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8 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | November/December 2023 SAFETY Four Human and Organizational Performance (HOP) trainings have been held in 2023 for 89 Residential/Commercial services employees, in Denver, Colorado; Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; and Livermore, California. Led by Jon Schmidt, senior regional safety specialist, health and safety department, HOP training is built on five principles. Trainees are introduced to these five principles in a prerequisite course through Davey's Learning Management System: 1. Human error is normal. 2. Context drives behavior. 3. Learning is vital. 4. Blame stops learning. 5. Leaders' response to bad news matters. During the in-person, one-day workshop, four actionable strategies used to leverage improvement are explored, including: changing our view of error, success, and accountability; seeing safety as a verb; cultivating trust; and understanding what failed, instead of who failed. This course prepares managers and those on the path to becoming managers by introducing HOP as a business strategy to implement learning and improvement within their teams, with a focus on accountability. Josslynn Barker, sales and service coordinator, West Denver office, and Kyle Mack, district manager, Arborguard Tree Specialists, a Davey company, Atlanta office, are both new to their roles and appreciated participating in the HOP course because of that. Barker said that since the training, their office has been more focused on safe production rather than hitting a close call quota each month. "Now, it's a daily discussion. We're asking about any close calls from the day before, and discussing safety and learning from that close call, rather than worrying about how to hit the quota," Barker said. Mack attended the Atlanta HOP session. "It was a very beneficial training for all of us," he said. "HOP encourages the thought process of looking at crew members as individuals with unique personalities rather than trying to group everyone into one category of an employee, and to really try to communicate with that employee on a personal level." Amaury Martinez, sales arborist, South Houston office, said a change that has happened at the South Houston office HUMAN ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE TRAINING IN 2023 since the Austin HOP session has been to get the crews more engaged during dispatch. "We're not only talking about the negatives when someone has a close call, we're discussing the positive things that happened that day as well, to get everyone more engaged and build a relationship of trust," Martinez said. Only a year into his new role, Jeremy Nama, district manager, Santa Cruz office, said he appreciated the engagement the group was able to have as peers during breakout sessions, as well as HOP's focus on understanding what can be done through communication to be a better organization. "You have to have empathy and understanding with employees, and an open line of communication," Nama said. Above: Attendees participate in a breakout session during the Atlanta, Georgia HOP training. Below: Jon Schmidt is pictured at the front of the classroom, teaching HOP at the Livermore session. "We want to help managers learn how to use the concepts and principles of Human and Organizational Performance to proactively create not only a safe work environment for their teams, but also a culture of trust," Schmidt said.

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