Employee engagement is a crucial aspect of a company's safety culture. For JoAnn DelaO and Hunter Site Services, engaging the workforce has led to an injury-free safety record for more than five years.
DelaO, HSE manager at Hunter Site Services, will tell Safety Leadership Conference attendees about how employee engagement can reduce a company's injury rate in a session titled, "Employee Engagement Leads to Workplace Safety."
“Sometimes employees can get complacent in their work areas and may not recognize hazards," said DelaO. “This is a proactive effort to prevent any injuries in our company. Our goal is to eliminate all accidents, incidents or injuries by having team members looking out for one another."
EHS Today recently conducted a Q&A with DelaO about her session. You can hear more from DelaO at the Safety Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Sept. 11-13.
EHS Today: Can you offer us a description of your presentation and how it relates to safety leadership?
JoAnn DelaO: Safety leadership and employee engagement go hand and hand in creating and sustaining a safety culture.
EHS Today: Why is the topic of your presentation of interest to you and why is it important to SLC attendees?
DelaO: An engaged employee is a satisfied employee, an employee who will take pride in their work, an employee who will work safe and be an example. Those are the types of employees we all want working at our companies.
EHS Today: Please share an example of a personal or professional experience you’ve had related to safety leadership or the topic of your presentation.
DelaO: Just this morning I was taking to an employee, and he was showing me a pictures of his kids at the beach, and telling me they are the reasons he works safe. We picked out the best picture for him to send in to be featured our newsletter.
EHS Today: What are the takeaways you hope to leave with attendees?
DelaO: I hope the attendees will take away that our safety comes down to each and every employee, and an engaged employee is a safe employee.
(EHS Today's 2017 Safety Leadership Conference and America’s Safest Companies Award Program will take place Sept. 11-13 in Atlanta, GA at the Hilton Atlanta. This event is designed to share best leadership, risk management, compliance and safety practices with EHS professionals hoping to achieve world-class safety at their companies. The conference features 28 sessions across four performance tracks; Safety & Risk Management, Compliance, Construction Safety and Safety Technology.)