Promoting Employee Safety at Crest Foods by Karen Yardley, Safety & Sanitation Manager The last few months have been a very busy time at Crest Foods – and we’re not just talking making batches or run- ning lines – but also for promoting employee safety! We launched Safety Audits in Redzone earlier this summer and will continue to develop this initiative. To kick the program off, we put together a team of Supervisors who have been auditing assigned Production lines each week. Additional teams will be comprised of department heads who will be auditing on a monthly schedule and an ownership team who will be out on the floor quarterly. These auditors will be looking for feedback from you about any hazards on your line so be sure to share any concerns with them! Each September we observe National Preparedness Month and focus on raising awareness about the importance of preparing for disasters and emergencies that could happen at any time. We remind employees about our Emer- gency Response Guidelines here at work and remind them of the importance of having plans at home as well. We conducted our annual fire extinguisher training during the latter part of September and early October. We also conducted fire drills on all three shifts, at all locations. During the fire extinguisher training we talked about the importance of fire prevention as we prepared to observe Fire Prevention Week (October 9 - 15) 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of Fire Prevention Week, which is ob- served each year during the week of October 9th in commemoration of the Great Chicago Fire, which began on October 8, 1871, and caused devastating damage. This horrific conflagration killed more than 250 people, left 100,000 homeless, destroyed more than 17,400 structures, and burned more than 2,000 acres of land. Again, not only is it important to know the plan at work but to have and know the plan for home. Have an escape route, test your smoke alarms, establish a meeting place and practice! We made an employee safety video to add to the more than 100 “Plays” in Redzone that Crest employees have submitted. This video focuses on what to do in an emergency, like a fire, tornado or injury/illness. Check it out! There are also employee safety videos pertaining to yellow walkways and handling rare earth magnets safely. Speak- ing of “Plays” – we celebrated 100 Plays and 100 Days without a lost time accident in October with treats for ev- eryone! While we continue to encourage employees to report NEAR MISSES and NOTICE ONLYs as a way to prevent future injuries and accidents, the fact that we haven’t had a LOST TIME accident in more than 100 days is a trend worth celebrating! Let’s keep it going to 200! Annual hearing tests were completed the first week in October. We had a different vendor this year and, while this required testing will probably always present some challenges, we had a lot of positive feedback. Crest is also offering First Aid/CPR/AED training for employees in November. We had seventeen employees from all three shifts express interest in participating in this free training. In September we completed a responsible sourcing audit for Amazon. Unlike most of our other audits (SQF, for example) that focuses on FOOD safety, these audits focus on whether or not we are providing a lawful, safe and ethical working environment for our employees. A group of management began training to understand how Crest can be a Recovery Friendly Workplace . A recovery friendly workplace supports the health, wellness and safety of its employees by educating about substance use disorder and addiction, creating an environment conducive to the journey of recovery, and working to reduce the stigma often associated with the disease of addiction, SUDs, and recovery. As Crest strives to keep employees
12 Crest Ink July, August & September 2022
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