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#106: Live From ASSP Safety 2023
500 Plays1 year ago
This month’s podcast looks a little different, as Jill was able to sit down with 20 EHS professionals who were attending ASSP’s Annual Safety Conference and Expo. She met with people from many different industries, including construction, pharmaceuticals, and aerospace, as well as an assistant professor, a Ph.D. student, and even the editor in chief of a safety publication. Tune in to discover their favorite part of being a safety professional, advice for other professionals, their EHS heroes, and what the future of EHS looks like to them. Plus, find out how you could have a chance to contribute your own EHS story during an upcoming live podcast recording!
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Transcript
Introduction to EHS Podcast
00:00:08
Speaker
This is the Accidental Safety Pro brought to you by HSI. My name is Jill James, HSI's Chief Safety Officer. This episode was recorded live at the American Society of Safety Professionals Annual Conference, 2023.
00:00:22
Speaker
I had the pleasure of asking short form questions to 20 EHS professionals who graciously shared their thoughts on their favorite part of being a safety professional, how they found their profession, advice for other professionals, their success stories, their EHS heroes, and what the future of EHS looks like to them.
EHS in Oil and Gas: Management Buy-In
00:00:44
Speaker
Dan, welcome to ASSP 2023. Thank you. I'm very happy to be here. So where in the world are you from, Dan?
00:00:51
Speaker
I'm from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I work for a large heavy oil and gas construction company and just wanted to come down here to start introducing myself more to the US market for safety as that's where we're venturing. Wonderful, wonderful. So Dan, what's the best thing about your job?
00:01:10
Speaker
Honestly, I've been with my company for over eight years now, and I have to say it's the people I get to work with. Aside from the amazing safety program we do have, the people is all the difference in the world. Without great people, you don't have a great organization. And to get that buy-in from all of our leadership teams across all of our projects, across many Canadian provinces, that's just the heart of where I'm at right now today in my safety career, is just helping people form
00:01:39
Speaker
there by and in commitment to safety and with great people, that's how we do it.
00:01:44
Speaker
And to be able to say that you have management buy-in is the holy grail that probably very few people at this conference have. So congratulations on that. Thank you, exactly. And I can't say enough about the teams we have that work for us to get us to where we're going. Wonderful. Thank you for coming on the show, Dan. Appreciate it. Thank you very much for having me. You're welcome.
Promoting Safety at L'Oreal
00:02:03
Speaker
Well, with me today, I have Linnea Miles from L'Oreal. Linnea, are you still living in Georgia, or did you make it back to New Jersey?
00:02:11
Speaker
Hello, I actually made it back to New Jersey. Back to New Jersey. Linnea has been a guest on the show before and we're at ASSP together. And so the question for you Linnea is what is the best part of your job? Oh my goodness, the best part of my job is really interacting with so many people. And it's not the same thing every day. You know, some people like doing the same thing. But I love the fact that I can
00:02:37
Speaker
do something different, I can speak to so many different people, I can talk to those who are on the shop floor, in the labs, and I can also talk to the C-suite. And so that's something that I love. And the other thing is that I love that I get to bring EHS at home to our employees and talk to them about how can they be safe and we're even environmentally friendly at home. I love that aspect.
00:03:04
Speaker
That's wonderful. That's wonderful. And did they bring back stories for you to say like, Hey, I did this with my family. Yes. And honestly, I love that aspect about it because it brings that. Wow. I really had an impact on someone. So I'll tell you this. I remember a time where we had hands-on fire signature training where people actually put out fires, you know, real life fires. They actually use a fire signature.
00:03:32
Speaker
So one of our employees said that she learned that and when she was home, she taught her son. And one time there was a small fire at home and her son said, pass, pass, mom, pass, pass. And she said, because of the training, it really helped in
00:03:54
Speaker
it was instilled into her son, and it actually helped put out a fire. So when she told me that story, I almost teared up. I was like, oh my goodness, and that's the impact. We're curious done. That's fantastic. Yeah, so that's something, and that's what I love, and that's what I really enjoy about it. Appreciate it. Thank you for coming on the show, Lynette. No problem.
Mentoring in Safety Consulting
00:04:12
Speaker
Well, my name is Scott Huberty and I am from Minnesota. I live up in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and I am involved in safety by way of consulting for a workers comp insurance program in Minnesota for contractors. So I spend my day providing safety, consultation, loss prevention, OSHA compliance help to companies engaged in contracting.
00:04:40
Speaker
And I'm also involved with the Northwest Chapter of ASSP. Of which I'm a member. Indeed, good for you, yes. And that's been a lot of fun as well. It's a wonderful opportunity to get to meet people like you.
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, wonderful, wonderful. Well, Scott, what is your favorite thing about your job? The favorite thing about my job, I would say, is the ability to interact with different people. Now that might sound a little cliche, but it truly is a high point of what I get to do. In my work, I meet all kinds of people, whether they're business owners,
00:05:19
Speaker
to frontline carpenters, construction workers, and the ability to interact with all these different people and influence them in working safely is a real source of satisfaction. I might add too another great thing about the job is the variety. You see so many different things and you learn about a lot of new things too.
00:05:42
Speaker
And you've also done your fair share of mentoring because I know a number of EHS people in Minnesota who you have been a resource for over the years. So thank you for that too. Oh, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, it's indeed. Yeah. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Glad to be here. Yeah, thanks.
Flexibility and Innovation in Safety Roles
00:06:00
Speaker
Hi, my name is Victor Garvey. I'm from the LA area. And it brought me to the ASSP here in San Antonio to see the different vendors. I know some vendors that I want to visit, like the safety reports and some of the work that they do.
00:06:18
Speaker
Wonderful, wonderful. And what industry are you in, Victor? I'm doing, I work for a site safety and it's a company based in New York, but they have offices and working around the country, some of the LA area, and I do generally like safety audits and support for construction companies. Wonderful, wonderful. And what's your favorite part about this job? The favorite part I like is the flexibility in safety. It's
00:06:43
Speaker
I work with people in psychology since I have a psychology background. And I also have a safety engineering background as well. I like that you work with technology, you work with people. I like the flexibility. I like the hours. A good work-life balance. It's great, yeah. It's a good balance to go to different areas and helping people also. That's generally one reason I wanted to get into it. Yeah, wonderful. And how long have you been at this?
00:07:12
Speaker
I've been doing safety since I had a degree in safety. I went to USC. They had a safety program in 1997. And then it was a new program. To me, this was like a second career. And I've had other people help me that were very instrumental in getting work and getting in the safety profession. Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, Victor, thank you so much for stopping by. Appreciate it. Great. Thank you.
Valuing Workers in EHS
00:07:38
Speaker
Have a great show.
00:07:38
Speaker
Oh, my name is Tim Hill. I am from Macomb, Michigan. I am the EHS manager at Triumph Group, which is an aerospace industry company. How many years have you been on EHS? About 13 and a half now. Congratulations. Thank you. And what's the best thing about your job? Probably, for me, the best thing is just the fact that I'm helping the people that
00:08:06
Speaker
doing things for us. Keep them safe. They are our number one asset in our company. It's not the equipment. It's not the material or anything like that. It's actually them that are actually doing the job. So for me, that's very rewarding. It's what gets you out of bed every day? Every day, yeah. That's the one thing. No matter how bad things might get,
00:08:32
Speaker
I can always look forward to being able to help somebody and, you know, even if it is bad, where if they get an injury or something like that, it still allows me to at least assist them and get them back on the mend and back on the job again as quickly as possible. And caring for people. Yes. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Tim. Thank you. Appreciate it. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.
Evolving EHS Landscape
00:08:54
Speaker
Well, welcome to the Accidental Safety Pro. What is your name? Where are you from? And what is your industry? Hi, yeah, I'm glad to be here. My name is Blake Dean. I work in the pharmaceutical industry and I'm out of the Austin, Texas area. Wonderful. Well, thank you. So what is the best thing about your job and how long have you been at it? Yeah, so it's changed. It's morphed and it's EHS.
00:09:19
Speaker
ways I guess over the past 25 years is how long I've been doing some type of safety. And to your question, the best thing about my job, that's also changed. So early on it was I get to take care of people.
00:09:35
Speaker
And that never changes, right? I mean, that stays. But as you progress in your career, you get to the point where you learn a lot of pitfalls, and you also understand how to traverse a lot of those pitfalls. So you see the younger professionals that are stressed, and you see the executives that want something done better, but they don't know how to get there.
00:09:55
Speaker
The best thing about my job currently is helping the executives understand you can get there, but what that looks like. EHS needs a seat at the table. You can't say it's just as important as these other groups and not give them that opportunity. And then also help at the site level, the site leads understand what that looks like.
00:10:16
Speaker
I'll use the word preaching safety, not just for your EHS person, but themselves talking to their operators about doing the right thing and supporting EHS that way. At the end of the day EHS cannot force their way into a seat at the table.
00:10:33
Speaker
and you're helping influence it, however. I hope. That's what you're doing now. That's my goal. That's fantastic. I have great leaders, so it's a lot easier. That's fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Yeah.
Mentorship and Education for EHS Professionals
00:10:45
Speaker
Welcome to ASSP. Who in the world are you and where are you from? My name is Matt Miller. I'm from Austin, and I work for TPR Construction locally, and I've been in
00:10:59
Speaker
health and safety probably for about seven years now but been in construction almost a little over 25 years. Okay, well what advice do you have for new EHS people? I would say the number one thing is read as much as possible on anything regarding environmental health and safety. Latch yourself on to mentors to learn as much as you can and I would say one valuable thing is whenever possible
00:11:27
Speaker
Keep your ears and eyes open as much as possible. That's what I tell my kids. When I'm talking, what's the number one rule? Mouth shut, ears and eyes open. That's the number one way you're going to learn as much as you possibly can to soak it all in. You mentioned reading. What are you reading now, or what are some of your favorite things if people want to know? I mean, I think when you read anything, I'd say more than just EHS. Read something that has to do with more connecting with people.
00:11:55
Speaker
how to have conversations, how to be a leader, how to be a better listener, things like that. Not just the technical safety things. I think the technical safety stuff will come in time. It's based on what your company, kind of they have recommendations, recommended reading. There's all kinds of stuff you can look up on Google and find out what those recommended readings are. But once you start to have more connectivity with people, the ability for you to learn and latch onto those is going to be a lot easier to grasp.
00:12:24
Speaker
So just having learning that intuition, learning when to step back, when to press, things like that. So having the human interaction is going to be much easier for you to learn and grow. I had to learn by the hard way, not doing that in the beginning of my construction career. But as I learned that more, I realized that when you speak, having that emotional intelligence is going to want to have people be more engaged with you. And at the same time, you're going to learn from them.
00:12:50
Speaker
That's wonderful. That's the number one piece of advice I'd give. That's wonderful. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. You're welcome.
Embracing Imperfection in EHS Careers
00:12:55
Speaker
Thank you. I am Regina McMichael, sometimes called the Safety Training Ninja. Yeah. You are the Safety Training Ninja. And you've also been a guest on the podcast before, so thank you for coming back. You're very welcome.
00:13:06
Speaker
So tell me what advice do you have for a new EHS pro? It's funny. I've been doing a lot of stuff with people lately and I think the advice is it's never going to be perfect. You can't be perfect. You have to be ready to start bending. And what I'm finding is that people don't grow the confidence in the profession until they've had maybe 10 or 15 years.
00:13:32
Speaker
And then they're ready to say, okay, I'm not gonna battle on that today. Okay, I can band-aid this problem today and do something else. Whereas when you first come out of school or you first enter the industry, you're literally paralyzed with fear. You're like, no, I must save their life. I must do it the right way. And we need to tell these folks that learn your business, get your confidence, but know that one day it's gonna be okay for you to say, I can't be perfect.
00:14:00
Speaker
So the advice is you're not gonna be perfect overnight. I'm 29 years into it, how many years are you into it? 32. Yeah, and do we have it perfected yet? Not even a little. Me either, me either. Thank you Regina, I appreciate you being a guest. Thank you.
Impact of Hands-On Safety Training
00:14:16
Speaker
Anthony, welcome to the Accidental Safety Pro.
00:14:19
Speaker
Thanks. Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? I am from Wisconsin. Been in safety basically my whole career. 23 years now at US Compliance. Wow. Just working in service, product development, and now last couple years working in business development, primarily with larger partners of ours and corporate accounts.
00:14:39
Speaker
Wonderful, I think probably the one that jumps out at me the most when I first started I got the Got the opportunity to service a couple plants that were probably a little bit out of my leak We'll just say so they were assigned to me and I had to you know showed up, you know best foot forward and
00:14:55
Speaker
I met my contact, and my contact was MacGyver. His name was John, and he was in a facility in Buffalo, New York, and I obviously traveled out there. And we hit it off good to start, but obviously when you're a service person and you're in there to do a job, you have agendas, you got to stick to the agenda, so I had a training plan.
00:15:14
Speaker
My training, I think it was like lockout or some generic, you know, boiler plate. We have to train our employees. So I set up like I normally would, like I was trained. I bring everybody to classroom. I get my PowerPoint. Powerpoints are boring, by the way. And I did my training. And at the end, I thought I did a good job because I prepped. I kind of knew the operation because I have work in a similar plant. Anyways, he comes up and says, that wasn't very good. Oh.
00:15:38
Speaker
Yeah, so it's kind of taken back a little bit, and I said, well, how would you have done it? He goes, well, how can you possibly train somebody on lockout tag out if you're not actually at a piece of equipment or machine that you lock and tag out?
00:15:49
Speaker
Okay. So probably 22 years old when this happened to me and I was just like, all right, well, I got to redo this somehow. Rethink how I go about it. So ironically, or coincidentally, you should say I was at a safety conference that, that same year. And it was somebody in one of the meetings upstairs explained, you know, their method of training and they use the concept, tell, show, do test.
00:16:11
Speaker
I don't know if anybody's heard that before. I have. And a guest on the podcast has talked about it. And I wonder if it's the same person. Maybe. I don't know who the individual was. I was in a class, took a picture on my very first version iPhone or Blackberry. And I still have it. Yeah. And certain trainings I still do in classroom, obviously. But the ones that I feel like I have the most impact.
00:16:28
Speaker
is the way John wanted me to do it was go out on the floor and create a model for telling them, showing them, you doing it, or telling them, showing them how to do it, have them do it, and then figure out a way to validate or test. If you think about any topic, lockout, forklift, fall protection, ladders, it's all that. Tell, show, do, test. Test. Yeah. There's probably a couple different ways to swing it, but that was the one thing that stood out to me is like John saying, your training was terrible.
00:16:57
Speaker
And then seeing somebody kind of say, hey, it's simpler than we're making it. Yeah. So he influenced your career. Oh, yeah, definitely. Because now I think about that whenever I have a training, I'm like, well, I know I got to do a big classroom, but let's find those authorized people that is going to impact the most and get them out to where the fire is. That's wonderful. So that was probably the thing that changed how I approach training. And then when you're in service,
00:17:17
Speaker
I started doing that everywhere and I think it helped, you know, move me along in my professional career and gave me a different trajectory amongst my peers because I was willing to go get messy and comfortable, get uncomfortable kind of a situation. Right. That's our career. So thank you. That was my that was my big kind of aha moment, I guess.
00:17:35
Speaker
That's great advice. Thank you, and thank you for coming on the show. You're welcome.
Finding and Being a Mentor in EHS
00:17:39
Speaker
Have a great show. My name is Angel Romero, and I'm in the construction industry in California. In California. Well, welcome, Angel. Thanks for being on the show. Thank you for having me. So what advice do you have for a new EHS professional?
00:17:56
Speaker
The advice I would have for new EHS professionals would be look for a mentor. I think a good mentor, somebody that you trust, somebody that you communicate and have that two-way dialogue, I think it's very important and crucial. I say this because of my experience. I know when I started 20 years ago, not knowing the industry and having that experience, one of the things I did was look for mentors.
00:18:25
Speaker
And I've found some good people out there. There's a lot of good people that are going to be able to help you out and help you with questions in the profession and you know where to go out and get
00:18:37
Speaker
experience, service, resources. But once you gain that trust and you become knowledgeable and experienced within your trade, I think it's also good to give back as well. Yeah, so are you mentoring people now? Yes, I am. You are? And that's why I attend conferences and always try to advance my career so I can help out and mentor those that I'm mentoring.
00:19:07
Speaker
Oh, that's fantastic. And do you still have a mentor yourself? Yes, definitely. I have three mentors. Oh, that's fantastic. One professionally, one in safety, and one overall. For life. Yes. That's fantastic. So it's always good. It's always good to have mentors. I think one of the things
00:19:26
Speaker
It's not get in a position where you think you know it all. I think that having a mentor where you could rely on and it's very knowledgeable. I think it's very important, crucial. Certainly is. Well, thank you so much for your perspective, Angel. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. And thanks for mentoring. Thank you. It was a pleasure.
OSHA Outreach Training Benefits
00:19:46
Speaker
Well, I have with me right now, Chris Garza with Feather and Maine. Chris was a guest on the podcast previously, episode number 99, and he's back here at ASSP. Welcome.
00:19:58
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you for having me in your spot again. Yeah, this is so fun. So question for you, what advice do you have for new EHS professionals? So I recently took a bunch of training through an OSHA outreach center. The one that I use was University of Texas at Arlington. They have a huge OSHA training log that you can take.
00:20:22
Speaker
If you take just, if you're in general industry, you take like a, it's called an OSHA five 11 class. If you're in construction, a five 10 and you get to meet people in that class that are already so experienced and they have just a wealth of information to give you. And at the same time, you learn the basics of just reading the regs, finding the regs that you need and applying it to what you're doing. Yeah. How to interpret. And so somebody brand new doing this.
00:20:52
Speaker
I would have killed to have that information when I first started out. So did you spend like a week at an OSHA training center or how did you do it? So I was actually able to do it online at night time. It was eight days of training, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
00:21:08
Speaker
It's rough to do after your full day at work. I really didn't get that sleepy at it because I said it was enlightening. It was great to get all that experience and I applied it right away. Fantastic. For the listeners who haven't heard of the OSHA Training Institute training centers, they're geographically distributed around the United States. You live in Texas, you have one here in Texas. I've attended the one in Chicago.
00:21:37
Speaker
And anyone who's listening can just type in OSHA Training Institute and be able to find the one that's closest to them. And I guess the new news is that you can do the classes online or in person. Did you have the option to do in person too?
00:21:51
Speaker
You do, and their trainers are so experienced. And they will offer some at nighttime, online. They'll offer some during the daytime. Online, the daytime ones are usually only four days. And then you can go to an actual training center and get it in person as well. Fantastic. Great news for a new safety professional. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Ongoing Learning in Safety Careers
00:22:14
Speaker
Well, welcome to the Accidental Safety Pro. Tell us your name and where are you from and what's your industry?
00:22:20
Speaker
My name is Matt Schaefer. I am from just west of Cleveland, Ohio, and our industry is photonics. We grow crystals and make crystals for the varying amount of industries, including medical. Wow, interesting. So, Matt, you mentioned to me before we started recording, you've been at this 30 years. How did you get into the profession?
00:22:42
Speaker
Well, it's an interesting story in that I was working in manufacturing at the time. I was a 19-year-old kid working in an asphalt roofing manufacturing plant. And one day we had a really bad palletizer accident where a guy almost lost his hand.
00:23:02
Speaker
And so I had heard through the grapevine that they were going to be hiring for the first time a safety supervisor. And at the time I was very interested in that because I didn't want to be working in a factory my whole life. And so the HR manager
00:23:20
Speaker
started the hiring processes looking at candidates and we all thought this one person was going to be a shoe-in for the position because he had worked as a procedure writer for the company for years but that was a union job and this was a union shop. So I went in to the HR manager's office I said, listen I don't know anything there is to know about health and safety but I'll learn everything there is to know if you look at me and so
00:23:48
Speaker
I did get the job and one of the reasons I didn't get the job or I did get the job is because the guy who'd been with the company for 30 years didn't want it because it was a management position. So from the union perspective. So I was very lucky in that I got that opportunity to start in health and safety and
00:24:07
Speaker
And I got to thank places like the BWC at the time, Ohio BWC, because there were just a ton of courses then where you could just learn for free and didn't cost you anything. And that was a great opportunity. Through the state-run insurance program you're talking about. What's that? Through the state-run insurance program you're talking about your education. Bureau Workers' Competition, yep. Wonderful.
00:24:29
Speaker
Yeah, but it gave me an opportunity to get started and figure out how to learn things. And obviously, 30 years of trial and error, you're still learning. That's fantastic. Because we don't know it all. That's exactly right. That's right. Well, Matt, thank you so much for sharing your story. I appreciate it. Thank you. Take care.
Diverse Safety Journeys
00:24:45
Speaker
My name is Hannah Stahl. I grew up in Denmark. And I am now a safety manager under the Compass Group under ESFM. Well, wonderful. Tell me about how you got into this profession.
00:24:58
Speaker
I was living in North Carolina and the local fire chief came and asked if I could help with paperwork and within the next couple of weeks I got a pager and I started responding to fire calls and that was my introduction to safety and helping others. What happened after that? I mean that's quite the introduction.
00:25:19
Speaker
Yeah, I really got involved with the whole fire service. I became an instructor, I became a CPR instructor, I worked for the forest service, I became an EMT and just really enjoyed helping people and sort of like took me to new opportunities within the world of safety. And how many years now?
00:25:40
Speaker
That was back in the early 90s. I got my CSP certification. I'm working on my master's in occupational health and safety. So basically safety is everything that I do. That's wonderful. And what brought you to ASSP? I was in Chicago last year and had a great time at the conference. So I want to continue learning and seeing what's new on the market and seeing what I can bring home to the team. Wonderful. Well, thank you for sharing your story. Thank you much. I appreciate it. Thank you.
EHS from Journalism to Safety Writing
00:26:10
Speaker
Jake Humar, Editor-in-Chief of EHS Daily Advisor. Wonderful. Jay, how did you get into that work?
00:26:17
Speaker
Well, I started out as a journalist working at newspapers back in the 90s and kind of burned out on that. Started writing for a company that did healthcare accreditation and safety publications and did that for over 20 years and then a couple years ago, same company also owns EHS Daily Advisor and kind of an opening came up and I
00:26:44
Speaker
thought it'd be a cool challenge. So I've been doing this for a couple years now, writing about EHS. Yeah. What has fascinated you most about the profession? Just like the scope of it. I mean, it covers every industry, right? Yeah. So even though some of the topics are similar to what I was writing about in health care, I mean, there's just so much to learn from talking to people.
00:27:12
Speaker
One of the things I do is, like you, I do a podcast called DHS on Tap. And I've been a guest on it. You have been a guest. And yeah, it's just every week it's something totally different. So it's exciting. Yeah, wonderful. Well, thank you and thank you for your contribution toward the profession. Well, thank you.
Engineering and Safety Integration
00:27:32
Speaker
My name is Victoria Ballard. I'm an Auburn University PhD student and I'm studying industrial and safety, excuse me, industrial and systems engineering with occupational and safety and ergonomics specialty. Oh my gosh. And I'm here at the ASSP conference with five of my colleagues who are also doctoral students. Oh my gosh. Many of us is our first time at the conference.
00:27:55
Speaker
Holy cats, that's so exciting. So what is your, what are your undergrad? What are your other degrees in that led you into doing this? Yes, absolutely. Yeah. So I have a bachelor's of chemical engineering from University of Washington, specializing in systems engineering and biosystems and a master's of engineering, civil engineering, environmental, speciality, water resources management from University of Washington as well. Okay.
00:28:19
Speaker
But finding my way to Auburn has been kind of a winding long path and really interestingly, you know, when I speak about safety and how it's kind of filtered through my entire life, I've had a number of different roles as a military spouse, as a wife, as an engineer that have all
00:28:43
Speaker
really found safety as an integral part of that, as everything from a Girl Scout leader, school volunteer. And I've run two of my own businesses, one of them being extremely safety-oriented as a horsemanship lesson business. So a random ranch, which is critical to keep your clientele from being killed by a 2,000-pound animal. And so really interestingly, just tying the engineering and the safety
00:29:11
Speaker
together in a way that optimizes the experience of the person in a way that they don't even realize that the safety is in there and that you're having that optimal experience in a safe manner. But once my husband was retired from the Air Force, I was able to continue my education, which brought me to
00:29:34
Speaker
Auburn University for my doctoral program. And I was able to find funding through the NIOSH fellowship program. So they offer... Talk about that for people who are listening. Yeah, they're a deep south center. And so for US citizens, they have a fully funded master's and or doctoral program that you get your tuition waived.
00:29:56
Speaker
and you get a semester stipend and even travel funds to come to conferences such as ASSP that you get it fully paid for and all through NIOSH and those benefits and you take their program classes and they have everything from safety, ergonomics, human factors,
00:30:15
Speaker
I've even taken psychology classes that are related to the health arena, which a number of the sessions I've been to this week have been on mental health and safety. And it's so important and it's really tied everything into my education. Oh my gosh, you have a unique trifecta with your background. What do you hope to do?
00:30:35
Speaker
I am really open to a lot of different options. I haven't really narrowed down. I am open to staying in academia and furthering my love of safety and excitement for that with future students and continuing research. But also, I really love my manufacturing background and the possibility of being able to make a difference for workers in manufacturing. And so I'm really open to whatever God brings me in my life. Fantastic. So what do you think of your first ASSP?
00:31:07
Speaker
Right now, like third day in, I'm kind of tired. Your feet are a little sore. My feet are a little sore. There is just so many amazing people. It's like this really big family. I've met so many people that it seemed like they're just friends immediately. Yeah, we have this this unique connection of a love of people and love of safety.
00:31:25
Speaker
that I've been able to network with and share our story. I love that keynote, the first day that we had, talking about sharing that story of the day. I've been practicing that and really managed to make some deep connections with a number of different professionals.
00:31:44
Speaker
It's been very rewarding, but then the sessions too have really spoken to what I personally needed in looking at what my dissertation is going to be about and being able to really get some deeper understanding of some of those topics. Have you decided on your dissertation yet?
00:32:01
Speaker
I have collected a little bit of data so far, and I'm going to be looking at how the worker is affected by technology, like manufacturing workers are affected by technology that we may have good intentions of implementing in their line, but there may be unintended consequences on their cognitive load and their mental health.
00:32:20
Speaker
and their performance and quality that also affects their safety. And so especially if they have neurodiversity such as ADHD symptoms. So we're using the self-report scale of symptoms where they highlight what symptoms they experience themselves. And we're going to be comparing ADHD workers with non ADHD symptom workers and see what those differences are. Sounds like a fascinating dissertation. Thank you. You'll be presenting at ASSP soon.
00:32:45
Speaker
Oh, I hope so. That would be great. Good luck with your career, good luck with your education, and thank you so much for being here. And thank you for inviting me. It's an honor. Thank you so much. You're welcome.
Injury Reduction through Job Design
00:32:54
Speaker
Well, old friend, tell us your name and where you're from. I am Todd Luchene, and I am an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and I'm also the Region 5 VP for ASSP.
00:33:08
Speaker
Fantastic. What is your favorite success story you'd like to share today? Well, I like to practice safety from the basis of work. And I was in charge of, or while we're seeing seven different long-term care facilities in Wisconsin, and one of them had skyrocketed incidence rates. We're talking to the tune of 80.
00:33:33
Speaker
If you've ever heard of that. So 8 out of 10 people are getting reportable injuries each year. And what I proposed is, and I got a grant for this, is I studied the worker's perception
00:33:45
Speaker
supervisor's perception and triangulated what they believed was expected for work. Because I felt that the bigger the discrepancy, the greater the chance for injury. And what it came down to is that the supervisors
00:34:04
Speaker
did not have enough time to assist workers and actually be there for them because management was requiring them to fill out so much paperwork that they weren't taking breaks, they were skipping lunch, they were working long. What I did is I redesigned the reporting system to check boxes and they went from 50, 55 minutes per hour filling them out to only 15 to 20 per hour allowing them to spend that extra time out on the floor assisting
00:34:30
Speaker
Incidents rates dropped from those 80s per year down into the teens. That is fantastic. And we made it so that they weren't forced to meet a certain schedule as well so that the workers could dictate when a patient or a client needed more time because they were getting bit kicked, scratched because they were rushing to meet a schedule. So those two little job design changes made a big difference. That's a fantastic success story. Thank you, Todd. Welcome.
Legacy and Influence in EHS Careers
00:35:01
Speaker
Well, tell me your name please and where you're from and what industry do you represent? My name is Melissa Roachford. I'm originally from Barbados, but I currently live in Houston, Texas, and I do facility management industry. Yeah, and who is your EHS hero? My dad. He was an HSC pro.
00:35:21
Speaker
I actually kind of fell into safety, but growing up with him and helping him with his PowerPoints and just helping and seeing how his interaction with people and how people responded to him. He was a people person.
00:35:39
Speaker
At home, I was hearing him telling me, don't do that. Why are you doing that? That's not safe. It was ingrained in me because he loved what he did and he took it with him everywhere. It just stuck with me. Then when I fell into it in college,
00:35:58
Speaker
And it was like, we actually, I understood his language finally. So it kind of. And you were kind of aware of it because of your dad's. Yeah. Okay. When you went to college. My dad. And then it was funny. It made my classes a lot easier because I.
00:36:11
Speaker
My mom's like, are you cracking your book open at all? I'm like, not really. Just interviewing dad when I get home. Yeah, basically. And like some of the topics in class seemed so much easier because now it's like, oh, it made sense what he was always talking about. It was like that. And so now I remember when I first started working.
00:36:29
Speaker
Any issues or any situations? I'm like sitting there picking his brain and never realized how much and how important that was until he passed away and I'm like man I kind of missed that phone call. They're like that inside of his experience. Yeah, I kind of made it a lot easier than having to struggle and then especially as
00:36:51
Speaker
a female in HSC, where it's predominantly male-oriented, having his perspective and his suggestions on ways to deal with things and how to kind of circumvent a lot of those difficulties as a female. It didn't make my start a lot easier. It was still challenging, but it wasn't as difficult. I had some of my counterparts say because
00:37:13
Speaker
I could go home and vent and I can hear his point of views and how he had to deal with stuff in manufacturing and some of the difficulties he had even as a male in HSC and how he kind of traversed it. So it kind of helped me better traverse it. And he worked in the manufacturing.
00:37:31
Speaker
manufacturing plants and he worked for he started off in the government and Barbados doing safety for them and back then safety wasn't that important in the Caribbean so after he retired he started doing a consulting business and so he was actually helping to turn around in the Caribbean
00:37:48
Speaker
of getting safety and health and ergonomics and all that stuff implemented. So before he passed away, that's what he was doing. He would go do consulting and help governments and different private entities evaluate their systems and give suggestions. And I would kind of help him with a lot of that data and how to do all of that stuff. So you helped you with your dad's legacy. Yeah.
00:38:10
Speaker
I worked at home and at work, so it never got away from me. That's a great story. You are the second guest we've ever had on the podcast in over 100 episodes, whose parent was also an EHS expert, and then their child became. And so you're the second one. We'll have to line you up with the episode with Siobhan and her mom, Deborah.
00:38:34
Speaker
Oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah. Hey, you don't hear it every hour. Everybody's like shock when they hear that. And I'm like, really? I don't even think about it that much, you know? You're rare. Yeah. They're like, you followed your dad. I'm like, no, no, no. I did not follow my dad. I honestly don't know how I ended up here. But I like it. That's wonderful. It's a good career. Thank you so much for sharing your story. Thank you. You have a great one. Yeah, thanks.
Future of AI in Safety Inspections
00:38:59
Speaker
My name is Matt Thompson. I'm the Executive Director of Occupational Safety and Health for WellStar Health System. We're based in Marietta, Georgia, but I live in Alpharetta, Georgia. Well, welcome to Texas and ASSP. Great, thanks for having me. Yeah, so question for you is what do you believe the future is for EHS? Well, that's a good question. I think that the future of EHS can be very bright, but I think that the biggest thing in my eyes is the use of artificial intelligence or AI
00:39:28
Speaker
technology to improve anywhere from ergonomics to just automating inspections and using the functionality of that for providing feedback to our workers in real time about how to maybe address workplace safety hazards and exposures.
00:39:45
Speaker
versus having to come to someone like myself or our team at the hospitals, they could just use their phone and say, what should I do in this situation? I think that would be huge for us. Are you using any AI now? Not in the area of occupational safety and health. We do use AI, though, in a number of different ways throughout our hospital system, but not currently in EHS. So there's definitely an opportunity there. Well, it sounds hopeful and good. Absolutely. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you so much for coming on the show. All right, thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.
Conclusion and Invitation to Future Events
00:40:16
Speaker
We hope you enjoyed this special episode of the Accidental Safety Pro live from ASSP 2023. If you're interested in sharing your story, we'll be doing another live recording event at the National Safety Congress and Expo on October 23rd and 24th. Mark your calendar and be sure to stop by our booth, number 4339, for an opportunity to share your story. As always, thank you for listening today. And more importantly, thank you for your contribution toward the common good.
00:40:46
Speaker
making sure your workers, including your temporary workers, make it home safe every day. If you aren't subscribed and want to hear past and future episodes, you can subscribe in iTunes, the Apple Podcast app, or any other podcast player you'd like. We'd love it if you could leave a rating and review the show. It helps us connect the show with more and more EHS professionals. Special thanks to Emily Gould, our podcast producer, and until next time, thanks for listening.