“I’ve always tried to find opportunities to learn from others; the better informed I am, the better safety program I can create in my workplace,” explains Erika Winning, CSP, CHMM.
Winning will share some of the knowledge she uses to build high-performing safety programs in her BCSP Global Learning Summit (GLS) session, Instructing Line Supervisors on How to Provide Effective Safety Performance Feedback.
The session focuses on the importance of engagement and teamwork in an effective safety program. “I hope attendees of my session are able to gain an appreciation and understanding for how important it is to build relationships with frontline supervisors and management,” says Winning. “I want attendees to walk away with an appreciation of how EHS programs live and die on the implementation of frontline leadership, and what we can do as environmental, health, and safety (EHS) professionals to help educate and mentor frontline leaders to make our programs more successful.”
Professional development opportunities like the BCSP GLS are important to Winning for a similar reason. “Something I might be struggling with, someone else may have seen or already addressed,” she explains. “It’s a great chance to see and hear what others are doing. The GLS is a rare opportunity to connect with professionals outside of your immediate bubble.”
Winning expresses the importance of safety by emphasizing the well-being of the people it protects. “When the OSH Act was signed into law, it was done with a statement that we need to protect America’s greatest natural resource: our labor, and our people,” she says. “Protecting this most precious resource is why safety is so important. Safety allows people to enjoy their life outside of work without being impacted by the work they have done. No one should have to trade their physical, emotional, or psychological well-being for a paycheck; workers have a right to a workplace free of hazards.”
This is what makes the safety profession great. “It is our job as safety professionals to recognize these hazards and abate them before they impact employees. Safety is a good career because it allows you to see so many parts of a business and allows you to make a difference.”
Instructing Line Supervisors on How to Provide Effective Safety Performance Feedback will be presented on Thursday, May 12, at 10 a.m. (Eastern Time). The complete agenda and registration for the BCSP GLS can be found at BCSPGLS.COM.