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assessment and control. Participation was man-
datory for each of the 420 departments. By the
end of the project, more than 1,000 hazard
assessment documents were completed for
every role within the university.
"Honestly, it's what got the program off the
ground," says Aldridge. "The hazard assessment
and control component drives everything else
inside the management system; they're really
the fundamentals."
The university achieved COR in 2014 and suc-
cessfully renewed it in 2017.
According to Aldridge's boss, Linda Dalgetty,
vice-president of finance and services, the uni-
versity would not have been able to achieve
COR without Aldridge's passion, leadership
and desire to shift the paradigm.
"She's not willing to just sit back and say,
'I've done a good job, my team's done a good
job.' She wants to validate it, she wants to use
the findings to make us better and move the
needle even further."
It was important for Aldridge to pursue
COR for the University of Calgary because
the environment, health, safety and sustain-
ability committee of the board of governors
was asking about benchmarking. It's very dif-
ficult to benchmark your health and safety
management systems if you're not auditing to
a standard, she says.
"Even looking at things like WCB (Workers'
Compensation Board) claim rates, lost-time
claim rates, we look at those but those are not
really telling you about how deep the roots are
for your management system," Aldridge says.
"The best tool that we could find was COR."
To pique the interest of the board of gov-
ernors, Aldridge takes them on tours of the
university, so they can better understand the
type of work that goes on. She recently made
the business case for updating the university's
emergency eyewash and shower systems, and
she showed the board the new models during
a recent tour.
"There's this trust in Rae Ann and this
focus — right up to the top of the house —
on environmental health, safety and security,"
says Dalgetty.
Another one of Aldridge's initiatives is to
have the executive leadership team participate
in health and safety inspections during Safety
and Wellness Week every September. She also
walks through at least three tabletop exercises
with them for the university's crisis manage-
ment system. All the meetings of the board,
board committees and General Faculties Coun-
cil start with a safety moment.
Aldridge says her success with senior lead-
ership stems from getting in front of them.
If she's working on a large-scale project, she
meets with the executives to explain what's
coming, why it's happening and what groups
may be impacted. Plus, she always follows
through with her commitments.
"You need face time with them and you
need to deliver. When you're pushing initia-
tives or projects, you need to have credibility
at the table, so you need to be delivering those
scope, schedule and budget all on time,"
Aldridge says. "When you have that kind of
PHOTO:
RAMESH
PURADCHITHASAN
