Safety Matters

Safety Award of Excellence - Organization: Acadian Seaplants

Workplace safety is the top priority for everyone at Acadian Seaplants; from the start of all tasks at the beginning of the day to the end of the day when the company-wide safety matrix is reviewed by the Director of Safety & Wellness. This daily review is used to investigate and communicate the causes of incidents or near misses in order to prevent them from happening again.

“These reports are accessible to all our employees,” says Jean-Paul Deveau, President of Acadian Seaplants. “On a daily basis, employees are able to look at our safety statistics through our shared internal network safety icon as well as through general-use computer kiosks at every work site.”

By making the company’s safety programs and records transparent, management has ensured that employees are an essential part of building a safety culture at each work site. Always looking to improve their safety performance, the company also works with outside safety auditors to help identify gaps and implement recommendations and action plans.

“It’s important for us, as a management team, to lead by example and to effectively demonstrate to our employees, day-in and day-out, that their safety is paramount,” says Deveau. “By focusing on our auditing process and integrating our safety matrix program, we have drastically reduced our number of lost time accidents and more importantly, engaged our employees in putting safety first to make sure their colleagues, contractors, visitors, as well as themselves, all get home safe to their families each night.”