National Safety Month with Matthew Koss

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In June of 1996, the National Safety Council declared the first ever national safety month. The goal was to spread awareness of safety hazards and unintentional injuries for industrial workers. However, over time the annual month-long awareness campaign has grown to focus on all aspects of employee health and safety across many industries in the United States.

At ECS we take safety very seriously and thought this would be a good time to talk about what we do to provide a safe working environment with our Director of Corporate Safety, Matthew Koss CSP, CHST. He provided valuable insight into how ECS’ new core values, collaborate, focus and lead, play a role in safety as well as what the present and future looks like for safety at ECS.

Collaborate

“Collaborating is working jointly on an activity, especially to produce or create something. The ‘something’ in this case is the safety of our workers. It’s important to remember that where we work and what we do is not inherently safe. We must make it safe. It takes our people working jointly to create safety, especially with the hazards we encounter every day. This is how we are collaborating to create a safe working environment.”

By combining our talents and unique skills ECS can collaborate and create a safe working environment that will keep our team members safe, whether they are on the jobsite or working in the office.

Focus

“ECS is focusing on delivering an environment where consistency in safety processes and metrics produces meaningful improvements to our systems.”

In order for us to be able to focus on how we are creating this work environment we must be clear with our intentions and then act with them ever present in our minds.

Lead

“ECS is leading to create a safe working environment by giving our workers the tools and training to be successful. We’re dedicated to fostering an environment where workers are empowered to stop and ask questions around potentially hazardous situations. The ECS management team is responsive and committed to supporting our workers when these circumstances arise.”

Empowering our people to be leaders in safety allows us to drive change and make an impact wherever the project may take us.

Presently, ECS is constructing a safety team that will supplement and augment the efforts and abilities of the Director of Corporate Safety. “The safety team will play an intricate role in supporting our operational leaders in accomplishing objectives and targets necessary to improve safety,” says Matt.

With all this in mind what does the future of safety at ECS look like?

“The future is promising for safety at ECS,” Matt says, “We will be enhancing the current Safety Program to support our continued growth. This will be accomplished by implementing risk-based processes and will utilize the guidance of consensus standards such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Z10.0-2019 and the International Organization of Standardization’s (ISO) 45001:2018 for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems. By utilizing processes defined in these standards, we will be able to continually improve our systems and know we’re creating a safe working environment.”

Thanks to Matt for providing his insight on how the new core values play a role in safety here at ECS. Be sure that next time you are on a jobsite you keep in mind how you can collaborate, focus and lead to create a safe work environment not only for yourself and your ECS team members, but also those around you!