How a contest can lead to safety

Vying for movie tickets, team members speak up and point out unsafe practices

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 :: By Laureen Lazarovici

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Management co-lead(s)

Azucena.X.Montenegro@kp.org

Union co-lead(s)

Everadrdo.X.Macias@kp.org

Biggest challenge

Not letting naysayers infect others in the department with their negative attitude. The team overcame the hurdle by emphasizing how improving safety will help the whole department—and by encouraging those naysayers to join the UBT’s representative group.

Side benefits

Learning how to set SMART performance targets (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic/relevant, time-bound)—not only for workplace safety but also for attendance and service. Working together also built camaraderie in the department.  

Background

An industrial kitchen can be a danger zone, with its sharp knives, wet floors, plentiful grease and hot temperatures. Vanessa Bethea, a lead hospitality associate and member of SEIU UHW, still vividly remembers a decades-old incident, when she witnessed a  colleague being injured by a huge meat slicer.

At Panorama City, the 54-member department, covering two shifts with staggered start times, was among the most injury-prone groups at the medical center. Hospital leadership asked the department to come up with a plan to improve its safety record.

The nine-member representative group for the UBT came up with the idea of dividing the department into two teams (simply named Team A and Team B) and sponsoring a friendly competition between them for a pair of movie tickets. This motivated—and liberated—the staff to approach their colleagues who might be performing a task unsafely and suggest an alternative approach.

“We were ‘big brothering’ each other, which helped us catch things that could have led to an accident,” Bethea says. “It kept a friendly flow throughout the day and created more awareness of safety hazards.”