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MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS Participation in the daily safety meeting is mandatory. This is where the grass-roots culture change takes place. All employees attend the Employee Orientation where they learn the importance of flexibility and strength in preventing injury, and what to expect from participation. If, after the employee orientation, an employee does not wish to stretch, they may opt out of stretching; but they must attend and participate in the safety meeting before leaving. It is well within management’s role to make supervisor participation mandatory as part of the overall safety initiative. 2.WHAT IF AN EMPLOYEE HAS A HANDICAP OR PREVIOUS INJURY? Team Safety, Inc. uses degreed, experienced fitness professionals. They may modify a stretch for an individual, or recommend a substitution if necessary to ensure a safe stretch. The supervisor is informed of any modifications. Prior to beginning stretches, each employee signs and dates a disclosure form describing any limiting physical condition and stating whether they feel it would prevent them from safely performing the stretch routine. On the average, about 30% of an employee population has preexisting conditions. Team Safety retains the forms for reference. In recent implementations 33% of 50 employees and 23% of 139 employees had preexisting conditions. 3.HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET STARTED? Startup can take anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks. The time spent in up-front planning will have an impact on the ultimate return on investment. Startup focuses on cultivating a positive response from the union/management, getting consensus on what the reward and recognition system will be, and putting together teams from natural work groups that will integrate with the operating schedule, support high participation, and take advantage of team building to get maximum participation in the safety systems implemented. This takes some effort and a thorough understanding of program objectives. Once all systems are in place, there is an employee orientation, baseline testing, and two weeks later, the employees get their baseline results and start stretching together. During this time, the organization would be promoting participation, publishing the recognition and reward plan, and let supervisors know they will be held accountable. 4.WHO IS TYPICALLY INVOLVED IN THE STARTUP PROCESS? The startup team should comprise senior representatives from management, union, safety, and supervisory departments. Without a doubt, the fully integrated program is a major culture change. This team will be responsible to establish how key Back Synergy measures integrate with current safety systems. They must also achieve a consensus on what will be in it for successful supervisors and what negative consequences will result from failure to participate. 5.HAS BACK SYNERGY BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN A UNIONIZED, HEAVY MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT? We have had mixed results. The main determinant is the current union/management relationship. Where the relationship is good, we have had excellent results. In organizations where union and management have conflict, our results have been average to good. In a recent implementation where union opposition was vocal, many union workers participated anyway because they could see that the program was going to be good for them personally. Back Synergy has achieved excellent results in heavy manufacturing, agriculture, government agencies, office, waste water, oil industries. 6.WHAT ARE THE TRAITS OF A COMPANY THAT IS SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTING YOUR SYSTEM? Strong support and participation of management Strong union involvement Safety department makes use of key measures data Management reviews supervisor performance data at staff meetings. SUPERVISOR QUESTIONS The combined flexibility and safety meeting take from 8 to 15 minutes. 8.MUST WE ALWAYS DO IT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SHIFT? It’s always good to use the stretch routine as a warm up at the beginning of the shift; and in some organizations, the “start on time” rule dramatically improves productivity. However, the real benefits of the program—improved flexibility, strength, and safety knowledge and communication—are achieved no matter when the routine takes place. Supervisors can always find at least 15 minutes of “discretionary” time within a work shift. If the nature of the schedule or work makes it difficult to do the routine at the beginning of the shift, the team should decide on the best time to do it, then the supervisor or team leader must ensure they always do it on time.
EMPLOYEE QUESTIONS 9.WILL I NEED SPECIAL CLOTHING? Program stretches are selected specifically for the worksite environment. They are not too vigorous, nor do they require anyone to get on the ground or into awkward positions. Employees should be able to perform all moves in their regular work attire. We promote friendly competition. This is an element of team building. We do not encourage participants to push beyond their limits, nor do we allow others to push them to do so. We have found that friendly competition helps teams come together and achieve greater results. All individual data are held confidential by Team Safety, Inc. Individual reports are delivered by hand or to the supervisor if the employee is not present. Employees have the option to exclude their personal score on the team charts; however, their score will be included in the overall percentage in the “Good to Excellent” range. |
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