Agenda

Preconference Sessions – September 12, 2020

Human Factors in Risk Assessment 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Presented by: Gary Higbee, Higbee & Associates, Inc. Safety performance in the United States has been improving at a very slow rate over the past 20 years. Even with technology improvements, hazard elimination efforts and additional safety improvements, we have been unable to lower recordable rates much more than 1% per year over the past 20 years. The solution isn’t easy and it certainly will require numerous initiatives. One thing we have to do is stop ignoring human factors and human error. We do not want to blame the worker but we do need to understand the worker and the pressures we put on them intentionally or unintentionally.

In this workshop, we will:

• Explore how human factors impact the risk of doing any activity. We will actually calculate the risk associated with a work task using current practices that utilize two dimensions of risk: The amount of hazardous energy and the likelihood of coming in contact with the energy. Then we will calculate the same job task using a third dimension of risk: Human Factors.
• Evaluate the impact the difference between Perceived Risk and Actual Risk and the impact they have on predictability of performance.
• Discuss the complacency curve and its impact on performance.
• Assess how human factors can negatively impact the likelihood and severity of safety, quality and performance events.
• Learn the difference between Intentional Error, Unintentional Error and Habitual Error

Lunch 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Changing Safety Culture to Manage the Threat of Workplace Violence 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Presented by: Felix Nater, CSC, Nater Associates, Ltd

Day 1 – September 13, 2020

Registration & Breakfast 7:00 a.m. - 7:55 a.m.

Welcome Remarks 7:55 a.m. - 8:05 a.m.

Seven Life Lessons for Safety and Beyond 8:05 a.m. - 9:05 am Presented by: Scott Geller, Safety Performance Solutions, Inc. & Virginia Tech After studying, teaching and researching psychology for more than 50 years, Dr. Geller has identified seven evidence-based lessons people need to practice daily to prevent workplace injuries, but also to improve human welfare in general through less interpersonal conflict and bullying and enhancement of work productivity, environmental sustainability and life satisfaction. Join Dr. Geller, Founder of the Actively Caring for People Movement and Senior Partner of Safety Performance Solutions, as he shares these life lessons for improving human wellbeing and safety.

Best Practices for Onboarding: Gain Buy-In, Secure Trust, and Motivate Employees from Day 1 9:10 a.m. - 10:10 a.m. Presented by: Cathy Hansell, Breakthrough Results LLC “You only get one chance to make a first impression”. This old adage also holds true for on-boarding, welcoming every new employee into your organization…from entry level to senior leadership. On-boarding offers much more than communicating regulatory-required information, local procedures and training. Effective on-boarding helps to consistently clarify the organization’s vision, culture, expectations and accountabilities for all people. It creates a common understanding of the organization’s direction, and each person’s important role in it. This is the beginning of establishing trust, respect, motivation and engagement.

In this session, attendees will learn how to design an on-boarding program, tailored for each audience, to communicate company culture, expectations and opportunities for engagement and input.

Refreshments and Networking Break 10:10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Effective Safety Committees: Best Practices and Pitfalls to Avoid, Making Your Committee a Powerful Ally for Your Safety Efforts 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Presented by: Joe Keenan, Environmental Health and Safety Management Consultant A strong safety committee is an essential part of your company’s safety program. It serves many purposes, including increasing awareness of responding to safety issues, promoting cooperation between employees and management and fostering employee engagement. Many states require some or all employers to conduct safety committee meetings; even if your state doesn’t require a committee, they are considered industry best practices for promoting and improving safety engagement.

In this session, you will learn common roles and responsibilities of safety committees, guidance for making your safety committee an effective ally of your safety program, challenges and pitfalls of safety committees and how to avoid them, skills and training committee members should receive, and how to set goals, measure progress, and communicate results of the safety committee within the organization.

Training & Messaging: How to Keep Your Employees Engaged 11:35 a.m. - 12:35 p.m. Presented by: Ted Boyce, Center for Behavioral Safety, LLC Have you heard or even said any of the following regarding your company’s training: Why are safety speakers always so boring? If all they’re going to do is read their slides, I could do that on my own! Here we go again, death by PowerPoint! Why do we have to hear the same stuff every time? Our trainers’ monotone voice puts me to sleep. If so, your employees are likely not well engaged in the training they’re receiving. And, with a decrease in engagement comes a decrease in learning, retention, and application. To put it differently, the change you want to see does not occur. In this session, you will learn what training traps to avoid and how to incorporate “best practices” in adult learning to truly engage your employees in training that should benefit them and your organization. Get the most from the time you spend learning, attend this session and experience first-hand what training should look and feel like.

Lunch 12:35 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.

Why Workers Fail: How to Address Attitudes, Habits and Misinformation 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Presented by: Steve Roberts, Safety Performance Solutions, Inc. Complex systems require a great deal of human contribution to maintain productivity, quality, and safety. Human error is the inevitable by-product of our necessary involvement in complex systems. To eliminate human error would require us to eliminate the best source of creativity, flexibility, and problem-solving ability. Therefore, regarding errors, our purpose should be to understand the sources of error, predict when errors are most likely to occur and predict which errors will lead to the most serious negative outcomes (injury, property/environmental damage, reduced quality). We can then design or modify the system/job to reduce error, develop personal strategies to reduce individual error, and implement safeguards to mitigate negative outcomes when errors occur and improve workplace safety.

In addition, the perception of risk is often different from the actual hazards. Therefore, the hazards most likely to cause harm are not necessarily the ones that get noticed. This presentation will also focus on hazard recognition traps, why people don’t accurately perceive risk, and why we don’t always act on the risks we identify.

Refreshments and Networking Break 2:30 p.m. - 2:50 p.m.

Encouragement and Discipline: When to Be a Coach and When to Be a Cop 2:50 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. Presented by: Shawn Galloway, ProAct Safety Do employees perform excellently because you inspire them to or because they are fearful? Do you want a culture of have to or want to? Many leaders unintentionally make common mistakes that undermine what they are trying to accomplish. Some actually harm their own efforts while trying to improve performance and culture. Good intentions are not enough! Explore these common mistakes and discover when to encourage and when to discipline, the two sides of the performance coin.

Panel Discussion: Emerging Issues in the Workforce 3:50 p.m. - 4:45 p.m. Presented by: Scott Geller, Safety Performance Solutions, Inc. & Virginia Tech; Steve Roberts, Safety Performance Solutions, Inc.; Chuck Pettinger, Predictive Solutions Corporation The modern workforce is changing at a rapid pace. From the rise of the gig economy and the growth of temporary and contract work, to the influx of millennials into the workplace while many older workers postpone retirement, to the new technologies with the potential to radically transform many jobs and industries, sometimes it's all you can do to keep up. But how do all these trends and developments affect your safety culture? What are the challenges--and the opportunities--for you as a safety professional, for your workers, and for your company as a whole? In this session, we'll hear from an expert panel on the developments to watch and the practical steps you can take to harness the opportunities and navigate the challenges of the ever-changing 21st-century economy to keep your safety culture on a path of continuous improvement.

EHS Daily Advisor Safety Standout Awards Ceremony and Reception 4:45 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

-Day 1 Adjourns-

Day 2 – September 14, 2020

Breakfast 7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m.

Breakfast and Learn 7:15 a.m. - 7:40 a.m.

Keynote: Leadership for 24/7 Safety Culture 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. Presented by: Don Wilson, SafeStart Worker safety is not limited to 40 hours per week and, since statistically people are much more likely to get hurt off the job, developing a 24/7 safety culture is not only the right thing to do, it’s a sound business decision.

But fostering a safety culture requires appealing to workers’ personal agenda. Because they might not be naturally inclined to achieve the company’s safety goals or protect themselves, but they can definitely be motivated to protect their colleagues and their families.

In this session, you will learn how to make safety personal and use it to drastically reduce injuries 24/7. Participants will:

• Understand the importance of aligning different departments with a common purpose;
• Learn the role of a common safety language in building and supporting a safety culture;
• Be introduced to practical tools that can be used every day to reduce injuries both on and off the job; and
• Understand the fundamental business case for 24/7 safety culture.

Growing a safety culture requires commitment, dedication and the right attitude. Because you cannot enforce or mandate a safety culture—you cultivate and grow it by weaving safety into all the aspects of the workers’ lives and making it personal.

Workshop: How to Build and Execute an Employee Perception Survey 9:10 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. Presented by: Chuck Pettinger, Predictive Solutions Corporation This workshop will first discuss the differences between culture and climate, and then debate specific areas of interest (i.e., safety constructs) and how to develop perception survey questions to assess those areas. We will also talk about the frequency of the measurements; how often, when, what time of day to most effectively gain insight into culture. Through class exercises, participants will identify safety constructs, and discuss which questions would most likely tap into their culture. We will also discuss how algorithms combining the quantitative and qualitative information can be developed to create an even better method of proactively identifying gaps in processes and systems to get in front of incidents and save lives.

Break 10:15 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

Closing Keynote: Your Safety Culture Needs a New Strategy 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Presented by: Shawn Galloway, ProAct Safety Safety will never become a core value within company culture until the safety strategy is aligned with and supports the business strategy. Every organization has a safety culture, but could it be better? Yes, but not by doing more in safety. Safety culture can evolve by continuous improvement and by capturing and delivering real value. Strategic thinking can create value at every level of an organization, but people need a guide and reason to support where they choose to invest their discretionary effort. Based on his 2020 book, Inside Strategy: Value Creation from within Your Organization, keynote speaker Shawn M. Galloway will share how to take strategic thinking and focus it internally toward your organizational culture.

-Day 2 Adjourns-

Speakers

Thomas E. (Ted) Boyce, Ph.D. Founder and Senior Consultant Center for Behavioral Safety, LLC

Thomas E. (TED) Boyce, Ph.D. is the only applied psychologist, formally-trained professional musician and recording artist, author, keynote speaker, university professor, Fortune 100 business consultant in the world. Dr. Boyce pioneered the application of behavioral science to improve safety in the mining industry and has been providing cost-effective safety and culture change training to the U.S. mining, manufacturing, and construction industries for almost 25 years. Most recently he has taken on the role of designing, implementing, and managing the professional development program for a large construction company using a blended approach of best practices in on-line and in-class learning. As a result of his efforts, Dr. Boyce has been placed on a list of the Top 10 Culture Change Experts you should pay attention to. He is a full member of the American Psychological Association, Association of Psychological Science, and the Association for Behavior Analysis International. He is also active with local and regional Chapters of ASSE.

Shawn M. Galloway President ProAct Safety

Shawn M. Galloway is a consultant, professional speaker and author of several bestselling books on safety strategy, culture, leadership and Behaviour-Based Safety. He is a monthly columnist for several magazines and one of the most prolific contributors in the industry, having also authored over 500 podcasts, 200 articles and 100 videos. As President of the global consultancy, ProAct Safety, consulting clients include most of the best safety-performing organizations within every major industry. He has received awards for his significant contributions from the American Society of Safety Engineers, listed in National Safety Council’s Top 40 Rising Stars, EHS Today Magazine’s 50 People Who Most Influenced EHS and ISHN Magazine’s list of 50 Leaders for Today and Tomorrow.

E. Scott Geller, Ph.D. Alumni Distinguished Professor Dept. of Psychology, Virginia Tech Senior Partner Safety Performance Solutions

Scott Geller, Ph.D. is a Senior Partner of Safety Performance Solutions as well as an Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech where he directs the Center for Applied Behavior Systems.

As a partner with Safety Performance Solutions (SPS), Dr. Geller and his colleagues have worked since 1994 to help hundreds of organizations within the U.S. and abroad, specializing in the ‘human dynamics of safety’, an area they term People Based Safety.

In addition, for more than four decades, Professor Geller has taught and conducted research as a faculty member and director of the Center for Applied Behavior Systems in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech. He has authored, edited or co-authored 41 books, 87 book chapters, 39 training programs, 259 magazine articles, and more than 300 research. In 2020, ASSE published Actively Caring for People’s Safety: How to Cultivate a Brother’s/Sister’s Work Culture by Scott Geller and his daughter, Krista S. Geller, PhD.

Dr. Geller is a Fellow of the American Psychological Society, the Association for Psychological Science, the International Association of Behavior Analysis, and the World Academy of Productivity and Quality Sciences. In 2005, he was awarded the statewide Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award by the State Council of Higher Education, and Virginia Tech conferred the title of Alumni Distinguished Professor on him. Professor Geller has received lifetime achievement awards from the International Organizational Behavior Management Network (in 2008) and the American Psychological Foundation (in 2009). In 2011, the College of Wooster awarded Dr. Geller the Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters.

Cathy Hansell President Breakthrough Results, LLC For almost 40 years, Cathy has led company safety cultures transformations and business processes re-engineering to achieve sustainable safety (SHE) excellence and new business value. Cathy has held various senior leadership positions in Safety, health, environment (SHE), product stewardship, sustainability and manufacturing quality areas, at several corporations, including AlliedSignal, BASF and American Standard. Cathy received a JD in Law, a MS in Environmental Toxicology (NYU Institute of Environmental Medicine) & a BS in Environmental Science & Engineering. Cathy holds 12 certifications in Safety, Six Sigma, Quality and sustainability. She was awarded One of the Top 100 Women in Safety from the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE).

Gary Higbee President/CEO Higbee & Associates, Inc. Principal North American Management Institute Senior Consultant: SafeStart/SafeTrack

Using his over 50 years of experience and a sense of humor Gary has become an internationally known speaker on safety, health, environmental and business issues. His assignments include positions in Production Engineering, Safety and Environmental Engineering, Production Management, Corporate Director, Vice-President and President/CEO.

Gary has an MBA from the University of Iowa and is a board certified safety professional. Gary is a past recipient of the Safety Professional of the Year award for region IV of the American Society of Safety Engineers, and in 2010 Gary received the Distinguished Service to Safety Award from the National Safety Council. He is considered an expert in Traditional and Behavior Based Safety Technologies as well as Complex Organizational Change Initiatives and his book, coauthored with Larry Wilson, “Inside Out: Rethinking Traditional Safety Management Paradigms” was released in 2010 and is already in its third printing.

Joe Keenan Environmental Health and Safety Management Consultant

Mr. Keenan, a Senior Safety Coordinator with C Spire, is a highly experienced Environmental Health and Safety and Human Resources (HR) Professional and Management Consultant with over 21 years of experience. Mr. Keenan received his Green Belt in Six Sigma/Lean Manufacturing in 2005, Masters in Business Administration (MBA) with a Human Resource Management Concentration in 2007 and Certified Safety Professional (CSP) in 2011. He is presently serving as President of the Mississippi Chapter of the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) and served on the OSHA Voluntary Protection Program Participants Association (VPPPA) Region IV Board of Directors as a Director at Large from 2013-2020. Mr. Keenan is an OSHA General Industry and Construction 10/30-Hour Authorized Outreach Trainer since 2002 - (both renewed in 2020).

Chuck Pettinger, Ph.D. Process Change Leader Predictive Solutions

Chuck Pettinger has over 25 years of experience designing, implementing and evaluating culture step-change initiatives. His major interests include developing large-scale corporate behavior change initiatives, assessing industrial safety cultures, using advanced predictive analytics to develop leading indicators and conducting organizational Leadership Workshops.

Chuck has consulted with a wide variety of industries, and in addition to being named one of the 101 Top Leaders in Safety by ISHN, Chuck has authored many training/technical manuals while designing, customizing and developing training materials for use in industry and government agencies.

Steve Roberts Senior Partner Safety Performance Solutions, Inc.

Steve is co-founder and senior partner at Safety Performance Solutions, Inc. He earned an M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from West Chester University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Applied/Experimental Psychology with a focus in Organizational Behavior Management from Virginia Tech. His specific areas of expertise include the design, implementation, and evaluation of behavior and people-based safety processes, the assessment of organizational culture to guide safety interventions, increasing employee involvement in safety activities, organizational management systems design, organizational leadership development, and understanding and reducing human error in the workplace. Steve was named among the “50 Top Safety Leaders” by Industrial Safety & Hygiene News (ISHN) in 2020, is a regular speaker at both public and corporate sponsored events, and consults with clients across all industry types.

Don Wilson Vice President SafeStart

Don’s working background includes over 25 years of experience in Instructional Design, Vocational Education, E-Learning, Industrial Education and Health & Safety Training. As a motivational speaker on 24/7 safety concepts, he has been a frequent presenter at corporate health and safety meetings, as well as NSC, ASSE and VPPPA conferences at both the national and local level.