The Employee Safety Podcast

Safety professionals provide a valuable service to an organization. Their job is to protect the people, the business, and the company reputation, and they must ensure that everyone is working toward the same safety goals. Mark French , Senior Health, Safety, and Environmental Manager at  Dalkia Solutions  and owner of  TSD Amalgamated Safety Consulting , joins the show to explain wh...

Salesforce released its return to the workplace plan in April 2021, which the company refers to as “Success from Anywhere.” It allows employees to choose the model that best suits their needs, whether that’s working from home, the office, or both. The plan revolutionized how Salesforce employees work. However, it presented new challenges for safeguarding the physical and mental well-being of the o...

To celebrate the first anniversary of the show, we invited  Brian Cruver , founder and CEO of  AlertMedia , to discuss his storied career path as an entrepreneur and how he arrived at the idea for AlertMedia. In this episode, Brian describes the circumstances that led to his passion for creating businesses that help people during emergencies and how they influenced his decision-making wh...

Loss prevention in the retail industry is more complicated than ever. LP professionals must constantly peek around the corner to identify potential disruptions to their business and mitigate the associated risks. That means implementing an asset protection plan that prioritizes employee safety before anything. This is the case at Sally Beauty , and it isn’t just lip service. Jim Mires , Vice Presi...

It’s challenging for any organization to prepare for every possible emergency. For that reason, many businesses use an all-hazards approach to  emergency management , focusing on the impact of the incident—not the cause. In this episode,  Keith Berthiaume , Enterprise Emergency Preparedness Program Manager at  Boeing , joins us to discuss how an all-hazards approach works across Boe...

Mergers and acquisitions are common in business. When they occur, it is paramount to create a holistic plan that unifies culture and operations, including emergency preparedness. In this episode, John Brooker, Director of Industrial Security for Space and Airborne Systems at  L3Harris , describes how his team consolidated existing plans to develop a cohesive, standardized crisis man...

When you work at a vital blood provider for multiple hospitals and healthcare facilities, people depend on your services — especially during emergencies. In this episode,  DeKeitra Fitzgerald , Claims and Safety Manager, and  Richard Dunn , Security and Resilience Manager, from  Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center , share the strategies they use to ensure they can provide the community...

With 50 facilities and nearly 80,000 employees spread across the continent,  Toyota Motor North America  has a lot of ground to cover with their emergency communications. Hannah Kinnett  — a member of the emergency management and business resiliency team at Toyota — explains how they leverage mass notifications and a level system for emergency alerts to accelerate incident response...

This week marks the 20th anniversary of September 11. To honor that anniversary, we invited Joe Dittmar, a 9/11 World Trade Center survivor, to share his incredible story of that fateful day. Joe offers lessons learned about situational awareness and crisis management, as well as the importance of communication. Joe is a founding member of the Naperville 9/11 Memorial Commission and an advocate fo...

Content Warning: This episode includes sensitive information about mental health conditions and suicide, including risk factors and warning signs, which may elicit an emotional response in some listeners. If you need support at any time, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. September is National Suicide Prevention Month. To learn more, we spoke with Maggie Mortali ,...

September is National Preparedness Month, recognized each year by FEMA to raise awareness for emergency preparedness by promoting business, community, and family disaster planning. In honor of National Preparedness Month, we invited JoAnn Dankert , Senior Safety Consultant at the National Safety Council , to share some safety tips and guidance from the NSC. JoAnn has more than 30 years of diversif...

It doesn’t take a major newsworthy weather event to produce dangerous weather impacts. It’s critical for businesses to understand the weather hazards in their area and develop a risk management plan accordingly. Jonathan Erdman , Senior Digital Meteorologist at The Weather Channel , shares his insights and experiences with weather risk management in this episode. Topics discussed: Tactics meteorol...

Valley View Hospital is located in a remote, mountainous Colorado town and is accessible by one major highway. Mudslides, wildfires, and winter weather are prevalent in the area and often shut down the highway for prolonged periods of time, hindering access to the hospital. In this episode, two safety leaders from Valley View Hospital, Josh Anderson , Manager of Safety, Security, and Emergency Man...

Applying collaboration, curiosity, and continual improvement to your corporate security program allows for iterative processes and strengthened procedures that can impact life safety. Bridget Guerrero , a security operations professional with more than 30 years of experience in security and intelligence, joins this episode to discuss how to improve corporate security through "The Three C’s." Bridg...

Wildfires are creating historic levels of danger and destruction in our communities each year. Fire behavior these days is entirely uncharacteristic of what urban and wildland firefighters dealt with in the past. What does this mean for businesses? It’s now more important than ever to build and implement a wildfire safety plan. In this episode, Stan Szpytek (aka Stan the Fireman), President and CE...

No one could have predicted the sheer volume of medical support staff needed in New York at the epicenter of the pandemic. Nonetheless, 4,000 nurses, nurse practitioners, paramedics, and physical therapists arrived just in time. Krucial Staffing was the company behind this logistical feat. In this episode, we speak to CEO Brian Cleary about how it was accomplished. Topics covered: Deploying a huge...

For Rakuten Americas , acquisitions have been a near-constant part of the company's growth. As a result, there was an organizational need for a cohesive facilities team and a new approach to facility safety. That’s where Donna Kelly , Head of Facilities, stepped in. Her priority: creating a consistent safety program so that each site would have the same playbook when dealing with emergencies and o...

Making safety and inclusion priorities in your workplace is the best way to ensure that employees feel happy, protected, and productive. In this episode, Edgar Ndjatou , Executive Director at Workplace Fairness , joins Peter to talk about why empathy and transparency are integral to this process. Edgar discusses: The most common reasons employees seek information on worker’s rights The most signif...

During a hurricane, organizations must have a way to contact their employees to ensure their physical safety and offer disaster relief. In 2018, Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED, Inc faced an enormous challenge when Hurricane Michael devastated the cell phone infrastructure in Panama City. In the final episode of our three-part series on hurricane preparedness, we interviewed Gianetta Jones , Vic...

Don’t wait until a hurricane is imminent to prepare. Disaster mitigation should be a year-round initiative. In part two of our three-part series on hurricane preparedness, Millie Starliper , Disaster Mitigation Consultant, shares hurricane mitigation strategies for organizations and communities. Topics discussed: Identifying risks and vulnerabilities within your infrastructure Issues non-profit or...

The 2021 hurricane season is upon us. In part one of our three-part series on hurricane preparedness, Melissa Huffman , Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service , shares her expert knowledge on common and not-so-common hurricane hazards and how to prepare for them. Topics covered: What to expect from this year’s season How hurricanes are measured Hazards that can impact...

A human rights professional’s mission includes protecting people from different forms of violent oppression. But what goes into ensuring that these professionals are also protected while they do that important work — oftentimes in dangerous locales? In this episode, John McLellan , Global VP of Security at International Justice Mission (IJM), discusses how his organization ensures the safety of it...

Simplifying processes is critical to ensuring that employees can easily take the appropriate steps to protect themselves and others during an emergency. In this episode, Chris Josefy , Director of Applications and Data for the Houston Astros , discusses how he and his team remove friction around incident management and emergency communication to better protect employees and fans. Chris talks about...

Researching emergencies from the past can lead to lifesaving insights for the future. In this episode, Peter speaks with Alexander Maranghides , Fire Protection Engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), about his recent study of the Camp Fire, California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire that occurred in 2018. They discuss: Why Alexander’s team chose to study t...

When you operate an organization with a large geographical footprint, it can be difficult to manage operational tasks consistently and efficiently. A lot of companies have turned to automation to provide solutions for daily business-critical functions and to guarantee nimble responses to emergency situations. In this episode, Matt McMahan , Senior Manager of Business Continuity and Records at Texa...