In September 2019, EHS (Environment, Health, Safety) Daily Advisor hosted the Safety Culture 2019 Conference in Denver. Safety Culture 2019 encourages employers to create an engaging and effective safety culture in the workplace that will strengthen safety compliance and engagement, reduce risk for accidents and injury, and avoid costly OSHA fines and litigation.
This is the nation’s only conference focused exclusively on safety culture improvements and sustainable tactics to motivate teams to adopt safety initiatives. The agenda Included four prestigious, operational excellence awards:
- Best Overall Safety Culture
- Best Safety Committee
- Exceptional Progress
- Moving Beyond Compliance
Thousands of international applications were submitted in each category, and the application for the Chugach Industries, Inc. (CII) Picatinny Contract rose to the top.
CII Safety Manager Tom Hawthorne and the work of CII’s Safety Department and Safety Committee were the recipient of the Moving Beyond Compliance Award. In the application, Tom stated:
“Value and respect for all living things is built into our five Core Behaviors that guide everything we do, including our safety culture. As a company, we are devoted to creating a safe and healthy workplace for everyone. Our primary focus is workplace safety, and we strongly advocate safety as a team effort by empowering the employees to go beyond compliance and stimulate a positive safety culture. CII’s safety program is fundamentally based on human factors and behaviors, and the organization examines the root causes of unsafe behaviors-and the possible failures in management that might permit them. The organization understands that risky behaviors often occur intuitively. They respond to this by going beyond the traditional safety management approach in order maintain a safe environment.”
In response, EHS Representatives stated: “It was clear from the very beginning of their application that Chugach went above and beyond mere compliance within their safety culture. Through their commitment to a better understanding of motivational factors and their impact on decision making, Chugach has built a safety culture that moves far beyond the minimum requirements of safety compliance.”
Having previously received two Chugach Large Project President’s Safety Awards for our outstanding safety initiatives, CII Picatinny has a proven safety track record. “It is no surprise to me that this outstanding team is once again recognized for embodying our motto, Safety today secures tomorrow,” said Tim Hopper, President of Chugach Government Solutions (CGS). “Through empowering our people to maintain a safe working environment, Chugach and Picatinny lead the way and deserve this award. I am so proud of this safe-minded, well-performing team.”
CII is a CGS subsidiary.