Deploying an overall safety program in a complex environment

Rogers Communications is Canada’s largest provider of wireless communications services and one of Canada’s leading providers of cable television, high-speed Internet, information technology, and telephone services to consumers and businesses.

There are many different types of roles at Rogers, therefore, creating an overall health and safety program can be challenging as the needs vary between business units. However, the health and safety team at Rogers focuses on co-operation, social responsibility and employee well-being as root factors of the program and building a great place to work.

Employee Well-Being, Central to the Concerns of Rogers Communications

For Rogers, creating an environment where health, safety and well-being are important and it makes it possible to foster employee commitment, reduce absenteeism and increase productivity. Rogers is committed to providing and maintaining a safe and healthy work environment for its employees, volunteers, contractors and visitors as well as for members of the general public affected by our activities.

According to Candace DiCresce, Director of Health and Safety at Rogers Communications, “Rogers constantly seeks to improve its policies, systems and training to mitigate risks and prevent injuries. Our health and safety policy as well as our well-being policy describe our approach to health and safety, and every year we invest in safety training. Health and safety are constantly monitored by our dedicated team.”

Rogers has over 60 joint management-worker occupational health and safety committees representing our larger workplaces, in addition to health and safety representatives at our smaller workplaces.
The rate of incidents involving lost time decreases every year. All dangerous situations at work with the potential to cause injuries, illness or physical damage are entered into a system for reporting health and safety incidents. When incidents are reported, managers investigate these reports with the help of the health and safety team; they identify the causes and establish appropriate preventative actions.

Specific Measures for Employees Most at Risk

Some roles involve high risks, such as tasks performed by cable and internet technicians, who repair or upgrade the networks or work with broadcasting equipment. These employees often work with heavy or high access equipment which have greater risks. Rogers has therefore established specific programs for mitigating the risks and immediately implementing corrective actions when an employee is injured.

“We provide health and safety training to all our employees and, since 2015; we have been deploying new programs and new policies to ensure we provide a safe workplace for everyone.”

Here are a few examples:

• Two new policies to beef up our health and safety policy. These policies pertain to both confined and high spaces, which present the greatest safety risks.
• Integration of a health and safety training program into our manager training program, with the objective of providing essential information to our people managers.
• Enhancement of our new Onboarding Program enabling more information to be conveyed to all participating employees.
• Deployment of the “I.Am.Safety.” campaign to interest our employees in our health and safety culture. This internal multimedia campaign aims to raise employees’ awareness about personal responsibility regarding safety in our workplaces.

Would you like help in designing and implementing an overall health and safety program for your company? Contact the SPI Health and Safety experts to find out about the solutions available to you.