Workplace safety is a top priority and shared value at Pratt Industries. Our network of plants across the country takes great strides to emphasize key safety procedures and protocols through ongoing training, employee engagement and shared celebrations. To better understand how individual locations and divisions promote a safety-centric culture, we spoke to a few safety managers.
Safety as a Value
To encourage the importance of safety being everyone’s responsibility, Pratt taps into its entrepreneurial spirit to promote a strong safety culture for improved employee wellness and productivity. Teams work closely with each other to identify and eliminate hazards and to maximize awareness around best practices and safety protocols. Each location takes ownership of the safety, health and welfare of its people, creating a safety-centric environment and a sense of shared commitment throughout the organization.
According to Corey Roskoski, Divisional Safety Manager at Pratt Specialties, one of the key components to successful ongoing workplace safety is open communication and engagement with employees.
“We are transparent on upcoming and in-progress safety projects and work closely with our employees during implementation. We encourage our employees to speak up about any concerns, so we can quickly address them.”
Roskoski also stresses the importance of creating opportunities for workers to provide feedback and to raise concerns in order to build a positive and successful safety culture.
“We ask employees to provide input into plant changes and upgrades such as new equipment installations. Corrective actions for any incidents are shared and the sites push each other to make sure the true root causes are identified so that hazards can be eliminated.”
Each month, site safety committees identify plant improvement projects and address any incidents. Each site then shares its safety changes and improvements throughout the division so that system wide improvements may be implemented.
As a result, Pratt Specialty has opened several new facilities holding a steady incident rate and has several locations that have not had a recordable incident in the last year.
“We focus on safety as a value through awareness training which helps our employees stay informed, identify unsafe conditions and know how to best react to any unsafe situations,” says Quincy Cohen, Operational Excellence Training & Safety Manager at Pratt Salinas Converting and other satellite locations throughout the state of California.
“It involves every employee, temporary associate, supervisor, manager, office staff, contractor and vendor who work at our location to uphold our continued focus on safety.”
At Pratt Salinas Converting, in order to encourage safety as every employee’s responsibility, the Safety Training Observation Program (STOP) was put in place to encourage employees to proactively prevent incidents and injuries through monitoring and addressing safe and unsafe behaviors. This reminds employees to look out for one another and allows management to focus on leading safety indicators through data collection.
Safety Education
A successful safety program requires ongoing training and education. Training programs provide employees with the knowledge, tools, and skills to play an active role in the health and safety of their work environment.
To reiterate Pratt’s organizational safety motto of “See Something, Say Something, Do Something,” Pratt Recycling created a program which encourages overall safety both at work and at home. Safety topics are provided weekly and employees are encouraged to share the information with family and friends to inspire the practice of safety before, during and after work hours.
The Recycling team also regularly hosts Safety Stand Downs inspired by ISRI Stand Down Day where important safety topics are discussed. Many of the topics covered are addressed annually as refreshers across the division. However, as new topics and ideas arise, safety managers share the information so all can benefit, creating an ongoing source for new safety discussions and best practices.
Pratt Specialty encourages site safety managers to complete either a 10 or 30 hour OSHA course, and Specialities University is a training platform which houses the training requirements for all positions across the division.
At Pratt Salinas Converting, supervisors host weekly training sessions focused on predetermined topics that may be related to safety best practices, potential incidents, recent improvements or refreshers on safety protocols. Monthly plant-wide safety meetings with leadership also allow employees to have an open discussion around any concerns or new ideas.
Celebrating Safety
To further encourage a safe work environment and continued focus on safety as a priority, Pratt recognizes safety success stories at individual locations, across divisions and organization-wide. Safety milestone awards and celebratory events are used to recognize accomplishments and award teams.
Celebrations may include presentation of plaques or award certificates, employee luncheons and small tokens of appreciation. Some locations host steak dinners to commemorate the achievement of safety goals. Pratt encourages locations to set new goals after each celebration to keep teams motivated to maintain their culture of safety and high standards.
Thanks to the dedication of leadership, safety teams and employees across the organization, Pratt Industries continues to promote safety as a top priority, sharing best practices, success stories and a unified commitment.
If you are interested in learning more about Pratt’s safety culture and exploring our open opportunities, please visit the Pratt Careers website here.
