piece and how you can do that in a networking setting, just empowering women to really reach their full potential.
00:20:10
Speaker
Love it. Sounds like an amazing organization. Thanks for sharing that. Oh, you're welcome. Yeah. I know you have some feelings about, um, that a career isn't just a job. Do you want to, do you want to talk about what that is? What that means to you? Yeah.
Career Fulfillment and Impact
00:20:26
Speaker
So, you know, I think,
00:20:29
Speaker
We all spend so much time at work and why have it be just a job, as you say. So just really enjoying what you do and having that positive feedback loop of that you're really making an impact. And I think part of working in safety, everyone will say, of course you want people to be safe and you want people to follow the rules.
00:20:52
Speaker
And that's part of it. But it's also, as we look at our client base, they're this innovative group of incredibly smart scientists who are taking these ideas and making the next COVID vaccine and the next drug for Alzheimer's. And so just to really be part of that enabling science is very gratifying.
00:21:21
Speaker
Definitely safety partners and really the safety industry, it's supporting, it's a customer service type of role. But I've found that even though I'm not doing the science physically, I'm really enjoying the positive outcomes of seeing these companies succeed and how that makes it feel much more like a career and you're taking the next steps.
00:21:47
Speaker
versus just a job that you clock in at every day. Yeah. The accomplishment that you can see your customers and clients succeed too, you know that you had a hand in that.
00:22:02
Speaker
Exactly. It's a small part, but it takes a lot of different support mechanisms to make that happen. Of course, I can't take credit for that. You're a piece of it. Knowing it's a piece of it, exactly.
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah, you've also had mentioned to me when we spoke earlier about you framed safety as the stepchild.
00:22:32
Speaker
Yeah, you want to talk more about what that means? Well, you know, the thing I love about this, this podcast and talking about the accidental safety pro is, you know, the, the stereotype of the safety officer that comes into the lab with their lab coat glasses and clipboard and, you know, the safety caught mentality.
00:22:55
Speaker
So I think everyone, you know, they have just a somewhat negative view of safety. And so when you think about, you know, transitioning into a career in safety, right from the get go, you'd have maybe this visceral response of, I don't want to be the person that nobody wants to see when they walk in the lab. You know, I want, you know, more of the social aspect of it.
00:23:20
Speaker
So that's why I tend to call it the stepchild, because again, they're sort of the forgotten and also the forgotten profession that in the number of people that we interview, so many of them say, geez, I never thought of this as a career.
00:23:37
Speaker
or they're looking, they have advanced degrees and they're deciding to step away from actually doing the research, but how can I be involved with the science and be part of it? And they say, I never thought about doing safety.
00:23:53
Speaker
Um, but it's, their background is a perfect way to, you know, for us, at least it's a sweet spot of someone who's worked at the bench, understands the, the operational workings of the laboratory and how they can apply safety to that. And so we definitely want to, um, think about.
00:24:14
Speaker
you know, that mind shift of you're not the stepchild. It's actually a really rewarding career that you can get a lot of career advancement and satisfaction.
00:24:24
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that as health and safety professionals, we can get stuck in those personas, or maybe we make assumptions that you have to be that persona to be that person. Like you had mentioned, safety cop, that's definitely a persona that's associated with our career path by many people that are observing from the outside.
00:24:50
Speaker
And then, and then it also can be a place where sometimes some of us get stuck in that, you know, I often talk with our team at HSI about the different personas that we may meet along the way when we're talking with health and safety professionals and safety cop is one of those personas I talk about.
00:25:10
Speaker
And some people are kind of stuck in being that. I've been personally the literal safety cup because I worked for OSHA, so I had the badge and everything that went with it. But in a non-enforcement role, that can be a person who only sees things in shades of black or white.
00:25:36
Speaker
and no shade of business gray. And sometimes that's limiting to your career. You know, if you're stuck in that, right? Um, you know, and then, and then there, there are others, you know, I talk about, I talk about people who are really, um, uh, I frame it as an Anton ego. Do you remember from the Pixar show?
00:26:01
Speaker
Well, Pixar did this movie called Ratatouille, and Anton Igo was the name of a character who was a restaurant critic.
00:26:13
Speaker
Oh, right. Okay. Yeah. And, and, you know, no one could do anything right for Anton. You know, like, you know, everyone was like beneath, beneath Anton and you just had to excel to this highest and highest levels. And I think sometimes in pieces of our careers, um, you know, we have, we have people like that in our careers too, or maybe some of us have been that person where, you know, like I know more than everybody else, right?
00:26:42
Speaker
can't be taught anything. And then I think there's also a persona where we've been drowning in our careers before, and there's so many things coming at us, and we just need a lifeline and help.
00:26:56
Speaker
And I know I've spoken with other professionals and kind of talked about some of these personas. I had one person actually from a university say, I've been all those people in my career. And I'm like, which one are you right now? And he identified one and I'm like, and I'm this one.
00:27:15
Speaker
I've been this one and I think we move around as we grow. But I think growing is the key there. You don't want to pigeonhole yourself in one persona. Well, it also feels the confidence in the role as well that you don't have to justify your
00:27:34
Speaker
your existence in this role that it's, it's a valuable role and, and you don't have to constantly feel like you're justifying the value. Yeah. And so I think with time and tenure, you have that confidence and, you know, to
00:27:51
Speaker
pivot with how you make conversation with people that you need to influence their behavior and their safety behavior, and you try different techniques. There's that professional growth as well of how you have those tricky conversations and those soft skills that you turn on and turn off and pivot around. Yeah, right. Exactly. Those soft skills are so important. Is learning those skills something that
00:28:21
Speaker
that organically happen for you or are there specific places that you went, authors that you followed, you know, the way that you've learned things?
00:28:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's, I mean, I would say it's a little bit of both. Because when, you know, when I think about as we're considering different people for the role, and really, just when I think about myself, it's, it's the attitude versus the aptitude, and someone can learn all the technical things you can
00:28:52
Speaker
be shown the regulations or shown the technical pieces of how to do something as long as you have the aptitude to learn. But it's the attitude and how you approach it. I think by nature,
00:29:07
Speaker
You know, it's part of just how you approach things, but you always have to get better at it. And so it's, I had the benefit of having an executive coach a few years ago, and that was really incredibly valuable to, to help frame, you know, how you approach things, how you develop your leadership skills.
00:29:27
Speaker
Also, just attending various seminars and webinars on developing soft skills, I think are really important because it's important to see just the other viewpoints to help frame how you're going to consider that situation. I think some of it is learned. I think if you ever meet someone who has really poor soft skills, it's hard to imagine them totally changing.
00:29:55
Speaker
And it's obvious, too. Yeah, it's that this is how they are wired. And we're really not going to change that. But I think there's enhancements that you can make. And definitely a learning curve aspect of the soft skills piece. But in this in the safety profession, I feel like that's the most important, like successful trait is how you can go in and have that that tricky conversation and really get by in
00:30:25
Speaker
Yeah,
Soft Skills and Leadership Development
00:30:26
Speaker
yeah, and I don't I don't know that it's a I don't know that that's a skill that you are like, Ooh, done and dusted. I've got that nail. I feel like it's a I feel like it's a progression. You know, like you keep learning something new about yourself or a new way to connect with people.
00:30:43
Speaker
And I'm sure that's part of the safety personas that you were alluding to. It's as you learn more about yourself, you learn how you can connect with people in a different way to be more successful in just that influence and that it doesn't have to be adversarial in the safety role.
00:31:00
Speaker
Absolutely. You had mentioned that you had an executive coach. That's maybe unique for people who are listening right now like, whoa, wait a minute. Can I do that? Can we do that? What's that like and how did you find that for yourself?
00:31:20
Speaker
So as I was stepping into more responsibilities at Safety Partners, and I had been promoted to COO, I recognized that sometimes in a work setting, people are prescribed an executive coach as a punishment, like they're not doing something right, and they need a coach because we need to fix this.
00:31:44
Speaker
So I was lucky to fall into a different category and that, you know, just an incredibly supportive environment and how can we help, you know, make me more successful in the role. And so outside of just colleagues that I have that I, you know, go to for various, you know, personal advisory board type of questions, I really wanted just professional help.
00:32:13
Speaker
So I got a list of a few names and interviewed a few people and just, you know, who am I going to click with? And so just going down that path, I felt incredibly lucky because it just really helped hone a lot of different skills and make me more aware of my behavior and that self-awareness piece. So yeah, so that
00:32:37
Speaker
that was a six to nine month engagement and kind of very goal driven. And it also involved, you know, you have to definitely feel as though you're okay in your own skin. That's a 360 process of going and the coach was interviewing my colleagues that I work with and supervise. So
00:32:59
Speaker
you know, you have to be okay with what you're gonna hear, exactly. So not everybody is gonna, you know.
00:33:08
Speaker
I don't know, be your biggest fan. And so hearing that by everyone. Yeah. So, so definitely humbling, um, but incredibly valuable. So, uh, you know, I think that coaching aspect comes in many different forms and, um, but being able to seek out a coach and, and have that relationship is, it was really valuable and getting to the next level for me. Hmm. Hmm.
00:33:34
Speaker
What a great opportunity and good on you for seeking that out for yourself. Thank you. It's so important to think about how we show up. How we show up for ourselves every day, but how we show up for others. It's that kind of coaching.
00:33:55
Speaker
Um, and, uh, you know, professional development, wherever you can find it. And yeah, sometimes it's with your, with your own, um, personal advisory group, you know, that you find or with mentors or, um, through specific authors or books. Um, yeah. I know I've done a combination of all.
00:34:15
Speaker
Well, it makes a lot of sense. You know, if you're a professional, you know, in professional sports, there's a coach. There's someone helping you be your best. So, you know, why not apply that to being the best leader that you can be or the best safety professional that you can be and sort of getting that guidance. Right, right.
00:34:36
Speaker
You had mentioned a while ago that when you were starting to shape your career path and which direction you were going to go, you were talking about how you thrive on making systems. Yeah, can you talk more about that? Particularly maybe for our listeners who might be starting out or maybe are re-imagining their career,
00:35:05
Speaker
What were you noticing in yourself that made you go, this is what feels right to me, particularly around systems, because so much of what this profession is, people like we just talked about in relationships, but then there's a system piece.
00:35:25
Speaker
So I think it's partly in my professional world, I wish I could say the same is true in my personal life, but I always wanted to be incredibly organized. So that organizational piece is something that has always come through in my professional life. So I remember working in the lab and you have these particular consumable pieces, these little plastic
00:35:52
Speaker
pipette tips is what they're called, and you use it to move liquid in different experiments. And so everyone in the lab had their own choice of what was their favorite, I guess. So here we were a small company trying to be budget conscious, but everybody was ordering their own different type of brand of these, you know, particular consumable products.
00:36:15
Speaker
And so I just looked at that and said, that's so inefficient. Not only are we getting cases and cases, we don't have room to store it. It's just not cost effective. And to me, like it was just a natural, something very natural to say, how can we make this more efficient? And so that really spoke to me so that
00:36:38
Speaker
making efficiencies, I guess, operationally, you know, then putting that in place and realizing, oh, see, now everybody's happier. We're spending less time doing, you know, mundane ordering. We can get the science done that we want to do.
00:36:53
Speaker
And so for me, that was the positive feedback loop of realizing, I really like to do this. That was a piece that resonated with me. And then you look at the bigger picture of, oh, it's how you make the lab operationally efficient. And so that operations piece in putting those systems in place was, I guess,
00:37:15
Speaker
where I was finding my stride and realizing I wanted to do more of that. Yeah. Yeah. So how did you resolve the pipette piece? Did you determine there was a certain number that was going to be the threshold that you'd order? Did you migrate everybody to one kind? It was migrating to one kind. Wow.
00:37:35
Speaker
which isn't easy, but it's, you know, but I guess the benefit of the startup environment is everyone realizes that even if it's a well-funded startup, you still need to be budget conscious because that's going to just increase the runway for all of our roles until, you know, until the breakthrough happens. So, uh, so if we can be more budget conscious here, like so getting people to, you know, on the same,
00:38:01
Speaker
And it made their life easier too. So I think that was also, yeah. So maybe a seemingly kind of silly example, but it definitely resonated with me that I really like to do this type of thing and that sort of that operations piece that, you know, I got that experience doing and realizing that I enjoyed.
00:38:21
Speaker
Yeah, right.
Efficiency in Lab Environments and Safety Promotion
00:38:23
Speaker
Yeah, I've done similar with, you know, you think about how can we make the complex simple and give people some reassurance along the way that you're taking them into consideration and you're making decisions for specific reasons.
00:38:41
Speaker
Yeah, a number of jobs ago I was working in a medical clinic setting where you know so many people are in offices.
00:38:52
Speaker
or in a laboratory setting like you're talking about. In those settings, it's a really rich environment for musculoskeletal injuries and illnesses with regard to neck, shoulder, arm, hand, all that ergonomic stuff. As I was looking around at all these workstations at all these different locations across the company, I was noticing like, gosh, it was just this
00:39:22
Speaker
mishmash of different kinds of office chairs and different kinds of equipment. And I'm like, where is all this stuff coming from? You know, and asking the questions like, you know, some people have something super nice, some people have something that looks nice, but isn't, like, ergonomically, you know, well designed. Some people are sitting on things or using equipment that are duct taped together.
00:39:48
Speaker
And so I'm like, how did this come to be? And the answer was, well, just various managers sort of guessed like they have their budget and they just sort of guessed what they should buy and nobody really knew. And I went to the CFO.
00:40:04
Speaker
I said, listen, I'm dealing with all these ergonomic things all the time. I want to be able to order specific items to do ergonomic improvements to all these workstations. And I want to know what my budget is. And so he's like, well, can you do some research for me? Just like, what's the most expensive thing? I'm like, well, chair is the most expensive. And he's like, can you get me some numbers? What's the minimum it would take?
00:40:31
Speaker
And so I did and worked with a company and then picked out a lot of like just office chairs that would do the job. And then I had all of them as samples brought to the mothership clinic location, put them in a particular room and had a week where people could vote on their favorites.
00:40:57
Speaker
So they'd come into this room, they'd sit on all these chairs, they'd try them all out. And then I had a ballot box. And out of that, I narrowed it down to top three that would work for like tall people, short people, you know, if they want, you know, and, um, and those became the three that we, that everybody ordered from. So the employees still had agency to make their own choice, but it fit within the budget that the CFO wanted.
00:41:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's perfect. It was a simple system, but gosh, it worked beautifully. Yeah, I did an even more simple system for safety glasses and just the Plano safety glasses. If they're not comfortable, no one's going to wear them, but it's hard to tell when you just open up a catalog. It's not always a one-size-fits-all, so it was getting a bunch of samples. Try them on, which one do you like?
00:41:52
Speaker
and trying to hone in on that so you can put that process in place that it's like you say, here's the three chairs you have to choose from. Yeah. Yeah. In your work, doing systems is incredibly more complex when you're working with labs. Interesting. Yeah. What else, Jen, would you like to share with our audience?
00:42:23
Speaker
So I think just it's it's really, again, the topic of the podcast and just thinking about the accidental safety pro is just to remember that you don't have to have that straight line to a career in safety. And but it's
00:42:40
Speaker
I think just getting the word out there that it's actually a career, and it's a really rewarding career. And even there's ways to specialize, for example, becoming an industrial hygienist.
00:42:58
Speaker
a field that's really waning and there's you know not as many people going into industrial hygiene so you know how we can get the word out there that safety is a career path that that people should consider. Do you have any ideas on how we should be getting that word out you know as a
00:43:19
Speaker
Yeah, as a group. I think more in the educational system and just, you know, at the college level, having these various occupational health and safety programs. We started, you know, at Safety Partners, we've done various guest lecturing at some various institutions, you know, go in for a one night kind of lecture just to talk about
00:43:47
Speaker
careers in safety and I think doing more of that outreach is also helpful because again, as you have someone and maybe they're studying biology or some other STEM field and thinking just all these traditional roots of how they could use that education, they don't think of safety. I think having that at the college level when people are trying to decide a career path is helpful.
00:44:15
Speaker
That's a really good call to action for any of us. I mean, I've spoken about safety career in a construction management degree program, but that's obvious. That's an obvious one. I've spoken at a STEM conference for young girls about it. But gosh, for any of us who have
00:44:42
Speaker
a college that we went to understanding that so many of us maybe have an undergrad degree that, like you said, is in biology or something ancillary to science. I mean, to safety rather. Yeah, I could reach back to my university and my bachelor's degrees in community health education, and I had one safety class. Why am I not going to that degree program at that campus and saying, hey,
00:45:11
Speaker
Thanks. That's a good motivation, good inspiration. Good. I know we've also used the opportunity to speak at various postdoc associations. Again, safety partners really focuses in the life sciences. As we look at postdocs deciding, do they want to run an academic lab or do they want to pivot in what's next?
00:45:35
Speaker
pivoting into safety and how, again, we can provide that education of what a career in safety could look like has also been a really good avenue. Yeah. Great idea. Great idea. Good advice. Jen, anything else that you'd like to share with our audience as we close out our time today?
00:45:58
Speaker
Yeah, no, I don't think so. I've just really enjoyed our conversation and I think this is a phenomenal podcast that you've put together. Oh, thank you. Well, I appreciate that. And thank you so much for coming here today and sharing your wisdom and leadership and some inspiration. Really appreciate it.
00:46:20
Speaker
Great, thank you for having me. Thank you all for spending your time listening today. And more importantly, thank you for your contribution toward the common good, making sure your workers, including your temporary workers, make it home safe every day.
00:46:33
Speaker
If you aren't subscribed and want to hear past and future episodes, you can subscribe in iTunes, the Apple Podcasts app, or any other podcast player that you'd like. We'd love it if you could leave a rating and review us on iTunes. It really helps us connect the show with more and more safety and health professionals like Jen and I. Special thanks to Naeem Jaraisi, our podcast producer. And until next time, thanks for listening.