Davey Tree Flipbooks

12 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | July/August 2021 'ROAD TO ZERO' GETS DAVEY CLOSER TO DESTINATION SAFETY INITIATIVE HELPS ALL EMPLOYEES SET RECORD-LOW TOTAL RECORDABLE INCIDENT RATES IN 2020, 2021 The Davey Company is closer than it has ever been to reaching its destination on the Road to Zero of a 0.0 Total OSHA Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR). In 2004, when the corporate safety department launched the Road to Zero safety initiative, Davey had a companywide 8.7 TRIR. Over the years since the incident rate has progressively decreased, and the company ended 2020 with a 4.4 TRIR. "One of the highlights of 2020 was our safety performance," said Davey Chairman, President and CEO Pat Covey. "Improving our incident rate is not just the work of the safety department, it's everyone's job. As our Safety Creed states, we all have a moral obligation to protect our teammates and ourselves from pain and injury by eliminating accidents. This downward trend in our incident rate from 2004 reflects the commitment to safety we have had over that period and is the best measurement for our ultimate goal, which is to ensure everyone goes home safe each night." SAFETY Joe Tommasi, vice president, corporate safety, said the companywide TRIR reflects the occurrence of incidents based on the size of our employee population of more than 10,000. TRIR is universally defined in the safety world as the number of recordable incidents per 100 employees, so the rate remains an effective evaluation of our safety performance over the years, even as we grow the company. "By focusing on leading indicators, employees can utilize tools provided to them by the company to help control their destiny and avoid incidents," Tommasi said. "Managers and supervisors should be using these leading indicator tools to prepare their people well to go do their tasks and do them professionally. If we are doing those things well, communicating about them with our employees, and they are embracing this functional responsibility, then we should see a reflective improvement in TRIR, the lagging indicator." Davey's companywide TRIR has decreased as employees increasingly embrace responsibility for their own safety. Tim Walsh, director, corporate safety, said a partnership mentality through which the safety department assists " It's not a magic wand, it's a function of doing it right, leading with safety, looking after each other, consistent with our Davey values and keeping to the path, staying on the road. " — Joe Tommasi vice president, corporate safety That downward progress continued in the first quarter of 2021, as the companywide incident rate reached a 4.3 TRIR. An impressive 85 percent of territories companywide achieved a 0.0 TRIR for the first quarter of 2021. The companywide TRIR is a key performance metric for analyzing Davey's safety performance. It is a lagging indicator, as opposed to a leading indicator. In general, safety leading indicators are proactive measures that monitor and provide current information about the effective performance of safety management programs, according to The Campbell Institute at the National Safety Council. Such leading indicators can be implemented, observed and recorded prior to an incident. Leading indicators at Davey are: • Career Development Program training booklets • Hazard identification and pre-and-post job briefings • Job observations • E-Close Call Communicator • All-Stops managers and field personnel is a big reason why Davey has successfully continued down the Road to Zero. "It's a true partnership between the safety department, field operations and other Davey support functions like Fleet Services," Walsh said. "Our regional safety specialists and other members of the safety team don't just 'do' safety. As Joe says often, we're the guides. We're there to help our field employees and supervisors do their job in a safer and in a more productive manner." Tommasi said the success in achieving the company's lowest TRIR in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 represents years of diligent adherence to company safe practices and application of available safety resources. "It's not a magic wand," he said. "It's a function of doing it right, leading with safety, looking after each other, consistent with our Davey values and keeping to the path, staying on the road."

• Cover