NB Power’s Safety Meets set the standard for success

NB Power’s commitment to public safety is obvious – you only need to watch television, listen to the radio or visit their website to confirm it. They are currently aggressively promoting a public safety campaign called “What you don’t know about electricity can hurt you.” Their commitment to their own workplace safety is very obvious as well – so much so that other employers have asked to send their workers to the company’s highly successful Safety Meets. Safety Meet 2007, held recently at six locations across the province, saw contractors attending from Newfoundland & Labrador, firefighters from the City of Moncton, and employees from Perth-Andover Electric Light Commission and Edmundston Power.

The Safety Meets began in 2001, as a means to champion and nurture the company’s developing safety culture.

“We had a great safety record in 2,000, and were looking for a way to maintain that momentum. Our JHSC’s are extremely active and diligent, but their primary focus tends to be on day-to-day safety at the workplace. We wanted to enhance their message to include safety at home and at play,” says Martin Boucher, manager of health and safety with NB Power’s Distribution and Customer Service.

The safety team developed its own logo and tagline – Safety takes You Home – which is branded extensively on items ranging from brief cases to calendars. It sponsors an annual safety calendar contest, which features safety-themed drawings and photos from employees and their families, and provides desk drops such as memo pads with a safety message, a couple of times per year. The safety team also produced a comprehensive home safety guide.

“It’s all about getting home safely to family, and getting home to a family that’s safe,” Boucher says.

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The safety team’s most ambitious project is the Safety Meet. These are held every two years for a full day. And buy-in from the president and CEO, David Hay, and the company’s vice-presidents means attendance is mandatory. To accommodate NB Power’s more than 2,000 employees, several sessions are held at various venues across the province.

Safety Meet 2007’s theme was How Safe are Your Standards? “The focus was on helping our employees understand the difference between what we believe to be safe, and what our standards dictate,” Boucher said. “The safety team met to brainstorm creative and innovative ways to get the message out there. It’s a serious message, but we wanted to deliver it in such a way that the employees would have fun and feel good about it.”

And that’s exactly what they did. The safety team brought in Marshall Button, a.k.a Lucien, who appeared in a running skit as a maintenance worker with appalling safety habits, but who, by the end of the day, is transformed into a health and safety champion. Another skit was done in a talk show format with host “Dr. Phillie Mae,” a cross between Dr. Ruth and Dr. Phil. Dr. Phillie Mae’s guests included several of NB Power’s managers, vice-presidents, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers business manager, Ross Galbraith, and a number of very courageous employees, providing the staff with the opportunity to see them in a whole new light. And while the antics of Lucien and Dr. Phillie Mae had them rolling in the aisles, participants were reminded that safety is serious business, through stories shared by NB Power’s employees on their own workplace injuries, and through a presentation by Duff Boyd, NB Power’s director of health and safety, on how safety standards at NASA are developed and how deviating from these standards resulted in the Columbia and Challenger tragedies.

“It’s tricky to mix humour with safety; it has to be done carefully, with much sensitivity and in good taste. It worked very well for us, and the feedback has been very positive,” Boucher says. When you engage your audience they are much more likely to retain the message, and humour is one of the best ways to do that. The staff took the message home. I believe that if you asked any of our employees whether NB Power is serious about safety, the answer would be an emphathic YES.”

The WHSCC commends NB Power on their commitment and innovative approach to safety education, and we invite other employers to heed their example and seek creative methods of their own to promote health and safety.

For a small sample of the positive employee feedback on Safety Meet 2007, read on:

“I am not sure who created and produced Safety Meet 2007, though I would like to nominate them for an award. We’ve been talking for a few days now about the session and the effective manner in which it was presented. People are already anticipating the next safety meet. Congratulations and keep up the good work.”

“I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the safety day. I’m sure there were lots of folks involved in pulling it all together and the results proved to be worth it. From start to finish it was informative and yet so entertaining – I haven’t laughed so much in a long time. Thank you and please pass along my appreciation to the team involved.”

“Thank you for the obvious hard work and planning that went into Safety Meet 2007. It was an enjoyable day and very informative. Mixing safety with humour made the day go by quickly with never a dull moment. It was also nice to see another side of the VPs and managers, which I am sure people don’t see on a regular basis. Thanks again for a great day.”