A FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
Ronnie Moore (12/19/07)
At Interstate Paper, we don’t claim to have all the answers. We
readily admit that we don’t even know all the questions yet! But,
we have had an upswing in our Safety Program with a corresponding down
swing in our accident rates. We think we have found the “Formula
for Success”. We have developed a “Teamwork
Attitude’ towards our Safety Program. We understand that it takes
all of us working together, with guidance and support to make a safe
working environment. We have developed and implemented a
mill-wide Safety Program involving everyone from the top down. We value
the importance and input of every individual. We listen to ideas and
encourage participation in the Safety Program. At the same time, we
stay within the guidelines and regulations of state and federal
agencies. We had our safest year in IPC history in 2006 with an
OSHA recordable rate at 1.45. Striving to better the record, a
new “Safety Program” was developed and implemented in
January 2007.
The new Safety Program is designed as departmental with a Safety
Sponsor for each area. The Safety Sponsors have many responsibilities:
ensuring safety work orders get into the system and are followed up
through completion, ensuring all OSHA training is done, facilitate
departmental safety meetings, ensure accident investigations are done,
documented and routed, push housekeeping, ensure and audit that all
employees have required PPE, and monitor that safe practices are being
followed in their areas. Safety Sponsors are also responsible for
monthly safety meetings in each area. Our “Mr. Safety
Program” is an invaluable program to Interstate Paper. This
program allows hourly employees to assist the First- Aid /Safety
Coordinator with outstanding safety work orders and other safety items
in general. Mr. Safety is a constant reminder for employees to wear
their proper PPE. Another aspect of the Mr. Safety Program is
that it allows workers who have been injured on the job to return to
work in a light duty capacity. The employee doesn’t lose a
paycheck and Interstate benefits greatly as well.
Interstate Paper has many Safety Incentive Award Programs:
Safety Dinners for crews: Crews working 6 months without a recordable
case get 1.5 times their pay for one hour to have a safety dinner. This
takes the place of one monthly safety meeting.
Safety Slogan Contest: a new slogan winner is chosen once a month. The winner receives a pair of safety shoes up to $100 value.
Gift Card Award: each person in a department accrues $15.00 per month
towards a gift card that is given at the end of the year (right before
Christmas). Every employee has the potential to receive $180.00 at
year-end. If the department has a recordable injury the entire
department from the manager down loses $15.00 dollars for that month of
the injury. If a department has a lost time accident, the department
loses 3 months ($45.00).
First-Aid Number Drawing: Once a week a persons name is drawn at work
and if they know how many total cases (first aid and recordable) we
have, then they win $40.00. If they don’t answer correctly, the
pot goes to $80.00, etc…
Our statistics over the last several years support our belief that our safety programs are working:
YEAR
# of
RECORDABLES
INCIDENT
RATE
# of LOST TIME
2000
6
1.73
0
2001
7
2.18
1
2002
8
2.43
0
2003
10
2.76
0
2004
8
2.26
0
2005
11
3.60
3
2006
4
1.45
2
2007
6
2.26
2
The full explanation of our “Formula for Success” would be incomplete without the “bottom line”….
“Our employees are all actively involved in our Safety
Program. From the programs mentioned and the incentives given,
Interstate Paper works together to keep down the number of accidents,
and keep morale and production up.”