The month of May is Safety Month at Cooper – a time for creating heightened awareness through health and safety focused activities.

Just as we did last year, we have chosen a theme for each week of May.

May 1 to 7 – SEE IT. LOG IT. FIX IT.

May 8 to 14 – SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

May 9 to 21 – SAFE DRIVING

May 22 to 28 – FIRST AID

SEE IT. LOG IT. FIX IT.

Hazards can be encountered anywhere, whether it be at work or at home.  Knowing how to proactively identify, evaluate and control them can go a long way in preventing incidents or injuries from occurring.  At Cooper, we do this through many different avenues:

• Field Level Hazard Assessments are completed daily by our workers in safety-sensitive roles.  This assists them in starting their day off with safety at top of mind.
• Workplace inspections are a structured way to focus on finding hazards that exist which may not be noticed during the day to day tasks.
• Employees submit near miss/hazard identifications through eCompliance as a way to formally log the hazards they are coming across in their daily activities.

At daily Toolbox Talks during this first week of May our branch managers will be calling out and celebrating safe behaviors with the team.

We will also have a guest speaker from Threads of Life join us for a Cooper university session.

SITUATIONAL AWARENESS:

Situational awareness is being mindful of where you are in the moment, what you are supposed to be doing and who and what is around you.  Being focused on the task at hand is an important part of keeping yourself and your coworkers safe.

During this week, we will be participating in a survey on Safety Culture at Cooper; employees will be discussing their reasons for working safely and a video will be released featuring Cooper employees talking about what safety means to them.

SAFE DRIVING:

Driving is a very common task at Cooper, and presents with it many different hazards.  Information will be shared on safe driving, and a fun video will be sent out to the team that demonstrates how easily one can be distracted.

FIRST AID:

On average, even in larger cities in Canada, EMS can take 10 minutes or more to arrive at the scene of an emergency.  Having people in our branches trained to take control of an injury and ensure proper care is provided immediately is crucial to the well-being of everyone.  Our first aiders have the training to deal with minor injuries and the knowledge to determine if further medical aid is necessary.

Information regarding the importance of our first aiders will be shared with all during this week. We will also be participating in a fun activity with scrambled safety slogans.  Entries will be sent to the safety team and one lucky winner will receive a prize.

In addition to the focused activities listed, during Safety Month we will be announcing:

• Regional Safety Champion – one branch per region
• Individual Safety Champion – one person per region

The main thing we can all do for each other is to stay alert and aware at all times and apply common sense in every activity we do. If you are not sure about something, ask for help. If you see something, say or do something.

Employees who feel supported and safe at work contribute to the well-being of the business in the long run.

Safety is good business.

Doug Dougherty

CEO