Even the best-designed workplace is only as safe as the behavior of the people who work there. We raise awareness of safety issues and reinforce it consistently with employees via regular communication at work group meetings and training for managers, supervisors and engineers who design equipment.
Our President's Health & Safety Award recognizes facilities with outstanding safety innovations and results, thereby encouraging others to follow suit. The award is given in two categories – performance and innovations. To win a performance award, facilities must meet or exceed the corporate health and safety objective of a 10 percent reduction in lost-time case rate, a 50 percent reduction in serious injuries and zero fatalities in a major business component. Innovation awardees are selected by a panel of judges based on documentation of continuing health and safety improvements. For 2006 results, see "Our Safety Record This Year."
As mentioned previously, we are increasingly outsourcing various service tasks at our facilities. In 2006, we published health and safety standards for service contractors, similar to the standards we have in place for our construction contractors. The service contractor standards are directed at ensuring the health and safety of contracted employees while they are onsite, and ensuring that those individuals do not operate in a manner that endangers the health or safety of our direct employees. Similarly, we developed and implemented this year a standardized induction program for temporary and part-time direct employees, to ensure that they are given a thorough orientation in safety (and quality) issues and practices.
