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Your Employees are the Best Machines You Have

Your Employees Are The Best Machines You Have

Every tree care business owner wants to prevent injuries, however, with so many variables that arborists face, how does one actually do so? I recently asked Dr. Amanda Carpenter of CORErgonomic Solutions out of Warrensburg, NY that question. Amanda, a doctor of physical therapy, a Certified Professional Trainer and frequent speaker at TCIA and ISA events, shared with me her insight on what an employer can do to help prevent injuries and promote a healthy workplace.

 

Q – What role does the employer play in preventing injuries and providing a healthy workplace?

 

I believe that injury prevention is a shared responsibility between the employer and employee. It is the employer’s responsibility to provide a safe work environment, while it is the employee’s responsibility to engage in safe work practices and to keep their body in working order. The employer can be a partner in improving the employee’s health, by encouraging healthy behaviors and practices, while allowing time for employees to engage in health practices such as taking hydration breaks, allowing adequate time for lunch, and encouraging job task rotation. Employers can create a culture of health, similar to that of creating a culture of safety, which can also increase morale and productivity.

 

Q – What are the top 3 ways that employers can do to eliminate injuries to their employees?

 

Create a culture of safety with an emphasis on safety over productivity. Ensuring the employee knows that the employer values their health and safety over productivity.
Provide education on how the employees can maintain their health to reduce their injury risk.
Encourage and reward healthy lifestyle practices such as proper hydration, a whole foods diet and adequate rest and sleep.

Q – How effective are pre-employment performance evaluations at identifying a potential work-related injury?

 

It depends on the quality of the performance evaluation. The majority of performance evaluations assess biomechanics and pre-existing injuries of the musculoskeletal system alone. However, poor health habits such as a high processed food diet, smoking, inadequate hydration, and the absence of adequate high-quality sleep can provide a higher injury risk than a pre-existing injury and faulty biomechanics. I believe we can get a good idea about health habits and risk through the interview process, by asking about hobbies, for example: “Here at ABC Tree Care, we value the health of our employees and encourage healthy habits on the job; do you have any health practices that you engage in?” “What do you like to do with your free time?”

 

Q – How does a company begin to institute an employee wellness program?

 

Begin by education from a credible, respected source. Then encourage healthy lifestyle practices. It only takes a few employees who take their health seriously and begin to feel better and have more energy to peak the interest of others. Energy is contagious.

 

Q – How should an employer manage an aging arborist to prevent injuries?

 

Injury risk is not necessarily associated with age. A 60 y/o that takes good care of themselves can be less of an injury risk than a 25 y/o who engages in poor health habits and risky behaviors.

 

Q – Are there injury trends that you see in the tree care industry?

 

The most common orthopedic injuries that I see are shoulder, knee and low back injuries. However, metabolic issues, such as pre-diabetes and diabetes are on the rise and contributing to work related musculoskeletal disorders because elevated blood sugars effect soft tissue viability. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 50% of diabetes cases have not yet been diagnosed. I believe this is creating a rise in work related musculoskeletal disorders.

 

Q – What advice would you give to a growing company to establish a healthy workforce?

 

Invest in the health of your employees, they are the best machinery you can buy.

 

Written by: Eric Petersen

What is Your Safety Story?

What Is Your Safety Story?

In April of 2018, we hosted a TCIA Safety Round-table in our office. The round-table was facilitated by Scott Jamieson of Bartlett Tree Experts and began with a simple question to all of us in the room; what is your safety story? Scott asked us all to think about that for a moment and write it down before sharing in small groups. It was amazing to see everyone writing almost immediately. We all had one or more defining moments on why safety mattered to us.

For me, my safety story came from when I worked with Milwaukee County Parks as an arborist. I was fresh out of college and didn’t have much experience, but knew enough to perform a proper pruning job. I was pruning a small honey locust and used my hand saw to cut about a 2” diameter branch. I made my under cut, supported the branch with my left hand, then made my top cut and took the cut branch away from me by dropping it off to my side. I never looked below me or called for an all clear and because I was just using my handsaw the ground guy beneath me didn’t know what was coming for him. By the time I heard the thud and a few choice words, it was way too late. I had dropped the branch right on top of my co-worker.

Fortunately, it was a glancing blow off of his hard hat onto his shoulder, but in that moment I was struck with the indescribable feeling of guilt and shame for foolishly working aloft. My co-worker sustained a large bruise on his shoulder and healed fairly quickly, however, this careless act by myself caused him to have to change plans for his daughter’s birthday party that coming weekend.

As each of us shared our personal stories in the roundtable, I realized that while my mistake was a small one compared to others, the impact that my incident had on me was the same as everyone else’s. I could see the pain in their eyes and hear the sorrow in their voices as they shared their stories. We all were saying the same thing; I never want to be responsible for someone else’s injury ever again.

Scott then asked us to dig deeper and create our own personal Safety Vision Statement. Again, we all started writing right away. I began by stating that my responsibility above all else is to promote and provide the safest workplace possible. Refining my statement more I came up with:

Every injury is my fault and no injury is acceptable.

As a leader within your company, your personal safety vision is critical to creating the safety culture that you want. And while this was a simple exercise to do, it was a very powerful way to get each of us to take ownership in safety. Scott challenged each of us to go back to our companies and use this exercise as part of a safety meeting. When everyone ties safety to a personal experience, it becomes very real and very serious. Now it’s my turn to challenge you to use this exercise in your next safety meeting. Thanks Scott for continuing to help every arborist make it home safe each night!

Since ArboRisk’s mission is to get every arborist home safe each night, we’ve designed a specific consulting package to work one-on-one with your organization. Visit our webpage for the Thrive Safety Package to learn more. In addition to the Thrive Safety Package, all ArboRisk clients receive a Safety Culture Assessment that allows you to peer into your safety culture and find areas that need improvement.

 

Written by: Eric Petersen

How Effective is Your Safety Program?

How Effective Is Your Safety Program?

I’m sure you are like most tree care companies and attempt to provide a safe workplace for your employees by having a written safety program, creating a safety committee and performing regular tailgate safety talks. But how do you know if you are really achieving an effective level of safety awareness within your organization? Use the following to measure how well your safety program is doing.

Define Benchmarks and Goals – OSHA suggests to look at both Lagging and Leading Indicators to determine effectiveness of your safety program. Have your safety committee create a list of these indicators to set the baseline for your safety program. Have these indicators be measurable or quantitative rather than subjective or qualitative. Then as a committee, form realistic goals to improve upon these indicators.

A Lagging Indicator is a statistic from a previous accident or injury. Look at your OSHA 300 log or your insurance policy loss runs to show what has happened in the past. Examples can be simply, the number of work comp claims, the number of auto accidents or number of sick/injured days away from work. These indicators are typically negative events that an effective safety program will look to reduce or eliminate.

A Leading Indicator is a measure of how well your program has been implemented by focusing on preventative actions or behaviors. Examples of Leading Indicators can include, the number of attendees to your safety meetings, number of in-field safety audits, number of employee safety suggestions, or the number of near misses reported. These indicators are typically positive events that your safety program should encourage to grow. A quick word on near misses. You may be thinking why would you want an increase in near misses? You’re right you don’t want more close calls, but you do want to encourage and support the discussion of more near misses in your safety meetings to help others prevent making a similar mistake. Open communication is a pillar of a solid safety culture.

Track Indicators – Appoint someone on your safety committee to be in charge of compiling the data. Using Microsoft Excel is a simple way to store the data and compare it over time. These indicators should be looked at on a monthly basis to actively monitor trends both positive and negative so swift action or rewards can be addressed as soon as possible.

Audit your Program – Verify that the main elements of your safety program have been implemented by:
Asking employees from all departments to explain the procedure for reporting injuries?
Reviewing injury report forms for completeness and verifying that the suggestions to prevent future injuries have been performed.


Requesting to see the documentation from each safety meeting.
Consistently monitoring the indicator data for changes.


Of course a strong safety program will evolve and adapt over time. Use the information gathered from your audits and conversations with your team members to continually improve your program. Rotate the members of your safety committee over time as well so that everyone within your organization feels that they have some ownership in the safe workplace that you are creating. Remember everyone wins with safety!

Written by: Eric Petersen

3 Simple Steps to Creating a Culture of Safety

3 Simple Steps to Creating a Culture of Safety

No business owner wants to see their employees get hurt. The feeling is indescribable when one of your team members suffers an injury, no matter how large or small. Why is it then that so many business struggle to implement a culture of safety? I believe the main reason is that safety seems overwhelming. I want to give you 3 simple steps to grab a hold of that elusive culture of safety and begin to improve your business from the inside.

 

Ownership Commitment – The culture of any organization starts from the top. The owner and management must make a commitment to their team that working safely is preferred over working quickly. Understanding how safety pays off within your organization is critical. According to OSHA, an average muscle strain will cost the business almost $68,000 in direct and indirect costs! The small administrative cost and upfront expenses that you may have to spend to get the safety culture started are extremely minor compared to what happens when there is an injury.

 

Employee Engagement – Once this direction is set by the leaders of the company, they must make sure to get the employees aboard. The best way to do this is to establish a safety committee with representatives from all departments. Asking for volunteers is the most efficient way of getting the employees aboard with this. It is the Safety Committee’s job to lead by example when working safely, review or create the written safety policies, enforce the safety rules and act as the liaison between the front line employees and the management.

 

Open Communication – A culture of safety will not develop if the employees do not understand what is expected of them and given a platform to discuss any safety questions they have. The leadership of the organization must specifically state the intentions of the safety culture and allow for open communication regarding all aspects of safety. An employee must feel secure enough in his or her job that they can talk freely about a close call or near miss without fear of repercussion.

Written by: Eric Petersen