Virtual Breakfast Forum – May 6, 2021

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Great Discussion At Virtual Breakfast Forum

On today’s call, we welcomed our newest member Michael Hall, Executive VP Operations of Viking Air, an aircraft and parts manufacturer based in Victoria. Viking Air employs 400 people and manufactures the iconic Twin Otter aircraft.

All members agreed that everyone seems to be feeling the “languishing” – people are fed up, burn out, trying to do everything to keep morale up, and this is all taking its toll. Workforces are no longer looking forward to Zoom meetings, and mental health is still at the forefront of everyone’s minds. If it’s not dodging the actual disease, it’s keeping your mental health in check.

The question on everyone’s minds: what does work look like when this is “all over”? It was agreed that it’s a good idea to communicate and clearly lay out the plans for any reopening, to allow for certainty for employees.

While some employees are chomping at the bit to come back to the office, members agreed that we will probably never go back to 100% presence in the office. Depending on the industry, some require in-person working environments such as manufacturing, and others can function remotely, such as mostly administrative organizations. Most organizations are planning a hybrid approach, using “hot desks” and a part-time presence both at home and in the office.

Recently, WSBC has communicated that employers should take a cautious approach to the words used when discussing vaccinations with employees.  It is a slippery slope if employers are perceived as aggressively promoting getting a vaccine in order to come to work or supporting even minor consequences if they don’t.

We are all wrestling with similar issues. It’s clear that members are benefitting from belonging to an organization such as the EHSCBC, sharing issues, strategies and solutions, and celebrating successes, together.

A brief reminder of some upcoming events:

June 3rd  – Join us for a mental health check, and presentation on resiliency by Dr. Joti Samra. Members will participate in a Q&A session and round table following the presentation.

Nov. 2nd is our 2021 Round Table, which we are hoping to have in person, in Vancouver, hosted at the Vancouver Club. We are happy to announce the Keynote speaker: Tamara Vrooman, CEO at YVR, Chancellor of Simon Fraser University, and Chair of the Board for the Rick Hansen Foundation.

 

 

 

 

Virtual Breakfast Forum – Apr 22, 2021

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First Annual General Meeting a Great Success

Today’s Virtual Breakfast Forum came on the heels of the Inaugural AGM for the EHSCBC. The AGM was well attended and completed quickly and efficiently. Overall, we were happy to report that the organization was successful despite the challenges the COVID pandemic created, and we are looking forward to further growth in 2021. After the AGM a regional round up provided members with insights from around the Province.  Thank you to all members who were able to attend and participate.

Thanks to Maureen Shaw who is one of the founding members of the EHSCBC, who reminded us of the Day of Mourning, taking place on April 28th. This international day commemorates workers who have been killed, injured or suffered illness due to workplace-related hazards and occupational exposures. It is not a day to feel guilty, but rather to acknowledge health and safety within your organizations. Maureen encouraged all members to speak to their teams and acknowledge to them the stress they may be under, and especially take a deep breath for yourselves.

Congratulations and welcome to our 3 new board members: Ab van Poortvliet from Technical Safety BC, Gary Herman with Gary Herman Consulting Services Ltd and Cameron Stockdale of Work Wellness Institute.  We are looking forward to our new Board members bringing a good new mix of ideas and industries to the table.

A reminder that we will be treated to a presentation by Dr. Joti Samra on June 3rd.  We will be sending out a Membership survey to our members, and please save the date for our 2021 Round Table, taking place Nov. 2nd, in person, in Vancouver.

 

 

 

 

 

Virtual Breakfast Forum – Apr 08, 2021

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Today’s Virtual Breakfast Forum was very well attended, with discussions revolving around vaccinations. None of the members on the call had been vaccinated at the time of the meeting, however, a few were scheduled for their first shots imminently.

In some organizations that primarily have salaried workers, members are sharing that for those who wish to get vaccinated, there are no issues with them taking paid time off and can use their sick time to do so. In organizations that have hourly-paid workers, it is a little more challenging. It isn’t easy to coordinate pulling people off their shifts, coordinating replacements, or figuring out how to incent them to go during their personal time.

Members shared that they all have employees who are hesitant to get the vaccination, or adamant that they will not get it for various reasons. One interesting twist that a member found was that some people are reluctant to report that they have been vaccinated because they do not want to return to the office and prefer to work from home. We expect to continue to see varying habits and attitudes emerging from employees as the pandemic continues.

Complacency among younger individuals remains an issue, both at work and during their personal time. In addition to this, there seems to be a very loose definition of “personal bubbles”, extending from your own home to a few others, and including kids who attend school.  These situations appear to contribute greatly to the rising spread of the disease.

The questions remain: once people get vaccinated, what then? Are you not required to wear a mask? What about social distancing? We have not had any messaging from the government on protocol yet, and we will await instructions from Public Health.

George reminded the group that the Inaugural AGM for the Executive Health and Safety Council will be on April 22nd, followed by a general conversation breakfast forum. The AGM portion will be approximately 15-20 minutes and will begin at 8:00am.

On June 3rd, Dr. Joti Samra will be joining us talking about Mental Health, which continues to be a very hot topic for organizations. We hope to see you there.

 

 

 

 

Virtual Breakfast Forum – Mar 25, 2021

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In today’s Virtual Breakfast Forum we welcomed 13 members and guests to discuss current safety cultures. The big questions were:

  • will safety culture be the same for your organization after the pandemic?
  • what practices will you maintain?
  • what will you change?

One member reported that his organization has seen 5 confirmed cases within the last 10 days. It was clear that these cases didn’t come from inside the organization. We speculated that the increase in cases is mostly due to complacency. People become comfortable and tend to forget the protocols, ease up on physical distancing, which is what’s gotten us where we are today. This is consistent to what’s happening all over BC, with current case numbers skyrocketing.

What will likely remain in organizations across the board, for one, will be visible cleaning protocols and maintaining clean looking environments for both staff and guests. Customers will have a higher expectation of cleanliness and will not be ready to let that go. Plexiglass and other barriers in facilities will likely remain. Having employees working from home seems to have been widely adopted by many organizations, and hot desks are proving to work well for many adopting the hybrid approach, resulting in a financial savings.  There will be a higher demand for hybrid meetings, where in person meetings are offered. The expectation will be that people should have the right to choose how they are meeting with others, and have both options available to them. Work / personal related travel seems to be the number one concern for risk.

While we all took a while to become accustomed to new safety protocols, so it will take a while for us all to get comfortable with reverting back to a more normal life. It was agreed that physical distancing might not go away completely, because we’ve all grown more conscious about proximity. Most members agreed that masks will be the first thing to go, but it will take some time before everyone is comfortable not wearing masks.

A member shared an interesting statistic: that across Canada there have been only 121 cases of the flu reported, vs 35000 reported for the same period a year ago.

One fact remains, that leadership sets the culture in organizations, so it all starts from the top. As leaders we all need to keep up the high vigilance. Don’t relax or become complacent with your teams.

George shared some updates with the group:

  • Dr Joti Samra will be speaking with us in June on Mental health at the CEO/leadership level.
  • We will be looking for nominations for the Ben Hume Award – a leadership award presented to a member of EHSCBC, supported by MSABC, to recognize someone within the group that has done a great job over the last year.

Please nominate someone from our group. It’s a good way of expressing thanks and appreciation of each other.

  • AGM – April 22nd, which will include the review of finances and ratifying the new board, will be incorporated into a Breakfast Forum.
  • A short members survey will be sent out, to ask members what you are looking for from membership with the ESHCBC and what could we be doing differently. Please complete this to assist us with programming.

 

 

 

Virtual Breakfast Forum – Mar 11, 2021

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At this morning’s Virtual Breakfast Forum, members and guests learned the finer details of the October 17, 2017 catastrophe at the ice rink in Fernie BC. It’s a very compelling story – not just looking at the failure of the technical equipment (what failed and how) but looking back in time. What were the decisions made leading up to the tragedy? The equipment failed, but that’s not the whole story to tell.

Jeff Coleman, Technical Safety BC’s Director responsible for Incident Investigation joined us to share this tragic story, where 3 dedicated workers lives were lost to an ammonia release. In this small town in the South East corner of BC, nestled in a valley of mountains, the arena was in close proximity to a number of houses, a nursing home, and a hospital. The organization and the community were severely affected in the days after the incident – residents were evacuated from their homes for a week.

Using the Menti platform, Jeff polled the group during the presentations and some interesting answers were offered.  You can find the questions and responses in his presentation deck which is at this link.

Jeff also shared a pie graph regarding the reasons for technical equipment failures. The top 3 reported were:

  • Aging equipment,
  • Procedures not being followed,
  • Ineffective service

These three issues are issues about management, and in fact are quite manageable – how do we achieve different outcomes? Quite often there is the gap between the person on the floor and management. We need to ensure we’re empowering our teams.

There is a culture of running equipment right up to or past failure, and it’s a culture Technical Safety is working to change. Available on Technical Safety BC’s website, there are a series of valuable resources, including past safety stories and reports. Jeff, Ab or Kate welcome members or guests to reach out with any questions.

 

 

 

Virtual Breakfast Forum – Feb 25, 2021

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Thanks to everyone that joined us on this week’s Virtual Breakfast Forum. We enjoyed hearing from our members about a few questions that George asked at the start of the call.

As a member – are you getting what you want / what you need?

Unanimously, the group reported that every single meeting has something that they can take back to their organizations and either implement or bear in mind for the future. Members are finding a lot of value from these meetings.  It was agreed that while there are many benefits from meeting in person, there is tremendous value in having virtual meetings such as not having additional costs or travel time spent.

Any forums members would like to see in the future?

There was some discussion about the Mental Health of leaders and employees, continuously being a topic that affects everyone. It is important that you take care of yourselves or you won’t be any good to anyone else.  We’re not in competition when it comes to safety. We are all here to share and learn from each other.

As members, if you find you have something specific that you want to discuss in depth at a general discussion Breakfast Forum, email George in advance to suggest that it be the main topic of discussion.

Any stories to share?

One member reported that their organization is experiencing issues around employees’ willingness to travel for real business needs. Some members reported having the same issues, and their solution was to find a local reliable partner to do the work on-site and have the visit be done virtually in partnership with them. Some members are reporting that this type of partnership even increases their business!

Looking ahead to the next few months, George shared some updates on the plans for future events:

Technical Safety BC will be presenting at the Virtual Breakfast Forum on March 11th, discussing the “Fernie Incident”. Members will learn what happened, what was done about it, and what was learned from it.

The EHSCBC’s AGM will be on April 22nd and will be incorporated into a Virtual Breakfast Forum. The AGM will be approximately 20 mins which will allow us to still have a chance to talk about issues/topics.

Threads of Life (an organization that works with individuals and the families of people that have had traumatic incidents from workplace accidents) is holding a virtual event on May 1 & 2nd.  They are looking for corporate sponsorship and attendance.  More information will be shared in the next e-blast.

George made a call out for new board and committee members, as the EHSCBC is looking for “new blood”. If any member is interested in getting more involved, please let George know. As always, the organization is membership-driven, and more members are needed. We require your participation to keep membership growing – it’s as simple as sending a virtual introduction to George and Ben and they’ll take it from there.

We hope to see you at our next session on March 11th!

 

Cyber Risk Today – Feb 11, 2021

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A huge thank you to Rob McFarlane and Rob Selnes from CapriCMW for a very informative and thought-provoking presentation on identifying and mitigating cyber risks. CapriCMW is a risk management and insurance firm, with 13 offices in BC and across the country.

Business productivity is increasingly reliant on technology. With the onset of COVID-19 and organizations’ IT being stretched farther than ever before, this presents accelerated risks for cyber security, due to employees using their own devices, working from home etc. Cyber criminals are increasingly targeting your employees due to less security, and using the employee as the conduit into the organization’s IT system.

Rob S. shared some very interesting statistics in the presentation:

  • Canada has 3rd highest number of cyber breaches in the world
  • Cyber breaches cost Canadian organizations over $3 billion in 2018
  • On average it took 181 days for a breach to be identified and 69 days to contain it
  • Cybercrime has now surpassed illegal drug trafficking as a criminal moneymaker
  • Ransomware attack costs for Canadian businesses are now averaging $1 million per incident
  • In Canada, the two most common cyber-attacks are ransomware attacks and e-theft by imposters

70% of all cyber incidents are caused by employee error, curiosity and /or insufficient IT security training, such as: Ransomware attacks, e-theft of funds by imposters (by email or calling companies), targeted scams, hacking attacks. Letting a cybercriminal into an organization’s system can be as simple as one employee opening a website or clicking on an email.

What can you do to prevent this from happening in your organization? Identify and prioritize your cyber risks. Develop an internal culture of cyber risk awareness. Security awareness training for employees. Test your systems. Invest in strong IT. Have an incident response plan, a business continuity plan and obtain cyber insurance.

 

 

 

Virtual Breakfast Forum – Jan 28, 2021

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Thanks to everyone who attended our 2nd Virtual Breakfast Forum of 2021. We had a very interesting discussion around vaccinations for COVID-19. Questions that were posed to the group for consideration in their own organizations were:

  • Will you be encouraging your staff to get vaccinated?
  • Will you provide time off to your staff for vaccinations?
  • How will the timelines to vaccinate employees based on age/health affect your business?

Members were polled as to which regions they do work in, and would be interested in learning about province or state vaccination schedules. Members were interested in Western Canada east to Ontario, and Washington State, Wisconsin and Oregon. We will share information as we receive it.

The vaccination schedule in BC will depend on your age. The younger your team is, the later they will be vaccinated. Most of the members on the call indicated that their teams would fall on the later side of the provincial vaccination schedule.

It is still unclear as to what employers’ rights will be or how much influence you can put on your staff to actually vaccinate. This will be a very real issue moving forward, but it is still a bit too early to get concise information. It was discussed that later in the spring/summer we will bring in a labour lawyer to shed some light on this difficult moral and legal question.

Members are still concerned with complacency, whether it be within their own organizations or on job sites. It remains a concern about the high percentage of strong willed, younger generation that don’t see the risks in the same way. One member shared that at his office, there is a QR code that can be scanned on your phone, which presents a COVID-19 health survey, one for their employees who regularly enter the facility, and another for visitors.  The information is held securely and confidentially, accessible only by the HR manager. This is a good way to help with contact tracing.

We are looking forward to our speaker from Capri CMW, Rob Selnes, as the presenter on our next VBF, Thursday February 11th, discussing Cyber Security. Rob will shed some light on what the current and predominant risks are for small and mid-sized businesses, what to do to safeguard against those risks, as well as resources that are easily accessible. We are encouraging all members to invite other staff members that might benefit from this discussion, HR or IT managers, and to invite any potential new members who might see value in listening in.

 

 

Virtual Breakfast Forum – Jan 14, 2021

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Happy New Year! For our first Virtual Breakfast Forum of 2021, we enjoyed re-engaging with our members, welcoming a few new members and inviting some potential members to join our call.

Members were encouraged to share regional updates, with many reporting that things are status quo with regard to COVID-19,  and some indicating that they were very pleased with fiscal results under the circumstances. Being in BC, we seem to be in a better position than some other provinces in terms of operations continuing. However, it was noted that H&S protocols regarding COVID-19 are still very much in place.

A very interesting discussion was had around certification: is the value in the certification itself, or in the process of being certified? How is it possible to certify people for the right kind of behaviour and / or decision making? Theory may not be as important as experience.  Insurance providers do not specifically consider certifications, however it was noted that certifications do help to indicate that the organization prioritizes Health and Safety, therefore resulting in more favourable insurance terms & premiums.

We look forward to regrouping and continuing the conversation at our next Virtual Breakfast Forum, Thursday, January 28th.

 

Virtual Round Table 2020 a HUGE success

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The Executive Health and Safety Council had a phenomenal first year, capped off by the annual 2020 Round Table.  This year over 95 registrants from across the province attended “virtually”, to share and learn from each others’ experiences.  By all accounts this event was very well received, both by members and their guests.

The 2020 Panel Discussion was an excellent example of how leaders from different regions and industries faced similar health and safety issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The panel members shared their experiences and thoughts on being leaders during these trying times.  As a group, the panel members showed what it means to be an active participant of the Executive Health and Safety Council.  A special shout-out and thank you to panel members Brian Wall, Dann Konkin and Don Bayda.

This years’ Table Discussions were opportunities for members and guests to dig deeper into issues that have always been of concern to leaders.  Recover at Work programs, Onboarding of New and Young Workers and The Dangers of Rushing are all issues that have been explored by smaller groups but have in impact to every business.  There were many rich and thoughtful discussions that took place in all of the groups and many attendees felt they could have talked longer.  Thank you to table hosts Jaime, Nick and Perry.

The keynote address by Mark Collins was inspiring.  The story of how BC Ferries used a tragedy to create change in safety culture really struck home for many, as was reinforced by the comments people left as they exited the room.  A similarity of last years speech by Greg Stewart was when Mark said “and my cell phone was ringing… then my home phone, which never rings, began to ring…”  This was the call that no one wants to receive, but as leaders it is a call that we all must take.

The “Virtual Networking” was an excellent way for people to relax a bit, and hear from our hosts Ria Kitsch and Sandra Oldfield not only about the wine that was being tasted, but also about some of the programs that Kitsch Wineries have implemented.  It was important to hear from another industry leader that COVID was also having an effect on their operations, and how they were managing.  It was also wonderful to learn how Kitsch ties in personal goals to their performance reviews, and how this has affected staff morale.

A final thank-you to our sponsors, without their help this event would not have been as successful.

We are looking forward to what 2021 will bring us and to working closely with all of you in the new year.