Memorial holds its first Safety Summit
Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) held its first Safety Summit on Oct. 30. Nearly 50 people attended the event that included presentations on safety tools, resources, Memorial’s safety culture and incident reporting, among other topics.
“Over the last few years we have made significant investments in safety. Such as increasing the number of safety advisors, providing safety training to faculty, staff and students, working with specialists to help us with our radiation, biological and chemical safety programs,” noted Barbara Battcock, director of EHS. “This Safety Summit is the next step to engaging our safety leaders on campus to ensure everyone is thinking about safety in everything we do.”
“The people who took part in this Summit will be ambassadors for our safety culture,” added Ms. Battcock. “We’re really excited to be part of this positive movement at Memorial where people take ownership of their safety.”
And Mike Harding, manager of finance and administration with the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation, attended and noted that was the biggest take away for him; the emphasis on how safety is everyone’s responsibility. He also added, “The Employee Health and Safety Orientation Handbook and other handouts are a great tool for both the new and long-term employee.”
“It is so important for us to lead from the top down to establish a culture of health and safety at the university” said Jennifer Keytes, director of Animal Care Services, who also attended. “We are certainly on the right track, with lots of great new initiatives, including eAlerts and MIMS. We also have a long way to go, so it's critical to have everyone on board. The event was very useful for bringing together all the areas of responsibility for Memorial employees and students.”
The Grenfell Campus Safety Summit is taking place on Nov. 5. More Summits are being planned for later this fall.