Field Safety Committee Message

As Fall approaches, we are seeing many exciting changes in the field as well as on the Field Safety Committee. O’Connell has embarked on a mission of Human Performance Improvement, commonly referred to as HPI. This is a monumental focus shift in simple terms described as moving from a primarily reactive culture to an increasingly proactive and preventive one. We have all started to educate ourselves on the fundamentals and principles of HPI which will continue with ongoing industry specific training. To start to break down the relationship between HPI and safety, take a look at one of my favorite definitions of safety: reduction of human and systemic errors that contribute to injuries or serious incidents. Realistically one could never know with any certainty which of these errors will, or could, result in injuries or the severity of a resulting incident. Enter HPI - a modification of practices to identify and mitigate latent organizational weaknesses that are known to contribute to errors. Our committee is excited to be a part of this “next step” in the evolution of our culture and look forward to much more to come. We have also adopted a new concept in our meeting agenda allowing us to enhance the involvement of our membership and to really tap the potential and years of combined experience that each of our members bring to the table. If you have taken a moment to peruse our meeting minutes which are distributed along with the monthly toolbox talks, you probably got a taste of this new concept. We have taken our meeting to a new level by increasing communication, participation and overall involvement! Please stay tuned as we hope to collaborate with our new safety committees for the Power Group, office, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), to bring these topics to life in the field, at home, or wherever you happen to be. As always, our committee is looking for employee-specific topics that could benefit all of our field crews. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to myself or any of our Field Safety Representatives to share. I would like to leave you today with a thought and my sincerest wishes for a prosperous and safe journey wherever your job takes you tomorrow. Even if you believe that elimination of human error is impossible, if we could aim to reduce overall errors across the board, would we not by default reduce errors on critical steps that inevitably have a much higher tendency to result in an incident? Fraternally,

Jeff Harter

Field Safety Committee Chairman

OFFICE SAFETY COMMITTEE

It is well known that, at O’Connell, we pride ourselves on having a strong safety culture. Over the years, it has been discussed that an office safety initiative can offer relevant learning opportunities to a significant number of employees who face a very different set of hazards than those who work in the field. In 2021, the Office Safety Committee was formally established to identify and call attention to risks faced by office and support staff while working with senior leadership to help create solutions that improve the safety, knowledge, and health of each employee. Representatives of the committee meet once a month to give safety updates, discuss needs and identified hazards, and share safety topics to improve the overall safety of our office staff. Contact your office safety representative if you have a good catch, near miss, or any safety suggestions.

Victor – Matt McDonald, Chairperson Victor – Stacy Foster, Co-Chairperson Albany – Ryan Osswald Buffalo – Mary Kate McCarthy Syracuse – James VanCamp 390/400 Systems Rd. – Valerie Clark

The Committee's first initiative was held at our Corporate Headquarters in Victor, NY with the help of Fishers Fire Department. Volunteer firefighters joined employees for a lunch and learn, reminding us how to inspect and properly use residential fire extinguishers, different classes of fire, and other safety tips. Pictured above, CEO, Victor Salerno, sharpens his skills while practicing extinguishing a fire.