Since becoming corporate health and safety manager for Loss Prevention in October, Guy Pelland has been looking for ways to engage associates about safety. And as an avid hiker who grew up in Tucson, Pelland knows a thing or two about the hot-weather risks.
“With the Waco Distribution Center just down the road,” says Pelland, who is based at HQ in Dallas, “what better time than Texas in the summertime to do a heat awareness event?”
Pelland and Fernando Millan, a Loss Prevention business analyst, greeted Waco DC associates Wednesday to talk about heat safety. But they avoided the hottest part of the day.
“We got down there and started around 5 in the morning, when people were coming in,” Pelland said. “We gave out cold water, sports drinks and bandannas to everybody that came up to our table to talk about heat safety.”
With their high ceilings and immense size, DCs can be hot. They are also loud and busy and involve a lot of physical work. The potential for injury is always present.
“I’ve made a couple of visits to Waco since I took over the job,” Pelland says. “You really get an appreciation for how hard people are working to get merchandise to the shelves. It’s impressive. For us in Loss Prevention, it’s really important to understand how busy DCs can be.”
Waco DC Manager Preston Huddy said that DC associates are well-trained in safety, including heat awareness, and are continually reminded about safety procedures. But Pelland’s visit was a bonus.
“To hear that information from another voice is important,” Huddy said. “There’s only so much information you can pass out, so it’s good to hear from someone else, especially somebody whose primarily responsibility is safety who will come down and talk to associates.”
Pelland made sure he stood out among the noise – by wearing loud clothing. Or as he calls it, his “tropical fantastic” suit.
“I started thinking, ‘How am I going to catch people’s attention?’” Pelland said. “If I came down just looking like the average polo and Dockers guy, nobody would give me a second look. So I wore this really crazy tropical print. It has pineapples and other fruit all over it. It’s head-to-toe bright orange. Nobody was going to miss me.”
Pelland’s Waco visit was a pilot for an initiative he has been working on called “Are You Working Safe Today?” His goal is to keep safety on people’s minds by engaging with associates and getting them to think about safety throughout their day.
“Hopefully this is going to be the first of many events,” Pelland says. “The key is to let people know that we really care about them. So many accidents are preventable. The real loss to associates when they get hurt is how many things they can no longer do with their family. We want people to stay safe, so that when they leave at the end of the day, they’re feeling as good and healthy as they were when they came in.”
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