The Case for Safety Podcast

Todd Hudson, president of Maverick Safety Training, shares how AI can help EHS professionals roleplay different conversations and improve their communication skills with those in their organization. He discusses how to effectively prompt AI tools to provide feedback that will be helpful in discussions with everyone from frontline workers to C-suite executives. 

Mark Katchen, managing principal of The Phylmar Group and co-author of “Ethical Decision-making in Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety: A Comparative Case Study Approach,” discusses common ethical dilemmas EHS professionals may encounter, and how to address them in a way that best supports worker safety and health. He also shares the importance of understand and following the safety profession’s code of conduct, and that of your organization so that you can serve as an example to others.

ASSP President Linda Tapp and Wyatt Bradbury, principal of Health and Safety at Avetta, share how our Standards-Based User Groups (SBUGs) will help EHS professionals put consensus standards into action and improve safety. They discuss how the SBUGs will bring together industry stakeholders to share knowledge, develop best practices and offer insights into how to implement voluntary consensus standards in real-world environments.  The SBUGs will initially focus on reducing the risks of falls from height, protecting workers from hazardous energy and using artificial intelligence (AI) to anticipate and reduce risks.

Dr. Elif Erkal, associate director of research and strategy at the Construction Safety Research Alliance, shares why metrics like total recordable incident rate (TRIR) don’t tell the whole story and offers alternatives for more proactive safety management. She discusses how tools like high energy control assessments can help EHS professional identify high-energy hazards and the importance of a balanced scorecard to ensuring the effectiveness of controls.  Additional Resources The Statistical Invalidity of TRIR as a Measure of Safety Performance Moving Beyond TRIR – Measuring & Monitoring Safety Performance with High-Energy Control Assessments Construction Safety Research Alliance – Safety in the Boardroom Edison Electric Institute – The Power to Prevent Serious Injuries & Fatalities Impact of Energy-Based Safety Training on Quality of Prejob Safety Meetings and Control of Hazardous Energy in Construction

Wyatt Bradbury, Principal – Health and Safety at Avetta, joins us to discuss the hierarchy of controls and its role in helping reduce risks in the workplace. He shares why it’s important for EHS professionals to examine the effectiveness of the controls at their job sites to help ensure they are reducing risk to an acceptable level. He also explains “active” and “passive” controls, the “transition of illusion” between engineering and administrative controls and why EHS professionals should prioritize “passive” controls and reevaluate residual risks.

Sponsored by SafeStart. Rhonda Piggee Johnson, Implementation Specialist at SafeStart, discusses the causes and effects of complacency in the workplace and the impact it can have on safety. She shares how safety professionals can work with those in their organization to foster good habits and instill the importance of not becoming complacent about tasks, processes and procedures.

Heather MacDougall, Owner of MacDougall Solutions LLC, joins us to share steps EHS professionals can take to collaborate with those in their organization and demonstrate the impact safety has on business performance. She discusses the concept of “safety culture” and how it can unintentionally create silos within organizations and impede progress toward improving worker safety and health. She emphasizes that safety is a reflection of an organization’s values and that it is everyone’s responsibility to help keep workers safe and healthy.

Todd Hudson, President, Maverick Safety Training, and Eric Lewis, EHS Coordinator at Align Precision, share tips for delivering engaging training to your team to help them stay safe and address the hazards they face on the job. They discuss how methods like microlearning and hands-on training can help ensure that knowledge stays with workers after the training. 

Sponsored by SafeStart. Peter Batrowny, Senior Consultant at SafeStart, shares how safety professionals and supervisors can address common risks and hazards associated with working at night and develop a strong culture. He also discusses how effective communication and active listening can help you develop as a leader and improve safety and health performance.

Eric Bourquin, Vice President of Safety Services at Texas Mutual Insurance Company, joins us to discuss the importance of using safety data to improve risk management and hazard mitigation on your job sites. He shares how tools like telematics and wearable technology can provide valuable insights into safety performance and help prevent incidents before they occur.