Why Health and Safety Is Essential For Sustainability

  From ethical sourcing methods, recycling programs, and renewable energy initiatives, sustainability has become a core value and a large part of many businesses long term strategies, placing emphasis on the future and long term goals of organizations rather than focusing on short term profits. Organizations are becoming increasingly successful in incorporating and balancing social, economic and environmental factors into …

Edmonton Launches Comprehensive Review of City QHSE Practices

The City of Edmonton has launched a comprehensive review of safety in the province’s municipal workplaces. The city wants to re-examine and improve upon the QHSE processes and safety culture of its municipal workplaces, eventually translating the positive results to the public sector. With a focus on the three distinct areas of people, processes and technology, the review will examine …

Health and Safety Trends for 2017

Health and Safety Trends for 2017 OSHA Recommendations: Last year, OSHA released its recommend practices for heath and safety programs, with the goal of improving QHSE processes across workplaces. The recommendations hope to prevent injuries and move safety culture from being reactive to encouraging proactive health and safety practices. These OSHA recommendations suggest that companies implement a robust safety program …

CEOs Have A Major Influence Over Safety Culture

A recent study suggests that CEOs and senior management play the most critical role in creating and developing their organization’s safety culture, which they role model and pass down to middle management and supervisors. This emphasis and focus on safety eventually permeates throughout the entire organization, directly influencing the number of frontline employee injuries. The study, published in the Journal …

OSHA Updates Recommend Workplace Health and Safety Practices

A new set of recommended practices for health and safety programs has been laid out by OSHA, intended to provide employers with a methodical approach to improving the health and safety of workplaces. With a new and easier to use format, the document has updated the 1989 OSHA guidelines, with supporting tools and resources to particularly help small and medium-sized …

Alberta Farm Coalition Plans to Lead the Way in Workplace Safety

Now that the Bill 6 consultation process is winding down, the coalition of Alberta agriculture groups, AgCoalition, is turning its focus back to advancing safety culture and QHSE on Alberta farms. Formed in January, the 29 farms in the coalition represent 97 percent of Alberta’s agricultural industry. Since January, AgCoalition has been kept busy in a consultation process regarding Alberta’s …

Alberta Health & Safety Conference – Improving Safety in the Workplace

The annual Alberta Health and Safety Conference kicked off yesterday, with more than 450 health and safety industry leaders in attendance, sharing their thoughts on health and safety related topics. Held at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton, the conference is a great source of health and safety education and an ideal place to share ideas and learn from health …

Workplace Injury Claims Nearly Double On Alberta Farms

Since January, when workplace compensation coverage became mandatory for farms, the number of injury claims from Alberta farm employees has nearly doubled. In the first half of 2016, the WCB received 395 claims from Alberta farm employees, of which 356 were accepted. Compared to the numbers from 2015, this is a sharp increase with nearly double the amount of injury …

Citations, penalties from inspectors reduce workplace injuries and improve QHSE

A recent study by the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto has found that workplace inspections resulting in citations and penalties for infractions have been key and effective in motivating employers to improve QHSE conditions, making workplaces much safer, and reducing the number of workplace injuries overall. Published in June, the study concluded that when an OHS officer or …

Improving Safety Culture Through Employee Engagement

A recent study has found that workplace cultures in which employees are engaged in their jobs and QHSE practices are not only more efficient and productive, but are also safer places to work overall. Gallup’s 2016 study — examining over 82,000 business units and 1.8 million employees in 230 organizations, across 49 industries and in 73 countries — shows that …