1. Encouraging Safety Involvement from Frontline Employees
Introduction
Encouraging Safety Involvement from Frontline Employees
Good afternoon, I’m Nick Buckelew, general manager of Cintas’ west coast uniform distribution center in Reno, Nevada. With me is Daniel Olivares the Regional Health and Safety Coordinator for Northern California. Today we are going to do a brief presentation on ways to help encourage safety involvement from frontline employees.
Nick Buckelew- General Manager Daniel Olivares- Regional HSE Coordinator

2. Our Safety Vision Every Cintas location is injury-free
Every partner is engaged in continuously improving safety
Cintas is widely recognized as one of the world’s leaders in safety and health performance
At Cintas this is our corporate safety vision for almost 40,000 employee-Partners across multiple divisions and hundreds of locations. As you can see after the obvious goal of wanting all locations to be injury-free, the second tenant is to have everyone from frontline partners to the CEO engaged in improving our safety culture. 2

3. The Safety Pyramid
This is the safety pyramid. Most of you have probably seen this before and may even reference it in your own safety programs. So how does this affect frontline employees and how can you get them engaged in your safety program or culture?

4. The Safety Pyramid
Poor Housekeeping Not reporting unsafe conditions Using damaged equipment No PPE
Let’s look at the most common and largest portion of the pyramid. All unsafe behaviors and actions are represented here at the bottom. If they exist, this is what frontline employees are directly exposed to. For example: poor housekeeping at a facility, not reporting an unsafe condition to management or affected employees, using damaged or improper equipment and not wearing proper PPE.

5. The Safety Pyramid Fatalities Lost Time Injuries First Aid treatment
So what happens if frontline employees continue to work in an unsafe environment or participate in unsafe behavior? The chances of reaching the top of the pyramid increase and those small correctable actions now become even more serious resulting in first aid injuries, lost time injuries and even fatalities.

6. What can you do?
Empower frontline employees Let employees perform safety/housekeeping checklists alongside management so they know what to look for Have employees inspect departments other than their own. Don’t forget sometimes: ”You can’t see the forest because of the trees”
A facility or safety manager can’t do it all alone. A lot of times the employees working the front line know the jobs, hazards and improvements that need to be made better than management. Empowering those frontline employees to help recognize and eliminate unsafe behaviors and environments is the key. Now rather than one set of eyes looking for safety improvements daily, you could have much more depending on the size of your operations.

7. Three mottos
Three Safety/Housekeeping Mottos to live by: 1) “ If you see it, you own it.” 2) “If you walk by it, you condone it.” 3) “What’s wrong with this picture?”
Good housekeeping habits must be facility wide. If you see trash/water/trip hazard on the ground you immediately own it. It’s your responsibility to remove the hazard or report it to Management depending on the situation. Regardless of who is initially responsible for a potential hazard you have an obligation to help keep each other safe.
-Encourage people to do a safety walk through or inspection of a department other than their own. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes can recognize potential hazards that workers may not notice if they work in the same department day in and day out. -Have front line workers do daily safety inspections with Supervisors and Managers. This helps train them what to look for and also gives a different perspective. -If front line workers are shown what to look for and do it regularly it becomes habit. Then when they are working or walking throughout the facility they are subconsciously looking for potential hazards or safety improvements. -Rather than one daily safety inspection or walkthrough per shift that some company safety programs require, this creates multiple employees conducting inspections around the clock.

8. What’s wrong with this picture?
-Take or stage photos of unsafe situations and have your employees identify the hazards. -Trains people to look for the right things Can make it a game and reward with prizes. -Examples:
-A great tool to use to identify hazards. Stage an unsafe scenario in a department (blocked exit, unstable boxes, items on floor, etc) and take a photo. Then ask front line workers to find all the hazards in the photo. These are fun and allow for engagement and can even give rewards for someone who can be the first to correctly identify all the hazards.

9. What’s Wrong With This Picture?

10. What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Fire extinguisher missing red column and red square on floor required by Cintas color-coding plan
Blocked fire extinguisher
Partner drink not contained in spill-proof cup
Damaged seat on stool that could cause injury
Dust mop stored in a way that creates trip hazard

11. What’s Wrong With This Picture? General Industry Hazards

12. What’s Wrong With This Picture? General Industry Hazards- Answers
Electrical panel blocked
Ladder not secured
Damaged electrical box
Fire extinguisher blocked by bucket and ladder
Exit blocked by box and ladder

13. What’s Wrong With This Picture? Forklift Safety

14. What’s Wrong With This Picture? Forklift Safety
Keys left in unattended forklift.
Forks not lowered to the ground.
Propane tank not properly secured.
Fire Extinguisher not properly mounted.

15. What’s Wrong With This Picture?

16. What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Boxes not palletized or properly stacked.
Cord and hose causing trip hazard.
Empty boxes causing clutter and blocking walkway.

17. What’s Wrong With This Picture? Holiday Safety

18. What’s Wrong With This Picture? Holiday Safety
Wreath not centered above fire hazards.
Electrical hazards.
Trip hazards.
Cat unattended.

19. What’s Wrong With This Picture? Ergo/General Hazards
Source: WorkSafe Magazine

20. What’s Wrong With This Picture? Ergo/General Hazards
Boxes not secured on shelf.
Improper lift technique
Blocked electrical panel.
No MSDS label.
Improper ladder.
Source: WorkSafe Magazine

21. Closing
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