Morse’s enhanced focus on safety began with a pilot program in August 2023 and has now expanded to include 13 Safety Captains throughout our global manufacturing facility in Canton, Ohio — Eddie Fowler, Aaron Schweitzer, Cody Love, LeRon Jackson, John Flesher, Sherman Laney, Kirkland Hanlon, Johnna Snair, Jackie Miller, Keith Nagel, Todd Pitts, Garth Haines, and LaMar Jefferson.
The main job of a Safety Captain is “to help support us and train new operators as well as current operators on safety or changes that we may have made to our safety standards. They also look for improvements with safety and give us feedback on their observations,” said Mike Owens, Hole Saw and Arbors supervisor. They take an active role in promoting a safe working environment.
Duties of a Safety Captain generally include:
- Helping to keeping employees motivated, and advocating a positive approach to workplace safety
- Contributing ideas to help improve safety and encouraging their peers to do the same. They are the continuous improvement team of safety.
- Demonstrating through their actions and their attitude that they sincerely care about the safety of their peers
- Understanding the workplace hazards that exist and how to mitigate these potential risks
Benefits of Safety Captains in the workplace
Assigning workplace Safety Captains brings benefits for both managers and workers. From a manager’s perspective, the Captain can provide key insights into your operations and suggestions for improvement. As a worker, the Captain promotes a positive workplace safety culture, as well as providing an approachable colleague that they can voice their safety-related queries or concerns to.
The perks that come with naming a dependable, likeable, and perceptive Safety Captain for your workplace include:
- A positive and flexible safety culture
- Encouraging your employees to independently improve safety
- Improved communication between the management and employees about safety practices
- Getting everyone on board and involved in workplace safety
- A more motivated and proactive workforce
- A reduced number of safety issues, risks, and potential hazards
Our role is “to encourage others to look for safety issues and to be conscious of them, and to ensure that employees are looking out for their own safety as well as the safety of others,” Weld-to-Length/Portable Band Safety Captain Keith Nagel said. “It promotes a positive and safe culture and makes it more appealing for current and future employees to work for Morse.”
“I feel this has been good for the shop because of the size of the plant and the people we try to keep safe, along with understanding the importance of safety and what all it can impact at work or home,” Owens said. “At the end of the day, we all want to make it home safely.”