Keynote / Opening Session - Jason Malatek, CSP, MBA

Mental Wellness and the Impact on Employee Safety

The Impact of Mental Wellness in Construction, Industry, and at Home will focus on the impact employee mental wellness has on employee behaviors; both positive and negative; on the jobsite. It takes the Behavior Based Safety approach to a more detailed level, identifying emotions and attitudes, and the direct impact they have on worker safety. Our investigations indicate that over 90% of employee injury, poor workmanship and absenteeism is due to negative emotions. Employees were not focused on the task at hand.  

Learning Objectives

At the end of the presentation, the attendees will be able to: Identify the three reasons why the safety professional must focus on employee mental wellness, be able to educate employees with regard to the signs and symptoms of mental illness and finally, identifying shortcomings of current safety objectives and how we can defeat complacency and make an impact on overall fatality and accident statistics.  

ANSI Z10 for OHS Professionals - An Overview of Occupational Safety and Health Management 

ANSI Z10 has become the voluntary consensus standard for OSH management systems in the US. It utilizes recognized management system principles and methodologies in order to be compatible with quality and environmental system standards. The standard draws from approaches used by the International Labor Organization’ Guidelines on OHSMS and from systems in use in US organizations. The session will provide attendees with an overview of the standard and its implementation for continual improvement to protect employees from injuries and illnesses in the workplace.  

Learning Objectives: 

• To gain a better understanding of how OSHMS impact safety and health beyond regulatory standards.
• To allow the OSH professional to engage safety and health as a business process for improvement, and 
• To assist management to align H&S with environmental and quality processes.

Implementing ANSI/ASSP Z16.1-2022 - Making the Transition from What We've Done to What We Should be Doing

Now that ANSI/ASSP Z16.1-2022 has been available to OSH professionals about 1 1/2 years, what has been the impact? Has it been a game changer for measuring OSH performance and helping move away from lagging metrics that don’t measure the value of an OSH program or leading metrics that are sometimes nothing more than a tally of a completed activity and don’t demonstrate proactive approaches? This presentation will outline how to implement ANSI/ASSP Z16.1 Standard on OSH performance measurement and provide clear guidance on how OSH professionals can use it to measure and improve organizational OSH performance and utilize it to help mature their organization's OSH metrics systems. It will highlight how to use impact metrics to demonstrate the organizational value of OSH efforts and how OSH enables efficient business operations as a strategic business partner The overall goal of this session is to galvanize attendees who have long understood that the current approach to OSH performance measurement is not working and encourage them to join the charge to change the paradigm of how OSH performance is measured.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will understand the high-level requirements of the Z16 standard and how it can provide a framework to implement a more robust OSH performance management system.
• Attendees will be able to develop a transition plan to change the organization’s current measurement system to a more robust and mature metrics system that aligns with the requirements of ANSI/ASSP Z16.1
• Attendees will be able to effectively use impact metrics as defined in ANSI/ASSP Z16.1-2022 to demonstrate how OSH contributes to organizational performance.

Confined Space Identification, Evaluation and Classification 

The foundation of safety in work in and around confined spaces is the comprehensive review of the presence and hazards of confined spaces, the development of effective controls for those hazards and in training and supervision of employees in the implementation of those controls. This presentation will take the attendee through the steps of identification and evaluation of confined spaces, methods of control for the identified hazards and execution of the program at the job site. Issues of permit vs. non-permit spaces, reclassification and real-time re-evaluation will be addressed. The ultimate goal is to set the conditions where surprises are eliminated. The best rescue is the one that never has to occur because the job was set up properly at the beginning. 

Learning Objectives

The audience will gain a better understanding of the provisions of applicable confined space regulations regarding the classification and re-classification of confined spaces and a perspective on risk and hazard management.

Lithium Batteries:  Safety and Environmental Concerns  

Lithium batteries have become the choice for powering everything from mobile phones and laptops to pacemakers, power tools, medical equipment, energy storage systems and electric vehicles. As safety professionals, we need to recognize the hazards associated with the different types of lithium batteries and how to address these hazards in our workplaces based on current regulations and standards.

Learning Objectives:

After attending the presentation, attendees will be able to: 

• Differentiate between the types of Lithium Batteries and their uses. 
• Identify hazards and controls associated with Lithium Batteries. 
• Discuss regulations and standards that apply to Lithium Batteries.  

Excavations & Trenching Training to Make the Operations Safe

Excavation and trenching specifically are dangerous activities in the construction industry. There are specific requirements for employee training and specific competent person requirements that need to be part of any safety management system to protect workers. The OSHA 7410 and 3015 courses are 2 courses that will help employers make their workers safe in excavation and/or trenching operations. These 2 courses taken separately or together will provide management and competent persons more aware and knowledgeable of the hazards and protective measures for excavation and trenching. 

Learning Objectives:

• List of the requirements for a Competent Person in excavation & trenching operations.
• Identify training that can be acquired by Competent Person.
• Explanation of the topics in the OSHA 7410 and 3015 courses.