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13 May/June 2022 | THE DAVEY BULLETIN HUMAN PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT IN 2022 Leaders from safety and operations conducted a Human Performance Improvement (HPI) seminar in March in Savannah, Georgia. Thirty-two employees attended the workshop, led by Jon Schmidt, regional safety specialist, Morgan Conrad, safety support specialist, Michael Dye, district manager, South St. Paul office, and Mike Santos, safety manager, Davey Tree Surgery Company. HPI is an organizational safety and business strategy which explores relationships between complex systems and people. The Bulletin will check in with HPI attendees in 2022 to hear how HPI improves the effectiveness of the Davey Company. Keep an eye out for updates on Davey's approach to safety, as Davey corporate safety director Tim Walsh will discuss some new approaches to safety in the upcoming July/August issue of The Bulletin. Vincent Boyd general foreman Mississippi Power account Q: How will you think about safety differently after attending HPI? A: Whether you've been here for 20 years or two days, you're just as liable to get hurt. Once you've been here for a while, it's easy to get complacent. You start to overlook the hazards, but you still need to stay just as aware as you were when you were new. It's really all about communication – if you see something, say something. Jose Maldonado account manager, Orlando territory, Commercial Landscape Services Jim Watson district manager North American Tree Service, Inc., a Davey company Caitlin Morrison project manager, Davey Resource Group, Utility Vegetation Management Q: What's one thing you want to take back and share with your crews that you learned at HPI? A: The "point of the stick" is a great way to visualize how we can change our approach to safety. The point is where an accident occurred, and the other end is the corporate side that puts the policies in place. Most of the time we concentrate on the point – what and why it happened there, but we kind of forget the rest of it, which is, did we have the right trainings in place, and did we provide them with everything they need? For my crews, it's a matter of not being afraid to speak up. Q: What's one thing you want to take back and share with your crews that you learned at HPI? A: Our goal is to cultivate an informed safety culture with our teams. At HPI, we learned the importance of effective communication in many different scenarios. This helps us build trust, accountability, and gives us the ability to adapt and learn. Once we start sharing experiences with one another, we are contributing to a network of information so that others may learn. I hope to encourage this form of communication and encourage my team to use Davey's Close Call Communicator so that others may benefit from these experiences. Q: How will you think about safety differently after attending HPI? A: It was a very thought-provoking seminar. It challenges our approach to evaluating an incident. We are now focused on reducing incidents by identifying possible safety issues from the beginning, at the point of sale. I have been discussing different scenarios with employees so they can better understand the origin of why accidents happen. This approach encourages employees to change embedded habits, which will result in a more safety-driven environment.

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