Davey Tree Flipbooks

A Trio of Davey Personal Excellence Tools Help Us On the Road to Zero T his year, we are focused on three important human performance tools in our journey on the Road to Zero. These tools include job briefings, job observations and close call com- munication, which highly reliable organizations, such as nuclear power plants, commercial air traffic control systems and aircraft carrier flight-decks, use every day. These tools have proved to reduce incidents and errors when properly employed. #1. Job Briefing. The Davey Job Planning Toolkit is designed to help crew leaders and crews plan their work and document job briefings, which are required before each job begins or when conditions change significantly to merit a new job briefing. Although changes in weather conditions often initiate new job briefings, new individuals who wish to enter the jobsite must first attend a job briefing to learn the job plan, hazards and safety precautions in place. An effective job briefing is one of the most important tools in our quest for safe productivity. It engages every employee on site in conversation, including planning tasks and their critical steps, as well as being aware of exposure to hazards and existing safety- related precautions. #2. Job Observation. Leaders observing crew behaviors and providing coaching feedback on the jobsite are some of our most effective safety leadership behaviors. Using the job observation tool gives our leaders and supervisors opportunities to provide effective feedback on individual and team performance. Job observations take place where our work is completed and where our incidents occur. Being on site allows our leaders to see and hear how the work is actually completed versus how they may imagine it is completed. Whenever managers and supervisors spend time in the field with the individuals completing the work, performance increases and errors tend to decrease. #3. Close Call Communication. At Davey, we define a close call as: An undesirable or unfortunate event that occurred and could have resulted in harm, injury, damage or loss, but did not. The Davey close call communicator is a new tool designed and intended to allow any employee to share information regarding close calls that occur in our operations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Close calls range from partial penetrations of our defenses to situations in which all available safeguards were defeated but no actual injury or losses were sustained. Close calls occur more frequently than bad outcomes. If reported and shared, they can act as vaccines, mobilizing our defenses against more serious reoccurrences in the future. When analyzed and shared with others, they also act as powerful reminders of the hazards we face and provide important information about latent organizational weaknesses, flawed defenses and error precursors. If unreported, they are wasted opportunities. Mastering the use of these important tools will be a significant milestone on the Road to Zero. Joe Engberg, Manager, Safety Program Support Joe Engberg Root of the Issue On the cover: Mike Burton, Cleveland East CLS Photo: Melinda Yoho The MyDavey Bulletin is produced by Davey Corporate Communications/Marketing. Direct MyDavey Bulletin comments to: The Davey Tree Expert Company Attn.: The MyDavey Bulletin, 1500 N. Mantua St. P.O. Box 5193, Kent, Ohio 44240-5193 800-447-1667, Ext. 8326 E-mail: bulletin@davey.com Sandra Reid vice president, corporate communications and strategic planning administration Nicole Wisniewski The MyDavey Bulletin editor Lindsay Ridinger The MyDavey Bulletin managing editor Melinda Yoho The MyDavey Bulletin contributing photographer Janis Hittle The MyDavey Bulletin administrative support ©2014 The Davey Tree Expert Company July/August 2014 | 3 8 35

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