The devastating ripple effect of an injury on the job can ultimately wreck business, and ruin livelihoods. It’s no wonder Fibrebond has invested heavily in workplace safety to avoid the ravages of an incident on the job. The steel and concrete corporation has implemented an approach known as “behavior-based safety,” a multi-layered program that has re-defined company safety culture and opened up an ongoing dialogue with employees.
As a guest on this episode of Building a Better Bond, we learn how Fibrebond has embraced this strategy, and how other companies can too, with Martee Gonsoulin —Vice President of Supply Chain Manufacturing at Fibrebond.
After watching her father incapacitated by a workplace injury, and suffering from a ski accident herself, Gonsoulin was all too familiar with the debilitating effects of being out of work. With over twenty-two years of experience in Pharmaceuticals manufacturing, Gonsoulin returned to the workforce at Fibrebond, using her comprehensive expertise to explore how workplace safety could be implemented differently.
“We’re all influenced by what happens around us,” she said, explaining how safety should be approached with positive reinforcement and a sense of community. “It’s all about changing people’s mindset and learning the habits of safety.”
Using measurable benchmarks, installing observational tracking, and instigating actionable changes, Gonsoulin’s behavior-based safety approach transformed the safety environment at Fibrebond.
Her advice to other companies looking to improve their safety culture is sage and simple—open an honest dialogue with your employees.
“If you improve that, you’re improving all areas of your business,” she said.