At a GEAPS Conference a few years back, I talked with the person in charge of safety training for a multilocation co-op in the Dakotas. While he had other roles, he said he most enjoyed the safety training because, as much as he loved the business of running a co-op, seeing improved safety records meant he was helping co-workers avoid injuries, or worse.
A farm kid, he talked about how you start learning early on the dangers of being around equipment and grain bins. That was a shared experience. Growing up on our farm it was being careful around equipment and livestock. I remember my father reacting rather quickly and loudly if he felt any of his kids weren’t paying attention. When I mentioned that, the co-op guy kind of laughed. “Yes, getting attention is one of my greatest challenges!”
He explained that while they had a long history of safety training, it was tough to guarantee that everyone was paying attention. He worked to have good slide presentations early on, then quickly adapted to PowerPoint — anything he could do to make the sessions active and relevant.
A favorite step, he said, was handing out money to get the people talking. It seems — not that I noticed this with my brothers or spouse over the years (ahem!) — a lot of guys he worked with tended to sit quietly at the meetings. Questions and comments were rare and suggestions for further training or actual on-site improvements were nonexistent.
Nothing $100 couldn’t fix.
He started taking 20 $5 bills into each training session. As soon as he could cajole someone into asking a question, out came the cash. It got a few chuckles, he said, but most importantly it got them to ask questions, to talk about what they were doing, and why and what they needed to do or have and why.
Clever! And not much money to help push safety to the top of everyone’s mind, rather than having them sit and watch the clock, anxious to leave.
Feed & Grain consistently covers safety topics, including grain entrapment. I know you talk about it with your teams constantly. Yet, people still put themselves in danger – from the farm to the elevator – every year.
So I wanted to make sure you were ware of Grain Bin Safety Week, grainbinsafetyweek.com, running Feb. 22-28. There’s a lot of 2014 grain that will be moving from farm to elevator to processors and to ports.
Nationwide insurance is a proponent of safety and is running a contest to help get grain bin rescue tubes and specialized training to first responders. Take a look at the website, please. Get involved. Constantly remind your people to pay attention to what they’re doing and to continue taking the safety awareness issue to your producer customers. It doesn’t cost much and it can save lives. ❚
