Here’s a company that emphasizes safety at its customer contact center and has achieved remarkable results.
Last fall, United Airlines’ Detroit Customer Contact Center was named a Star VPP worksite by Michigan OSHA. It was the first Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) certification for United Airlines.
Kerry Fischman, senior staff specialist for corporate ground safety, says the strategies to protect office employees are similar to those the airline uses to protect other workers, including those with more traditional risks.
"Our approach to safety is the same throughout customer service and operations. The goal is to minimize the chance for injury to occur," he explains. According to Fischman, company-wide programs help ensure a culture of safety across the airline. Programs include:
- An effective employee safety committee
- Encouraging employees to apply safety knowledge and practices at work and at home
- Involvement by senior leaders
- Ergonomic and basic safety training for all employees
- Job safety analysis training for leadership and safety committee members
- An internal safety recognition program
- A growing wellness program with on-site clinics, wellness, challenges, weight loss programs, health screenings, and employee coaching
- Thorough investigation of all incidents and near misses
Whatever safety meeting you need, chances are you’ll find it prewritten and ready to use in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library on CD. Try it at no cost or risk. Here’s how.
Taking It Higher
The Detroit service center goes beyond corporate initiatives in a number of ways. For example, OSHA 10- and 30-hour training courses have been adapted for use at the facility, an unusual step for a service-based operation.
Ongoing safety communication helps spread the word. A huge safety billboard is used to share relevant information—from safety tips to news about upcoming inspections and the minutes of safety meetings.
Employees are encouraged to get up from their chairs and take regular breaks. They can take calls from a sitting or standing position. Every effort is made to ensure that workstations are suited to the individual employee.
The site’s entry into Michigan’s VPP has been a source of pride for employees of the center. It also spurred United Airlines to set a goal of VPP participation by every customer service location.
Adds Fischman, "Our focus in terms of office and administrative risk is a holistic approach: identify risks, find root causes, investigate all incidents and near misses, and prevent similar incidents in the future."
We challenge you to NOT find a safety meeting you need, already prewritten, in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library. Take up our challenge at no cost or risk. Get the details.
Safety Training for All Workers
BLR’s Safety Meetings Library provides the perfect safety meetings for conducting frequent and engaging training on a wide range of safety and health topics for both office and industrial workers. This cost-effective resource provides no fewer than seven separate safety meetings on the topic, as well as supporting handouts, quizzes, posters, and safety slogans.
All told, the CD provides you with more than 400 ready-to-train meetings on more than 100 key safety topics—a shrewd investment in this time of tight safety budgets. In addition to the meetings’ supplemental quizzes and handouts, you also get relevant regulations (OSHA’s CFR 29), a listing of the most common safety violations cited by OSHA, and case studies of actual OSHA cases and their outcomes.
Safety Meetings Library lets you choose from a variety of training approaches, including:
- Mandatory—Sessions that are OSHA-required
- Comprehensive—Sessions with broadest coverage of a topic
- 7-Minute—Short, simple, targeted sessions to fit tight schedules
- Initial—A session used as introductory training on a topic
- Refresher—Sessions that follow up on or reinforce previous training
- Tool Box Talk—More informal reinforcement of a topic
- PowerPoint®—Graphic presentations for comprehensive initial or refresher training
- Hands-on—A session in which there are training activities
- Spanish—Including Spanish language handouts and quizzes coordinated with English sessions
You can get a preview of the program by using the links below. But for the best look, we suggest a no-cost, no-obligation trial. Just let us know and we’ll arrange it for you.