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Safety Pays

by | Aug 30, 2023 | Safety | 0 comments

Safety Pays

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

One of our goals at ArboRisk is to help tree care companies embrace the idea that safety should be looked at as a profit center versus as an expense. The idea is quite simple in that the safety efforts that you embark upon ultimately lead to higher productivity and profitability for your entire team because you are not dealing with injuries and all of the costs associated with them. Because not everyone buys into a statement like that immediately, I want to highlight a fantastic resource that you can use to illustrate this point…OSHA’s “Safety Pays” website. 

OSHA’s Safety Pays website serves as an interactive tool that enables businesses to calculate the potential financial benefits of investing in workplace safety measures. It aims to showcase that by prioritizing safety, companies can not only protect their workers but also realize substantial economic advantages. The site is a testament to the fact that a safe workplace is a profitable one. 

The Safety Pays website offers several key features that make it a valuable resource for tree services of all sizes: 

Individual Injury Estimator – My favorite part of the website is a user-friendly interface (Individual Injury Estimator) that allows you to choose an injury type and enter your profit margin to determine how much that injury would cost your company both in direct and indirect costs. 

For example, if an employee at a tree service suffers a shoulder strain, the estimated cost of that injury will total over $67,000! 

In this example, I used a profit margin of 15%. If your profit margin is higher than that the financial impact to your company would be a little lower, however, if you’re running under that profit margin, the impact of this injury will be felt even more. The website calculated that the direct cost of the injury will equate to $32,023 and the indirect costs would amount $35,225 to total $67,248! In case those numbers don’t mean much to you, think about this. With a 15% profit margin, this injury would require the business to produce an additional $448,320 in sales to cover these costs. 

Can you afford to do $448,000 of work for free?

Safety Pays Tool – The Safety Pays Tool is your chance to get a more customized experience and allow you to compare your company to the industry average. This tool is especially helpful when looking at budgeting for new equipment or perhaps investigating the cost/benefit of a full time safety director. 

Educational Resources – The website isn’t just about numbers; it also provides educational resources and case studies that illustrate real-world examples of companies that have benefited from safety investments. 

How can you utilize the Safety Pays website within your tree service? 

During your next Safety Meeting, pull up the website and go to the Individual Injury Estimator. Ask your team to throw out an injury type. Then enter in your company’s target profit margin and reveal the results of the calculator to the team and watch their reaction. Even more powerful tie the estimated additional sales to the number of jobs that equates to by dividing the sales number by your average job cost. If these numbers don’t open people’s eyes within your organization, nothing will. 

If you are looking to boost the safety culture within your company or perhaps just want confirmation that you are doing what you can, reach out to a member of the ArboRisk team or sign up directly for our Thrive Safety Package. We work one-on-one with tree care companies every day, helping them get every one of their employees home safe each night.

Elements of a Fleet Safety Program

by | Jun 19, 2023 | Safety | 0 comments

Elements of a Fleet Safety Program

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Most tree care companies address fleet safety within their overall written safety program, however, as I’ve seen the number and severity of auto accidents increase over the years, I always recommend to put the fleet safety items into their own document to draw attention to the importance of each item. So what goes into a Fleet Safety Program? 

Here are some common elements of a Fleet Safety Program:

  1. Safety Rules: Clearly defined rules outlining the expectations, responsibilities, and guidelines for safe driving practices within the fleet including a distracted driving policy. 
  2. Driver Selection and Record Monitoring: How will the tree care company select drivers and monitor their driving record. Developing a set of Motor Vehicle Guidelines to show what violations are acceptable and which ones are not is crucial to managing the drivers. 
  3. Driver Training: Outline what training programs or topics will be delivered to your employees. Topics should cover defensive driving techniques, vehicle handling, and awareness of potential hazards on the road.
  4. Vehicle Use Policy: Who is allowed to drive your vehicles along with when and where? Develop rules to keep the vehicles your business owns operating for business work only. This is a large part of managing the risk that your vehicles bring to your company. 
  5. Vehicle Maintenance: Insert or develop regular maintenance and inspection schedules to ensure that all fleet vehicles are in good working condition, including brakes, tires, lights, and other essential components.
  6. Telematics and Monitoring: If you are utilizing any telematics systems to monitor driver behavior, vehicle performance, and adherence to safety policies, you need to have a section in your Fleet Safety Program about this. This will outline what data is collected (it may involve tracking speed, harsh braking, or acceleration) and how it will be used.
  7. Incident Reporting and Investigation: Establish protocols for reporting accidents, near-misses, and other safety incidents. Prompt investigation of these incidents helps identify root causes and implement corrective measures.
  8. Communication and Engagement: Establish effective communication channels to disseminate safety-related information, updates, and reminders to drivers. Encouraging open dialogue and feedback from drivers helps improve the overall safety culture.
  9. Continuous Improvement: Every safety program should include a section on how to provide regular evaluation and a Fleet Safety Program is no different. Identify areas for potential  improvement, incorporate new technologies and best practices, and adapt to changing safety regulations and industry standards.

When instituted properly, these elements will create a comprehensive fleet safety program that prioritizes driver safety, reduces accidents, and protects the well-being of both drivers and the public. 

If you are struggling to create a Fleet Safety Program, reach out to a member of the ArboRisk team today or sign up for our Thrive Safety Package here.

Safety Happens at the Individual Level

by | Mar 10, 2023 | Safety | 0 comments

Safety Happens at the Individual Level: Q&A With AManda Carpenter

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC and Amanda Carpenter

Like many in the tree care industry, I have been very fortunate to have become friends with so many passionate people who want to help make the industry safer. One of those friends is Dr. Amanda Carpenter. Amanda’s enthusiasm for helping arborists make it home each night comes through in every conversation she has. She has dedicated her professional career towards helping businesses truly create a culture of safety and helping the leaders of the organization understand that safety happens at the individual level. 

I recently had the chance to speak with Amanda and get her insight on this concept and how tree care companies can implement true change within their safety culture. 

Q: You’ve often said that regulation and training alone will not change the safety outcomes of the tree care industry, focus needs to be put on individuals and how people respond to stressful situations. How does a tree care company begin to train or focus on the individuals within their team and their stress response?

A: Human behavior is at the root of safety, and it can’t be engineered. How humans act and react is a result of the wiring of their autonomic nervous system as uniquely wired as the electrical in each house. Previously human behavior was most often trained using fear and focusing on what not to do. However, when we focus on what not to do, a picture becomes anchored in memory. Much like telling you not to think about a red car….. The nervous system is wired for reaction based on experience and memory, so we must train and learn from a place of how we want to respond. Safety is best when memory is accessed in a regulated nervous system. A tree care company can begin to train and focus on supporting a healthy nervous system for its individuals by creating a grounded, psychologically safe work environment. This all begins with the most powerful leader in the organization.  

 

Q: A lot of tree care companies discuss near misses during a safety meeting, however, you have mentioned that it could actually create the opposite effect within their team unless the discussion is handled appropriately. What is the best way to discuss past accidents and near misses?

A: Much like the example of not focusing on a red car, when we discuss what could have happened while the nervous system is in a heightened state, the memory that it actually happened gets anchored. This can cause a PTSD type response in some individuals and instead of learning from the near miss, fear and anxiety now interfere with the individual’s ability to work safely. The key to learning from an accident or a near miss is to discuss in detail only once the nervous system has come back to baseline, which requires at least 12 hours.  

Additionally, an individual who shares a near miss story, must be brave and comfortable enough that they know they will not be reprimanded or ridiculed. Listeners must support the individual who is sharing and if anyone responds, they must embody emphatic energy towards helping the individual and learning from their sharing. The nervous system reacts to thoughts and feelings, not just words, so the key here is that each individual and the organization must hold a core belief that it is ok to make a mistake.  

 

Q: What other tools can a tree care owner use to further their focus on individual stress response training

A. We want each individual to be aware and manage their stress response and recognize how their reaction impacts themselves and others. Creating safety cultures with authentic core beliefs is a great place to start. Safety cultures that have a ‘zero tolerance for accidents’ or ‘no injury is acceptable’ mantras are diminishing the safety effort rather than enhancing it. When an employee does not have room to make a mistake, the increased stress on their nervous systems can result in a greater number of mistakes that go unreported and covered up.  

People make changes for one of two reasons….from a place of desperation or a place of inspiration. In the safety world, we want to inspire change to prevent a desperate moment, which ultimately could be severe injury or death. This inspiration must come from the most powerful leader. I’m not talking about inspiring a culture of safety through an incentive program, rather shifting the energy of workers to be safer because the company cares about them. Tree care company owners must fully commit to everyone on their team and begin to build a culture of acceptance, understanding and camaraderie towards each other, including themselves. The leaders must also consciously acknowledge the subconscious limiting beliefs inside their organization, such as “you’re weak if you ask for help” or “just suck it up and move on”. The most powerful leader sets the tone of culture, so the limiting beliefs of that individual need to be discovered and dissolved for an organization to thrive in an authentic culture of safety.   

 

For more specific, one-on-one training, Amanda has a great Transformational Leadership Coaching program to help leaders understand their own limiting beliefs and then be able to discuss it throughout the organization. 

Lastly, make sure to check out the March 2023 episode of The IndusTREE Podcast to hear a half hour conversation with Amanda that digs into this topic at much more length. 

Amanda A. Carpenter is a transformational leadership coach specializing in the science and practice of human performance. To learn more about Amanda’s transformational coaching program Leadership Performance Mastery: Uncovering the Leadership of Vital Energy, visit her website or watch this short video.

Taking Your Team to New Heights by Planting a Tree

by | Sep 30, 2022 | Safety | 0 comments

Taking Your Team to New Heights by Planting a Tree

Written by Kevin Martlage

In a 2019 Gallup Article, “This Fixable Problem Costs US Businesses $1 Trillion”, Gallup reported that voluntary turnover costs businesses $1 trillion dollars annually. In addition, the cost of replacing an employee can range “from one-half to two times their annual salary”. 

To put that in perspective, a full-time employee making $60,000 per year would cost an estimated $30,000 to $120,000 in sourcing, training, on-boarding, and hiring costs to replace them. The interesting thing about the Gallup Poll and their findings is that “52% of voluntary exiting employees said their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving their job”. So over half of those people who left an organization said they did so because of something their manager or organization did not do. That is incredible to think about and I am sure the costs have increased in the past 3 years since the publication. 

So, what can we do strategically as business owners and leaders to ensure we find the right employees and then ultimately support them as they become leaders within our organization, and we reach new heights as a team? The answer is simple. Go plant a tree. 

As a leader in the tree care industry, you must always ensure that you, and your team, are knowledgeable in understanding what is necessary to meet the needs of your clients while expertly taking care of their trees. This takes on a lot of different forms including Plant Health Care (PHC), pruning, planting, and removal. Let’s take planting a tree for instance. Anyone can certainly go outside, dig a hole, place the tree in that hole, and fill the hole while hoping that the tree makes it. However, if you follow the guidelines outlined on the Trees are Good Website for planting a tree you quickly see that there is much more to the process than just digging a hole and planting a tree. Specially, they recommend you consider the following:

  • Identifying the right tree to plant
  • When to plant
  • Planting stress
  • How to properly plant the tree (there are 9 steps outlined in this section)
  • Right Tree – Right Place
  • How to mulch the tree 
  • How to avoid any potential tree and utility conflicts

All these things are very important for an arborist to consider when planting a tree. By taking into consideration these things you are ensuring that the tree will establish the appropriate root system and continue to grow and flourish as part of the canopy and ecosystem in the environment in which it was planted. So, what does planting a tree have to do with hiring and retaining great people? The answer lies within the basic considerations we review when planting a tree. 

I have written before about how developing a career path for your employees is like planting a seed and then caring for it through the germination, seedling, sapling, growth, and nurturing stages “Outlining a Career Path for Your Team” – ArboRisk Insurance Weekly Tip January 14, 2022. The same analogy can be made when hiring, on-boarding and then supporting your new and existing team. However now the tree (your new hire) is grown, and it is time to transplant it into its destination. 

Let’s use the considerations for planting a tree as outlined on the Trees Are Good Website as a template. Below, I have outlined the steps to consider when planting a tree and then included questions to consider for the hiring, onboarding, and growth process. These questions are designed to help you ensure the best applicant is identified, hired, and integrated successfully within any organization. 

  • Identifying the right tree to plant
    • What is the position we are hiring?
    • What skills are necessary?
    • Do we have a developed job description that outlines the requirements for the position?
    • What organizational and business culture traits are we looking for?
  • When to plant 
    • When does the position need to be filled (immediately, 30 days, 60 days, etc.)
    • How will we post the job announcement and manage the applications?
  • Planting stress
    • What will the hiring and interview process look like internally and externally?
    • Who needs to be involved, internally, in the hiring/interview process?
    • Who is going to review applications and schedule the interviews?
    • Who will conduct the interviews?
    • What stress will this cause on the organization to find the right applicant?
  • The Right Tree – Right Place
    • How will we identify and assess the applicants to find the right candidate?
    • What are the non-negotiable traits and skills that we must have?
    • What questions are we going to ask each applicant?
  • How to mulch the tree
    • Do we have the proper offer letter developed?
    • What paperwork needs to be done once they accept (i.e., payroll, HR, etc.)
    • What does their first day look like?
    • What does their first 90 days look like?
    • Do we have an onboarding plan?
  • How to avoid any potential tree and utility conflicts
    • Are expectations clearly defined?
    • Are they aware of your organizational culture and how they can impact it?
    • How do we ensure that they are avoiding any “organizational culture hazards” during their first 6 months?
    • How will be ensure that they are growing and flourishing in their new environment?
    • How are we going to ensure they do not leave?

This may seem like an odd analogy when it comes to hiring and supporting your new hires. However, I would argue that if you were planting a $60,000 tree, you would take these steps and more to ensure that the tree was planted perfectly to enable its growth and sustainability. So why would you not do the same for each person, both current and future, within your organization. 

Leadership in today’s economy is not easy. Supporting your team, ensuring you have a hiring and on-boarding plan, and making sure that your team feels supported and engaged is the X factor that will set your tree care company apart from the competition. I encourage you to continue to focus on your people, both current and future, so that you are not part of the more than $1 trillion in expenses seen globally by companies who are losing employees because of things they could have identified and changed to ensure they stayed. 

If you are interested in learning more about effective hiring, recruiting, on-boarding, and overall leadership development and planning, please check out the Risk Management Packages located on the Arborisk Insurance website. If you need more assistance with hiring and recruiting, contact ArboRisk to learn more about their Thrive Risk Management Hiring & Recruiting Package or the Leadership Development Package.

Tom Dunn

The Value of Stay Interviews

by | Sep 19, 2022 | Safety | 0 comments

The Value of Stay Interviews

Written by Sheila Beaumier

Should I stay, or should I go now?

Yes, those are lyrics from an eighties song by The Clash, but they run through employees’ heads everywhere daily.  

Employees often dedicated more time weekly to their employers than to their families. For most, work is necessary, and they want to feel trusted, valued, and appreciated. While that seems basic and reasonable, it often does not happen. Why? The why is not so easy. The employer-employee relationship takes work, listening, and communication like every relationship.

For decades many organizations have conducted or attempted to conduct an exit interview with outgoing staff. When you think about it, once you are at that point, when the staff member is leaving, what you learn is too late for any action you may take to affect the outgoing staff member. When you realize three of your staff have left because they did not feel they had the tools to do the job, you will likely create a plan to be sure your other staff members have the tools to do the job. As for the three who left, it’s too late. 

What if you make a slight shift and conduct stay interviews instead? In the stay interview, you have a chance to listen and incorporate the feedback to impact your existing staff, and in turn, the organization retains people. When your folks see this, they feel valued, listened to, and appreciated. When you conduct a stay interview, you find out why people stay and what makes them consider leaving. You have a chance to use the data you collect to improve retention, improve communications, and take action on what is important to your staff. In these meetings, you are building trust and improving communication by merely holding the meetings. When you take action on what you learn, the trust strengthens.

Stay interviews don’t have to be complicated, but you do want to be sure you do them individually and within a short period. Setting the stage for the stay interviews is essential; you don’t want to show up on a site and start pulling people off their jobs and asking questions. So, be sure your management team and your staff know in advance that you will conduct these interviews, what they are, and why you are running them. Ensure your staff knows this initiative is meant to help you understand what is working for them and what they want to see change. Stay interviews generally are twenty minutes to half an hour, but the time frame depends on the number of questions and how much sharing takes place. 

Tips for a successful stay interview

  • Put on your down-to-earth hat, be friendly and make everyone feel comfortable.
  • If you can find a location where folks feel more comfortable, all the better. I am a big fan of picnic table stay interviews, with food, of course, just not in the wintertime in Boston.
  • Don’t use this time to toot your horn. This interview is a time for you to be genuine and show genuine interest in learning and listening.
  • Plan your questions ahead and ask everyone the same questions. Do not ask questions that can be answered with a yes/no response.  
  • Maybe ask:
    • What is your favorite part about your job?
    • If you had a magic wand, what would you change and why?
    • Do you have the tools to do your job?
    • What can I do to help you be successful?
  • Be sure each person knows that you have appreciated their time
  • Keep notes
  • Look for themes
  • Create action plans or involve your staff in the creation of the plans
  • Follow up and let people know about the action plans and implement them.

Are stay interviews for every organization? The truth is no; they are not a good idea for every organization. For example, suppose you have not cultivated a culture of trust and are unwilling to act on what you find out. In that case, it is better to avoid them because if you aren’t going to take action or involve the staff in taking action, you have just ignored your folks and further eroded their trust and they will continue to mumble the lyrics, “Should I stay or should I go”.

If you need more help with stay interviews or assistance with hiring and recruiting, contact ArboRisk to learn more about their Thrive Risk Management Hiring & Recruiting Package.

Entry Level Driver Training

by | Jun 7, 2022 | Safety | 0 comments

Entry Level DRiver Training

Written by Eric Petersen, CIC

Effective February 7th, 2022, the federal government put into effect certain requirements for new drivers looking to obtain their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) called the Entry Level Driver Training (ELDT) mandate. The goal of the ELDT is to standardize training of new CDL drivers across the country to help make the roads safer for all to travel on.

While the focus of this mandate is geared towards the trucking industry, tree care companies that have CDL drivers and vehicles are affected by this as well. 

So, how does ELDT affect your tree service? 

First off, ELDT is a federal mandate to ensure all new CDL drivers (or drivers looking to add another CDL endorsement to their current license) receive training on the same topics, however, it is important to note that each state may have their own way of implementing the ELDT mandate. Remember, the individual states are the entities who approve and issue the commercial driver’s licenses. So, your first step is to check with the state that your driver(s) will be licensed with to understand their take on this mandate.

The training is broken into two distinct parts; Theory (written/classroom) and Behind the Wheel (BTW). The theory part has thirty one topics ranging from basic commercial vehicle operation to non-driving activities like post-crash procedures. For a list of topics visit Samba Safety’s ELDT page. The BTW portion has two components with both range driving (closed course) and public road driving. The pre-post trip inspections are typically taught during the range driving and the practical experience of being on the road with the commercial vehicle is done within the public road training. 

A driver can do either part (theory or BTW) first, however, they cannot apply to take their physical CDL exam until they have been registered in the Training Provider Registry (TPR). Once they are listed on that national database, then they will be able to take their physical exam to obtain their CDL. From the conversations that I’ve had on this, how new drivers get into the TPR can vary from state to state, so check with the state your driver will be licensed in for specifics. 


That is the basic framework for the mandate, however, if you’ve dug into this in any manner, I know you have more questions, so I’ve compiled a sample of questions that we have received from tree care companies on this new mandate.

  • Can I still train my drivers in house? – Yes, you can, however, your driver will need to be registered in the Training Provider Registry (TPR) showing that they have completed ELDT before scheduling their physical exam to obtain their CDL. How they get registered in the TPR will be state specific.

 

  • Are there online resources to help with training? – Yes, there are a number of vendors who are selling online packages to help employers do in-house ELDT. As an example, JJ Keller offers online material to help companies train in-house. They have a Trainer manual ($129) plus online courses ($1,413 per person) for all topics. A quick google search of ELDT materials will produce many options for you to choose from. 

 

  • Do I need to register as a training school? – If you want to be able to do only in-house training for your new CDL drivers, then yes, you’ll need to have at least one registered instructor and be listed as an approved Training Provider (school). Again, check with your state on what the specifics are to do this as each state may differ.

 

  • How many training hours are required to comply with ELDT? – The ELDT language does not specify the number of hours for training the theory (written) part or behind the wheel. They only require that the driver can pass the written test with 80% proficiency and pass the physical exam. How many hours of training it takes to get that done is up to the training provider.

 

  • How do I record training hours? – There is no guidance or specific format to track training hours, only that you must track the hours spent on each section of the training.

For more information on the ELDT visit the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s FAQ’s.

If you need help with driver safety and/or fleet management, contact ArboRisk to learn more about their Thrive Risk Management Safety Package!

Tom Dunn