Safety leaders share their planned areas for improvement in 2022
Johnny Kirchner| EH&S Director | Central Farmers Cooperative | Marion, SD
“When it comes to safety, we want to push a little harder in 2022. Our people are our greatest resource, and I want our men and women to go home the way they came to work. I tell our employees all the time, ‘If you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t push the button until you’re sure you do. If you see something, say something.’ It takes a whole team to stay safe. I can’t be at 14 locations at once. We need people to bring to light any safety issues. The goal for us is, ‘Let’s be vocal and talk about safety issues.’
“We’ve seen a lot of turnover, so we need to go back to safety basics to ensure everyone is on the same page. Our numbers are good for reportable incidents, etc., but the past few months have been tough. It’s hard to find people to hire. With COVID-19 protocols, we went to online training, but we’re going back to in-person training in 2022 so I can answer questions directly and consistently.
“We have a goal to rewrite all of our job safety analyses. It’s a big project. Our Wellness Committee is meeting again. Wellness and safety go hand-in-hand. They help us be more aware of things so we can avoid incidents and injuries.”
Norm Rosendahl | Safety & Compliance Manager | CenDak Cooperative | Leeds, ND
“Our biggest ambition this year is getting our Safety Committee more involved on some current projects, especially near miss reporting. We look at situations that could have resulted in an injury but didn’t because someone spotted a potential safety issue or stopped someone from doing something unsafe. Evaluating near misses helps us determine if we need to change our policies or procedures to improve safety. Our goal is to have zero incidents in 2022.
“The other big thing is lockout/tagout. We’re looking to improve our system, so when contractors or other outsiders come into our facilities, they can look at our lockout/tagout book and see the proper steps to take. This is especially important if an employee is not at work that day.
“We’re trying hard to have employees who work with the equipment be involved in writing these safety procedures, because they know best. When employees are involved, it increases employee buy-in, as they have some say in how things are done safely. The more employee involvement we have, the easier my job.”
We’re trying hard to have employees who work with the equipment be involved in writing these safety procedures, because they know best. -Norm Rosendahl, CenDak Cooperative
Jared Petersen | Safety Director | Farmers Coop Elevator Co. | Hemingford, NE
“With all the recent employee turnover and shortage of help, it’s important now to keep our safety culture going. I need to keep our people aware of safety and make sure they keep doing what they’re doing. I’m keeping a close eye on everyone. We have monthly safety meetings, like everyone else, but I also spend time with our guys outside. As safety director, I shouldn’t be the cop – that falls to the department heads – but rather the director directing people. It makes my work easier if I’m not the cop, and I make sure employees are doing things the right way.
“I also have to keep all those new people informed. I feel like I’m training a new person every week. It takes 4-6 hours, and I don’t cut people off if they want to talk about safety and the safe way to do things. Last week I trained a person who was a talker and it took longer, but that’s okay. I take all the time they need to ensure they know what they need to know.”
Terry Wright | Regional EHS Leader | Cargill Inc. | Parker, SD
“We’re focused on eliminating serious injuries and fatalities. It’s built into our performance and integrated throughout our organization. This involves making sure we have daily discussions on what our high-risk tasks are for the day, so we know what the hazards are and how to mitigate or control exposure. In this way, safety is proactive and not an afterthought.
“We’re also continuing to pursue Human Organization Performance and driving it throughout Cargill. This process recognizes that humans make mistakes, so we should look for errors in our system that might set up people for failure. We evaluate both our people and the systems they use.
“Finally, in 2022 we’re focused on managing our critical work. We want to have safe work plans ahead of time and go through the plan to make sure we didn’t miss anything. This also helps ensure our employees and contractors have the critical resources to perform their jobs safely and mitigate risks throughout Cargill up and down.”
Scott Cole | Safety and Quality Manager | Lowes Pellets and Grain Inc. | Greensburg, IN
“I only have one resolution, because if I can accomplish this one thing, everything else will fall in place. I want to push our safety culture to a higher level. I truly want every employee to be his ‘brother’s keeper.’ I don’t want to be the only one pointing out safety problems or the only one stopping employees and educating them on how they should do something more safely.
“I want our employees to come to me with ideas on how we can do things more safely and get our employees out of the mindset that I’m here just to make their jobs harder.
“I want employees, before they start a process, to stop and think about all the hazards involved and what they can do to eliminate those hazards. I want any employee to feel comfortable pointing out a safety issue to another employee and being able to educate them about why there’s a problem.
“To accomplish these things, I must get the management team more involved with things like walk-throughs, education, and more public praise for good safety practices. I want them to talk to employees, and let them know how we appreciate their safe actions and that each one of them should strive to be an example for others.
“I also want our management team to listen to their ideas, and in safety meetings, praise employees for safe actions and go over expectations. By asking and listening to safety concerns during safety meetings, we can come up with corrective actions with completion dates.”
I want employees, before they start a process, to stop and think about all the hazards involved and what they can do to eliminate those hazards. -Scott Cole, Lowes Pellets and Grain Inc.
Danny Christopher | Safety Coordinator | Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Inc. | Decatur, AL
“My main priority is updating our facilities for improved ergonomics. Most of our facilities were built between the 1930s and 1950s. We have upgrades scheduled for robotic palletizers and bag stackers for several locations beyond Decatur, AL.
“Many of our facilities are using hand labor to do these tasks. We need to get into the 21st century, and work smart, and not just work hard. It also helps mitigate the impact of the labor shortage.
“I’m also working on safety education for employees. We have high turnover, and we have young employees who haven’t dealt with industrial equipment, so they don’t understand the hazards and the potential for injury. We provide education through stand-downs when we have an incident or near incident, plus monthly safety training, and new employee training.
“We also want our safety values to carry over to our employees’ homes and show them how they’ll impact their families if they get hurt. We have a great team of old-timers who have been here for 30-plus years, but complacency can set in. All it takes is one accident to affect a life.”
We also want our safety values to carry over to our employees’ homes and show them how they’ll impact their families if they get hurt. -Danny Christopher, Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Inc.
Kila Moore | Safety Manager | Mountain View Coop | Black Eagle, MT
“Our biggest resolution for 2022 is transferring to a new learning management system. It’s been hard to keep track of training during the pandemic, and this new system will help us train employees and record what they have completed.”
Montt Beckett | EHS Manager | M&M Service Company | Carlinville, IL
“We had three or four cutting-type injuries last year, so we’re focusing on knife/cutting safety this year. Many of these injuries were due to complacency. In the past, we’ve complied information and gone over safe handling techniques and knife safety. Much of it is common sense, like always cutting away from yourself, and box cutter safety when changing blades.
“We’ll also be talking with our local fire departments and first responders. We invite them to come tour our facilities, so they have more awareness and involvement and increased familiarity with how we work, in case we have a safety incident. They also help us with inspections to identify potential hazards.”
We had three or four cutting-type injuries last year, so we’re focusing on knife/cutting safety this year. Many of these injuries were due to complacency. -Montt Beckett, M&M Service Company
From January/February 2022 Grain Journal Issue