Building Our Safety Culture

At AmeriPride, we pride ourselves on our commitment to safety. It’s woven into our corporate values. We have an ongoing focus of protecting our employees, company, customers and communities. Building a culture of safety takes persistence and patience. We aim to deliver a common framework that our employees can use every day to identify, evaluate and manage risk throughout the entire business. For National Safety Month, we’re sharing our approach to our safety culture within our branches and plants.

Placing a High Value on Safety

It’s no coincidence that the factors needed to build and sustain a safety culture are front and center. These factors are our core values of Integrity, Trust, Respect and Responsibility.

Integrity – Integrity reflects our individual actions. We do what is right. We conduct ourselves in a manner that is consistent with safe work practices and regulatory requirements. We never take shortcuts. We have the strength to never risk our personal safety or the safety of others to accomplish a task. We demonstrate through our words and actions that the definition of success includes safety.

Trust – We build credibility and trust through open and honest communication and provide feedback with the goal of making things better. Our culture enables everyone at all levels of the organization to address unsafe behaviors without fear. We set aside personal issues for the sake of making the workplace safer.

Respect – We demonstrate respect for others and the company by creating an environment that promotes and protects safe and compliant work practices. We listen to and address safety concerns in a timely and respectful manner.

Responsibility – Each employee is responsible for their own safety as well as the safety of those around them. We take this responsibility seriously and never waver in our commitment to safety. We continuously identify potential hazards and risky behaviors and seek ways to reduce or eliminate them.

Sacramento Success

Creating a corporate safety culture isn’t an easy endeavor, as the Sacramento branch can attest to. According to Rick Duarte, Production Manager, the branch’s safety culture fully transformed over a span of five years. “We wanted to build a program that was exciting and enjoyable, so employees would want to participate,” says Duarte. In addition to their 10-person Safety Committee, everyone at the branch takes ownership of the safety program. “All employees are involved and really engaged,” says Doug Henderson, Sr. General Manager. “The culture permeates throughout the branch.”

OSHA recently recognized the branch with its Golden Gate Program award, which acknowledges high-hazard companies that are maintaining effective safety and health management systems.

Documentation is Key

At the heart of AmeriPride’s corporate safety program is a customized safety tracking database that is used by all branch locations. This ensures that all employees are receiving the same messages. Company-wide training is posted on this tool. Employees log in to the database to complete safety courses, and managers have visibility to those who have accomplished the training. All safety incidents are also housed on this system to document and monitor resolution. “Documentation is critical so that we have a repeatable process,” says Karla Fitzgerald, Director of Global Safety and Risk Control. “That way, everyone is on the same page and we have consistency.”

Branches document best practices in the form of procedural manuals. For example, Henderson and his team invited OSHA to conduct a voluntary assessment of their operations and make recommendations. The Sacramento branch has also developed an Injury and Illness Prevention (IIP) Guidebook built from OSHA guidelines. Providing the book helps build trust and confidence with OSHA when they make unexpected visits.

To ensure consistent and standard safety procedures, weekly team meetings at the branch level always include safety updates and topics, such as machine guarding and emergency response. And when it comes to machinery safety, operating instructions are clearly labeled on each piece of equipment as reference.

Everyone Benefits

Safety Committees at the branch level meet monthly to discuss what is working, what needs to be addressed and how they can keep employees vigilant. These committees, leadership members and managers set clear expectations, drive accountability and lead by example. In addition to these leaders, we empower every employee to be responsible for workplace safety. If anyone is concerned for their personal safety, the safety of others or the environment, we encourage them to stop and ask questions.

Adopting a safety culture keeps staff safe, as well as helps with employee retention and productivity. We always strive to maintain the highest levels of safety, quality and service excellence for our employees, customers and the communities we serve.