Protecting their people

By Progressive Materials. 

Learn about how Progressive Materials’ workplace safety initiatives benefit both their employees and their customers. 

In every manufacturing industry, there are risks and hazards in the workplace. The National Safety Council reports that a U.S. worker in injured on the job every seven seconds. This is an intimidating and scary statistic, but there are things that can be done to protect workers! At Progressive Materials (PM), we are dedicated to ensuring the safety of our workforce. In addition to protecting the people that make our company who we are, workplace injuries result in around 99 million days of lost productivity on an annual basis  (about 21 days of disability per work injury). This makes workplace safety not only an internal concern, but something that customers also have a stake in. Keep reading to learn how PM is working to reduce workplace risks.  

Safety steps 

One step we have recently taken to create a safer workplace is by designating our Director of Environmental, Health & Safety, Ross Heinz, as an associate safety professional from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals.  

Ross has been PM’s safety director 2019 and has been at the forefront of our safety programs. His professional designations show his high level of experience in our industry and that he has a professional degree of knowledge of safety in general. “It can boost confidence that we know the (safety) regulations … and know how to create a process that meets the highest standards,” he said. 

He recently introduced a program that targets the risk of workplace injuries. It offers better ergonomics engineering and improved worker methods. If a silicone batch mixer was shut down in the past due to an employee’s injury, that created two concerns – the worker’s welfare and possible delays in product delivery to customers. “We now have programs in place for reporting early stages of injury, if needed, and have created worker job rotations to help improve safety for our employees,” Ross said. “Our customers trust us. We want to eliminate any barrier that would hurt our service to them. It starts with us maintaining a healthy team.” 

Ross also oversees product labeling at PM. His oversight ensures products going out the door are properly labeled, which helps alleviate transportation hangups and any on-site headaches or misuse of material in the field. Safety data sheets and other technical resources on our products are available online. 

Conclusion 

With 7 million work injuries reported per year, workplace safety is a real issue nationwide. PM directly addresses this potential problem with programs like Ross’s associate safety professional designation. The extensive safety work and hours of education required for this ongoing designation show PM’s dedication to setting the highest standards for our team, products, and service. “I continually fine-tune programs that boost care for our team,” Ross said. “This designation is one way of showing that they exceed strict regulations.” 

Original article and photo source: Progressive Materials