The Safety Meeting

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, we follow-up with Colby Ankeney, Director of Heath, Safety and Environment at Silvi Materials, and with Novara solutions engineer Arlo Amos to unpack how they built Silvi’s safety data system. Colby explains moving from scattered spreadsheets and unclear tracking to a disciplined, conditional “choose your own adventure” workflow in Novara Flex, ef...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, we speak with Colby Ankeney, Director of Heath, Safety and Environment at Silvi Materials, about earning leadership buy-in by treating safety as a core leg of the business. Colby describes inheriting a spreadsheet-heavy program with unclear metrics and explains how he built a data-first approach with a lean team, starting with a gap analysis and e...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, Caroline Miller, a Novara solutions engineer, discusses how to strengthen safety programs by pairing seasoned expertise with data collection and analysis. She explains common gaps in instinctive decision-making, and how digital tools, good forms, and team buy-in can give safety managers new visibilities. Drawing on her past experience, she explain...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novara, we talk with Haleyanne Freedman, Novara’s own manufacturing sector expert, about why near misses in manufacturing may go unreported, and how to fix that. Haleyanne explains that production pressure, a lack of immediate consequences, the paperwork burden, and fear of blame or discipline may suppress reporting. She emphasizes how supervisor behavior...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting’s Safety Lab , we delve into the relationship between physical injuries at work and mental health. Highlighting a comprehensive meta-analysis by Granger and Turner involving data from 147 studies with 1.5 million people, we discuss the bidirectional connection between workplace injuries and mental health challenges. We explore the impact of injury severity and...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting from Novarro, we talk with Jason Wernex, Director of Safety at Utilitra , a 350-person, woman-owned engineering, technology, and construction firm with a mix of office and field workers. Jason explains how Utilitra moved from paper-based safety processes to a digital system, achieving over 90% adoption in the first year. He shares how user experience, configur...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting , we kick off 2026 with our annual regulatory outlook with Zach Pucillo, EHS Regulatory Compliance Manager at KPA. Zach provides insights into the evolving landscape of workplace safety regulations, technology trends, and compliance priorities for 2026. We review the previous year's predictions, developments, and the regulatory shifts that occurred in 2025 and...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting , we welcome back Amanda Rawls, Director of EHS Field Services at KPA, to discuss OSHA year-end reporting requirements and recent updates for 2025. Amanda, with over 20 years of safety experience in the automotive industry, provides a high-level overview of the OSHA 301 form, 300 log, and 300A summary, and the importance of accurate record-keeping. She address...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting, we recap Connect Live, the KPA Flex User Conference which was held in Dallas in October. Hundreds of Flex users convened to learn new skills, enhance their workflows, and share best practices. We talk with Emily Hartman, Community Manager, and Monica Patel, Software Product Manager, about the event's highlights, including sessions on form-creation, admin tool...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting , KPA's Senior Director of Product Management, Jade Hendrix, shares her expertise on the integration of AI technology with workplace safety programs. With 17 years of experience in B2B SaaS technology, Hendrix discusses the distinction between generic chatbots and purpose-built AI, exploring how purpose-built AI can help proactively correlate safety data to pr...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting , Dr. Seth Hickerson, founder of My Steady Mind , discusses the critical link between psychological safety, mental fitness, and workplace safety. Dr. Hickerson shares his expertise from high-risk industries, explaining how environments characterized by volatility, uncertainty, change, and ambiguity (VUCA) need both physical safety measures, and proactive menta...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting’s Safety Lab, we explore why overall workplace safety  metrics are improving but Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) rates remain flat or are increasing. We discuss the traditional Hendrick Safety Triangle and introduce a SIF prevention model which focuses on identifying and addressing high-risk precursors. Additionally, we talk proactive strategies that ar...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting, we’re joined by Monica Patel, Senior Product Manager at KPA, to talk about the business case for safety technology. We discuss leveraging technology to tackle safety and compliance challenges, ways to make a strong business case for safety tech to the C-Suite, and look at metrics for calculating return on investment (ROI). We uncover the hidden costs of workp...

On this episode of The Safety Meeting’s Safety Lab, we look at a recently published study by the  Workers Compensation Research Institute, “The Impact of Excessive Heat on the Frequency of Work-related Injuries.” We unpack the study to see how increasing temperatures might be creating risks in the workplace that are often overlooked. (00:14) The Impact of Excessive Heat on Workplace Safety (01:04)...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting, Zach Pucillo, KPA’s EHS Regulatory Compliance Manager, joins us for a mid-year regulatory update. He covers the impact of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, state vs. federal regulatory dynamics, OSHA's proposed heat safety rule, and the regulatory implications of the Loper Bright case. He also explains the evolving landscape of emerging te...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting, we talk emerging technology with Mulango Akpo-Esambe, Creative Services Manager at KPA, and Jill Schaefer, KPA’s  Director of Content Management. We discuss the evolving impact of Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence technologies on safety training, specifically how AR can create interactive safety experiences and how AI can help personalize training...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting, KPA’s  Senior Vice President of Hazardous Industries Deren Boyd unpacks digital transformation in safety management. We talk practical strategies for integrating leadership, technology, and operations to foster a strong safety culture. Deren encourages safety leaders to engage frontline workers, simplify processes in the transition from paper to digital syste...

In this episode of the Safety Meeting, we consider workplace safety for new hires, talking with Zach Pucillo, KPA’s EHS Compliance Manager, and David Pomaville, Director of Environmental Health and Safety at Caglia Environmental. We look at the unique risks that new hires face in their first year on the job and discuss effective onboarding practices and training techniques to ensure new workers ar...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting, we speak with Jade Brainard, Senior Director of Product Management at KPA, to explore successful strategies for building a safety-first culture that prioritizes frontline workers. Jade highlights the importance of leadership commitment, the role of technology in enhancing safety programs, and the ways organizations can engage frontline employees. She provides...

We dive into a new study, published in the Journal of Safety Science that looked at over 12,000 injury cases to understand how a company's Psychological Safety Culture affected how long employees were off work and the costs involved. (00:20) Introduction to Psychological Safety Climate (PSC) (01:22) The Role of Leadership in PSC (02:38) Study Findings: Impact of High PSC (06:15) Understanding Job...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting, we welcome Zach Pucillo, EHS Regulatory Compliance Manager at KPA. Zach is a certified safety professional and certified hazardous materials manager, recognized in 2022 by the Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals as Hazardous Materials Professional of the Year. Today, we chat about 2025 regulations and safety best practices in the new year. (00:20) W...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting, we welcome Amanda Rawls, Director of EHS Field Services at KPA, to discuss the OSHA record keeping and year-end reporting. Amanda brings over 20 years of experience in the automotive industry and shares insights on compliance, navigating complexities, and emerging trends like heat illness reporting. Learn how to utilize OSHA data to drive meaningful safety im...

On this episode of The Safety Meeting, we talk safety culture with KPA’s Jesse Buck and Jesse Romanchak. They share valuable insights on what sets companies with strong safety cultures apart, the challenges unique to various industries, and the importance of management buy-in. We discuss practical ways to foster a strong safety culture, like Stop Work authority programs and micro-content trainings...

In this episode, we talk with Monica Patel, KPA’s Software Product Manager, and Taylor Thorn, Senior Product Director at KPA about contract workers. We discuss the opportunities and challenges of managing workers from outside an organization, including setting training standards, ensuring regulatory compliance, and flagging site-specific risks. We chat about ways to ensure safety through effective...

In this episode of The Safety Meeting, we connect with Greg McCully, founder and managing partner of 2Six Advisors , to discuss building an EHS toolkit for different types of organizations with a commitment to safety. (00:52) – Caring about EHS (02:11) – Managing unique risks (03:51) – Two types of organizations (07:10) – EHS software benefits (10:00) – Managing workflows (13:20) – Getting started...