16 Canadian Occupational Safety www.cos-mag.com
I
t came down to two men. Twenty-three years ago, Dave
Hagen and Darrel McDaniel were electricians working for
Chemco Electrical Contractors in Edmonton and they were
both asked if they wanted to be the "safety guy" for a project
in northern Alberta.
"I said 'Um, no, not really.' I wanted to push, I wanted to
be the supervisor," recalls McDaniel.
"I said 'Does it pay the same?' They said yes, so I said OK,"
laughs Hagen.
The company then supported Hagen to complete a few
safety courses through the Alberta Construction Safety Asso-
ciation (ACSA), and when it needed a safety person again
for another project, Hagen accepted. Eventually, he took on the
safety role full time and is now the vice-president of environ-
mental health and safety at Chemco.
"Dave took it and we never looked back. And it's the best thing
Chemco has ever done setting him up, because Chemco has been
recognized as a leader in the safety industry," says McDaniel, now
vice-president of support services at the company.
Hagen's hard work has earned him the 2014 Safety Leader of
the Year Award, presented by Canadian Occupational Safety and
sponsored by Miller by Honeywell.
One of Hagen's finest attributes is his ability to understand
a worker's perspective, says Cheryl Solesbury, wellness
manager and EHS advisor at Chemco.
"He has the ability to communicate with the work-
ers at the same level because he came from wearing
boots himself," she says. "You've got to get respect
from the workers if you want to initiate anything
new — you need to get workers to buy in."
One way Hagen gets buy-in from workers
is by involving them in decision-making. For
example, several years ago, a client of Chem-
co's told Hagen that his workers could no
longer use knives on the job site because too
many of them were getting hurt.
Hagen found different types of knives and
test drove them with the workforce. The feed-
back from the workers, such as preferring a
curved end rather than a pointy one, was integral
to Hagen making a decision on what knife to buy.
He also found situations where knives could be
replaced with cable strippers.
"So this is the best (knife) for it, but more impor-
tantly, these are the alternatives. Where we can
reduce the use of the knives, it will also reduce our
Co-operation
over competition
Sharing best practices with competitors,
working with vendors to make safer
products earned Dave Hagen the 2014 Safety
Leader of the Year Award
By Amanda Silliker
