Health & Safety

As every employer in the province has had to make major changes to their operations since the outbreak of COVID-19, many companies including BCOHS members have endeavored to identify and share best practices and innovative health and safety solutions to protect their employees and the public. 

Throughout this time, BCOHS members have connected weekly to share challenges, information and evolving strategies, which have helped us all be more efficient and provide quality advice to our organizations.

In addition BCOHS member companies have demonstrated leadership in social license through public service, media communications with informative and positive public messaging, and donating many millions of dollars’ worth of personal protective equipment to the province and local health care providers.

This has been a challenging time in health and safety and BCOHS is proud of the contributions and achievements our members have made to help protect their employees and the public, and proud of the value our network of health and safety professionals brings to us as leaders helping the province protect our citizens.

Recently OPG arranged a one day presentation by Todd Conklin for the organization’s Operations and Maintenance managers and safety professionals. The Business Council on Occupational Health and Safety thanks OPG for offering seats to fellow members of BCOHS.

As expressed by our Past President: ” It was refreshing to hear the presentation information and recognize how the principles outlined by Mr. Conklin are closely aligned to much of what is discussed around the BCOHS member table.  I was encouraged that many of our members are well on the path to focus on “What failed vs. Who failed” which will undoubtedly lead to elevated continuous improvement within our workplaces and reduce significant injury incidents for our workplaces.

Some of the key points from the day:

• Safety is not the absence of accidents but rather the presence of capacity (Controls)
• Workers don’t cause failures – they trigger latent conditions that lie dormant in organizations
• Shift thinking from “who failed” to “what failed”
• Workers are not problems to be fixed – they are solutions to be harnessed
• Blame and Punish fixes nothing – we need to Learn and Improve
• Events aren’t predictable’ but causative conditions are
• Human error is not a cause of accidents; it’s a symptom of a deeper system problem
• Learn first, then act
• Leadership matters