Ontivity Resources

With the new year comes new beginnings. Many of us set goals, both personally as well as professionally, that we aim to achieve in the year to come. Ontivity and our member companies all have one common goal that is rooted deep within our culture and that is that we always aim to work SAFE. We believe in this so much that we made Safety our #1 Core Value. Safety first. Production second.  

One of our customers shared a great reminder of what SAFE stands for and we’d like to pass that on…

The ”S” stands for – Stop work when unsafe conditions or behaviors have been identified

The “A” stands for – Assess the job

The “F” stands for – Formulate a plan

And the “E” stands for – Execute the plan

Stop work when unsafe conditions or behaviors have been identified

Stop Work Authority is the ability for any member of our team to call a time out or stop work should they feel in danger, or see something that is likely to cause harm to themselves, someone else, or company or customer-owned equipment or property. Everyone, regardless of tenure, has the ability to stop work for safety concerns.  

Assess the job

It is within the OSHA regulations that each job shall be assessed for items that are hazardous based on the scope of work that is being completed. This is not only a requirement that is bestowed upon the employer but also the employees and is key to creating a safe work environment for all employees. No matter how significant or insignificant the hazard is, we must identify it and mitigate it which brings us to our next key point.

Formulate a plan

By formulating a plan, we are mitigating an identified hazard by way of what OSHA refers to as the heiarchy of controls. The heiarchy of controls consist of eliminating the hazard, substituting the task for a safer task, engineering (i.e., machine guarding), administrative controls, and last but not least, the use of PPE. Once there is a suitable plan in place, all we have left is to put it into action.

Execute the plan

Everything up to this point is useless if we don’t execute the plan. We have covered Stop Work Authority, the importance of assessing the job for hazards, and how to mitigate the hazards. All of which is accomplished via the JHA process that is to be completed at the beginning of each job, each day and reviewed with all parties on site and ensuring that the plan is being followed.

Everything that we have discussed is very basic in nature. Oftentimes, we tend to overcomplicate safety when in its most basic form, we can accomplish everything we need by implementing the above four points: Stop work when unsafe conditions or behaviors have been identified, Assess the job, Formulate a plan, and then Execute the plan.

So for 2023, We challenge everyone to work SAFE.

If you want more information on those topics, reach out to the Ontivity safety team at safety@ontivity.com, and we will get you taken care of.