2019 BC Safety Charter Round Table Keynote Address: Greg Stewart
On May 21st, 2020, we had the privilege of watching the 2019 BC Safety Charter Round Table keynote speech by Greg Stewart from Sinclar Group Forest Products. It was a riveting and emotional account of the devastating incident that took place at the Lakeland Mills site in April 2012. This story is an excellent example of leadership, and why it is important for companies to have strong safety cultures. It also showed attendees that often disasters occur regardless of “having a plan in place” – all team members need to be vigilant in identifying risk and being a part of the solution.
There are commonalities between the Lakeland Mills incident and the sudden emergence of COVID-19 that were discussed. Most importantly, having strong communications between the leadership team and employees helps to maintain engagement in the workplace. Having a good flow of communication fosters good relationships, resulting in engagement and a higher level of adoption of good safety practices. Communication flows both ways – making sure that the staff or workers on the ground know that they are enabled to let leadership know about any concerns they might have.
Additionally, it’s important for leaders to understand and support the mental, physical and emotional challenges employees face. A good way to encourage this is to create a culture where the employees can say “stop”. In the case of COVID-19 and the workplace, a culture where the employees feel safe to call out improper health practices, or to not come to work when they are sick: that they not be afraid to lose their jobs or be financially affected. We as leaders need to model the behaviour for our teams to feel comfortable in doing so. Take steps to lead by example.
We are very grateful to have had the opportunity to revisit this topic with Greg, and to have had a chance to share comments and questions. At the end of the address, Greg shared his 6 takeaways. DOWNLOAD NOTES HERE.
Please join us for our next session on May 28th. We are pleased to be joined by Dr. Joti Samra, who will share a presentation on a very relevant topic in today’s new world: The importance of mental health in the workplace. In June, we will move every other week for these forums.
