CM Biomass increases engagement on Health & Safety by catching people “doing things right”
Heavy-duty trucks and loaders manoeuvring across production sites. Exposure to dust, high temperatures, humidity, and noise. CM Biomass fully recognise the risks associated with manufacturing of renewable energy products. The plant personnel work in a challenging and potentially dangerous work environment with risks from machinery, mobile equipment, and around fibre and pellet storage facilities. The operating footprint of the company has increased over the past year, which statistically increases the probability of incidents. CM Biomass acknowledge these risks, and they actively work to mitigate them by taking a proactive approach to engaging their employees, improving their understanding of risks, and accelerating the delivery of training and development.
In early 2024, CM Biomass refocused their efforts on health and safety initiatives by emphasising the value of safety and launching initiatives across their manufacturing facilities in the US situated in Brookhaven, Crossville, Jackson, Jasper, Ideal, and Quitman – covering more than 180 blue-collared employees. They call it FORZA Safety, which in its essence refer to the “can-do attitude”, the company strives to foster. As such, FORZA Safety is more than just a written program binder that contains policies, procedures, and KPI’s. FORZA Safety is an organisational mindset that focuses on positive feedback, employee engagement, training and development and valuing feedback from all employees.
Implementing leading indicators helps take a more proactive approach to the management of health and safety, rewarding safe behaviours and encouraging safety related feedback helps both motivate the company’s workforce and be more mindful of workplace hazards to take proactive measures to prevent on-thejob incidents. By listening to and empowering its workforce, CM Biomass are in a better position to reduce risk and prevent injuries instead of having to respond to them. The idea is not to keep a disapproving eye on personnel doing things wrong, but rather “catching people doing things right”. By rewarding safe behaviours, reporting near misses, completing dedicated training, reviewing, and improving safety protocols, and preventing injuries, they are actively promoting a health and safety culture.
“I am incredibly proud of the way our people have embraced FORZA Safety. Still early on in our journey, we have already achieved great success in both risk reduction activities and 100% participation rate across our sites. Our teams are fully committed and focused not only on their own safety but the safety of others. We will continue to build on this progress by maintaining a safety as a core value and working daily to strengthen our growing safety culture”, says Scott Bax, Chief Operating Officer of CM Biomass.
