Find out how one company has leveraged their existing safety and health management system to cover employee off-the-job safety and become a leader in the field.
“We finally realized the cost to the business as so many more people are hurt at home than at work,” says Dale Wriedt, manager of work and life safety for Unit 90 of the John Deere company in Moline, Illinois. “For every injury we have at work, we had 20 off the job.”
Same Rules Apply
The infrastructure developed at John Deere to protect workers from on-the-job risk is applied to its home safety program.
For example, members of the corporate safety department assess facility compliance with the company’s at-home safety program during regular site visits. A self-audit system requires site leaders to answer questions like:
- Do you have a committee that’s addressing home-based safety?
- Is your facility holding events and promoting home safety and health activities?
- Is off-the-job safety discussed at staff meetings?
More than 20 years! That’s how long safety professionals like you have depended on BLR’s twice-monthly OSHA Compliance Advisor newsletter for compliance and good practices news and ideas. Plus, for a Limited Time receive the special report OSHA General Industry Training Requirements FREE. Get the details.
Additional Steps
“We’re also seeing more facilities add off-the-job safety to their compliance assurance letter,” says Wriedt. “The letter is a summary of a unit’s plans for the upcoming year. It’s signed off by the factory manager, operations manager, and union safety representative.”
Furthermore, at many Deere facilities employees are encouraged to take home PPE. Safety glasses, earplugs, and gloves used on the job also protect workers doing lawn work, auto repair, and other household tasks.
Safety directors for John Deere’s U.S. facilities also discuss current initiatives at quarterly meetings. Off-the-job safety is on the agenda during at least two of those sessions.
In addition, the company recently released a professionally produced home safety video at a worldwide meeting of John Deere Human Resources staff. Wriedt says they wanted to show this at that meeting because they wanted to get the HR community involved as well.
As a result of all these efforts, Deere sites with active off-the-job safety committees have seen a rise in employee engagement scores and the company wants to capitalize on this trend.
Try BLR’s renowned OSHA Compliance Advisor newsletter at no cost for a full month, and only then decide. It’s news you can use, and no way to lose! Plus, as a bonus receive the special report OSHA General Industry Training Requirements FREE for a Limited Time. Get the info.
Compliance Is Our Middle Name
As a safety professional, it’s vital to stay on top of the latest trends and developments so that you can keep your organization in the forefront of workplace safety and health, whether it involves safety compliance on the job or off.
That’s where BLR’s OSHA Compliance Advisor comes into play. Safety professionals have depended on this twice-monthly newsletter for more than 2 decades, taking advantage of such features as:
- The latest OSHA and NIOSH news, court rulings, and proposed rules
- Compliance Report, with case studies of how promising ideas have been put to work
- Trainer’s Corner, providing practical, actionable tips to clue your workers in on safety
- Washington Watch, offering an advance look at what’s coming down the compliance pike so that you can be ready when it comes
- From the States summary, presenting little-publicized state regs that often trump the federal
- SafetyWorks monthly reproducible handouts for employees, ready to copy and distribute
- EHS & Your Business insert. A quarterly insert that provides a ready-to-use “selling package” to bring senior management on board with your safety plans, using language they can relate to.
You can see many of these features with this download product sample link and also view a full year’s worth of subject coverage with the download subject index link.
Even better, you can experience all these benefits of the OSHA Compliance Advisor at no cost or risk for a full month before deciding if you’d like to subscribe. Let us know, and we’ll be happy to arrange it.