Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.
Issue link: https://digital.carswellmedia.com/i/1164813
25 2019 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER "We had a little coffee stand pop-up and we gave out coffee and cookies. The idea was to show how cutting back on small amounts — like buying a coffee or cookie every day — can make a big impact on people's savings over time," says Daw. "We were giving out information on what that daily coffee could save you for your retirement over 10 years, 25 years." The company also highlighted the importance of handwashing prior to cold and flu season with another inno- vative pop-up initiative. "You basically washed your hands with Glo Germ and you put your hands underneath the blue light, and it'll show if you've cleaned your hands well enough," says Daw. "It creates quite a buzz." The company is far from finished with its wellness efforts and Niagara Casinos plans on introducing new ini- tiatives to address the challenges for workers at the 24-7, 365-days-per-year operation. The wellness committee is currently working on creating a resource guide for new employees on shift work. "We recognize that fatigue and sleep is an important part of health and wellness," says Palmer. "It's looking at providing tips for sleep hygiene and routine; even things like how to manage social relationships and family relation- ships when working with shift work and different hours." Niagara Casinos will always be investing in employee wellness because wellness is one of its key busi- ness objective. "Our associate well-being is part of our strategic objectives: We want to make sure that our associates are in a good mindset financially, physi- cally, mentally; they're a contributor to our success and we directly link it to our culture and our business per- formance," Daw says. "We know that a healthy employee will perform better." that put people at risk. If a near miss or incident occurs due to a personal performance issue, BASF employs its ABC analysis tool, which stands for antecedents (triggers), behaviours and consequences. The tool allows the incident investigation team to gain a better understanding of what influenced the individual to make the decision to act the way they did. Once this is determined, the individual is coached on changing the antecedents and consequences of the undesired behaviour. "It helps us identify why people do the things they do," says Cammaert. "When it comes to behaviours that put people at risk, the first thing we want to understand is what was that antecedent, what was that trigger that caused you to do that." New employees at BASF undergo an extensive onboarding program. At the Windsor, Ont. site, employees undergo eight days of face-to-face training, which is a significant depar- ture from the previous two-day model. "It's important to be done face to face because you can gauge the employee's understanding of the content," says Erika Harris, EHS and Responsible Care specialist for BASF Canada, which is headquartered in Mississauga, Ont. and has 1,233 employees across the country. "If you just put them in front of a computer and they just have to flip through slides, they aren't really getting the interaction they need to retain that information and really understand the importance of their dedication to what we are training them on." To further ensure understanding, BASF is now making videos for vari- ous tasks and showing these in the orientation. The videos feature current employees performing the tasks, which increases their engagement in safety. The president of BASF Canada, Mar- celo Lu, regularly visits manufacturing sites, promotes safety by making it the first discussion topic in town halls, conducts a podcast that always includes a safety topic and participates in the company's Global Safety Days. Additionally, every time there is a near miss or an incident at the company, the resulting report crosses Lu's desk. "Leadership shapes the culture," says Cammaert. "If leadership is not involved from the get-go, then they really are not involved in what the organization is doing." FOR ONE employee of Niagara Casi- nos, the company's wellness initiative brought about a major life change. "[She] actually was able to go off of her diabetes medication because she was able to get it under control," says Lindsay Daw, disability services manager at the gaming and entertain- ment company that runs two casinos in downtown Niagara Falls, Ont. This past year, Niagara Casinos implemented a new digital wellness effort using the Praktice Health app, moment of mindfulness where there was a guided meditation three times a day that you would complete." The participating employees totalled more than 49.2 million steps, they ate 8,650 healthy meals and drank 9,600 litres of water. Collectively, they inhaled 14,000 mindful breaths and 3,750 physical activity actions were recorded over the 30 days. For about 300 workers who took up the challenge, it was well received. "We have one employee who was 71 years old and she did every single activity and she was a real champion for the challenge," says Palmer. All the information went into a social feed that all participants could see. "It wasn't a huge change; it was kind of these daily micro-habits that you're kind of focusing on and chang- ing," he says. "For someone to have more water intake or manage their meals, it really helped." Niagara Casinos also put a big emphasis on financial wellness with a pop-up event entitled Small Amount Equals Big Savings. Wellness GOLD GSK SILVER Mackenzie Health SILVER which became "the best challenge we've ever done," she says. The 30-day event enabled the 4,224-employee workforce to keep a close eye on every- thing they do, from eating to exercise to mindfulness. "Each day for those 30 days, you tracked your nutrition, your hydra- tion, exercise or activity; [it was] linked to your phone or your Fitbit to track your steps," says Adam Palmer, safety prevention supervisor at Niagara Casinos. "And then also, there was a