James Bond, He Is Not
I grew up, like most males my age, watching Connery and Moore on the big screen as the ladies swooned and Britain's best secret agent used trickery, gadgets, and machismo seduction (if not harassment and assault) to save the world from the likes of SPECTRE or some other megalomaniacal billionaire with ambitions of space or using the media to misinform and bring down governments. (Of course the similarities to today's reality are not lost on me.) There was, and a case can be made for "is," nobody cooler than James Bond. The fanboy in me is excited for the latest [...]
Re-Opening Retail
How Re-Opening Will Happen Post-COVID-19 In part of reducing infection spread, governments are expecting businesses to take certain precautions as they begin to re-open. Governments want to speed up the pace of economic, educational, and community recovery while also protecting public health. As you come to understand best re-opening practices, it is important to keep in mind the following goals in re-opening. SAFETY FIRST: re-opening will be done safety and securely to protect vulnerable residents, continue physical distancing, and provide clear rules for businesses deemed safe to re-open. SCIENCE-DRIVEN: re-opening will rely on scientifically validated public health interventions. Testing, tracing, field studies, [...]
June is National Safety Month
Workplaces are becoming less safe! Workplace fatalities and injuries are up an average of 10% year over year across North America, and occupational injuries happen most often in the summer. This June, in honor of National Safety Month, we’re showing you the ways you can help your employees stay safe this season. For many people, summer brings carefree days of outdoor fun. But for workers, summer may also mean a higher risk of on-the-job injuries. And for employers, that means lost productivity and a seasonal spike in workers’ compensation claims. That’s definitely no one’s idea of fun. Summer should be a time [...]
What is Micro-Learning & Why It Works
“Microlearning is a way of teaching and delivering content to learners in small, very specific bursts. The learners are in control of what and when they’re learning.” - eLearning Industry The concept of delivering bite-size learning and following up with reinforcement activities has been around for a very long time. Micro-learning is a modern approach to delivering learning materials in small, bite-sized portions that target specific topics. The conciseness of these materials makes it easier to digest. Microlearning is performed in short time bursts. It requires little effort from individual sessions. It involves simple and/or narrow topics. Also, the industry [...]
8 Reasons Why Refresher Training Is a Good Idea
Refresher training helps keep important knowledge fresh and current. Whether your a student or a teacher, one thing we all know for personal experience is that knowledge fades over time. Our brains are very efficient at dumping information we don’t need, and the best way we have of showing our brain that that information is still useful is by using it. It’s a classic case of “use it or lose it.” What this means for learning is that most of us need a review of important concepts from time to time. And this is where refresher courses come into play. [...]
Supported Learning Resources in SafetyNow
The following section will show you how SafetyNow supports different methods of content delivery including self-learning and face-to-face training SELF-LEARNING The core platform for SafetyNow is self-learning. SafetyNow’s course platform allows participants to complete learning at any time of day or night using a PC, mobile or tablet. To complete a course, a worker must first watch a video and then pass an essential assessment. After that they can download a course certificate. In addition to the core topic, learners are able to take on optional extension assessment for extra credit. During the extension, learners are asked to reflect on [...]
Back Injuries and Prevention Safety Meeting Kit
WHAT’S AT STAKE The back is made up of bones, muscles, ligaments, vertebrae, disks, and connective tissue, and workplace back injuries can damage any of those. Though injuries can happen anywhere along the spinal column between the head and the tailbone, the majority of workplace back injuries involve the lower back. Perhaps the most common of these are disk problems, which result when one of the disks that act as a shock absorber between the vertebrae in our spinal column are suddenly compressed and ends up protruding out of its normal position. If this disk touches a spinal nerve it [...]
Wildfire Safety
Warm and dry conditions are making wildfires easier to start and more difficult to put out, a trend that can be clearly seen by last year's record-setting season in North America, which has already been eclipsed in 2021, with months left in the fire season. Given that this summer is already being characterized by a historic heatwave, extreme drought and record temperatures, 2021 is shaping up to be a particularly devastating wildfire season. Besides the millions of acres of forest losts, wildfires are consuming more and more of State and Provincial budgets (particularly in the west), and the economic impacts [...]
State of Safety Survey
Safety culture, or the way safety is perceived, valued and prioritized in any company, has obvious effects on accident rates, but it also impacts competitiveness, productivity, reliability, and employee morale. Companies with an effective safety culture know that by making safety an asset rather than a risk brings them positive economic results throughout their business. Of course, as a Safety Professional, you have an understanding of the effectiveness of your safety program – but do you have effective benchmarks against other companies? Do you KNOW what is working for others in your industry? What isn’t? Bongarde and the Work Safety [...]
Teamwork & Culture Safety Talk
WHAT’S AT STAKE Nearly everyone has heard sayings such as ‘Many hands make light work’ or ‘None of us is as smart as all of us.’ These sayings refer to teamwork. Many people associate teamwork with sales teams or sports teams, but teamwork is also a vital element in keeping you and your co-workers safe and healthy on the job. WHAT’S THE DANGER Have you met a ‘lone wolf’ in the workplace? This type of person sticks to himself, shuns contact with others and isn’t out to be friendly or popular with co-workers. The lone wolf doesn’t need or want [...]
Fatality File: Domestic Violence in the Workplace
On March 29th, 2009, Robert Stewart murdered 7 elderly residents and 1 nurse in the Carthage, NC retirement home where his wife was working. He reportedly shot out her car windows before starting the rampage inside the facility. At the time, she did not know that it was him as she reportedly hid in a bathroom. Raina Johnson allegedly made threatening calls to her ex-girlfriend’s workplace when they broke up in early September 2007. Despite court orders for Johnson to stay away from her ex-partner after an earlier assault, she shot the victim outside a Safeway Supermarket in Washington, D.C. [...]
Picture This: Racking and Stacking
Warehouse racks and material stacks are nothing to take lightly. A damaged rack can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost and damaged inventory. Then there are the injuries and fatalities caused if the racks and materials fall. Your co-workers, delivery drivers, and even customers can be injured and killed if a rack or material falls. You certainly don’t want to be the one who causes any of these unfortunate outcomes or the supervisor in charge when an incident occurs. Share these guidelines with your warehouse teams, including managers, and ensure they know how to spot racking [...]
