Greenville Utilities employees celebrated reaching the 1 million hours without a lost workday due to injury milestone at an all-employee safety breakfast recently.
This achievement took 411 days to reach and is the 10th time GUC employees have reached this benchmark.
“Working a million hours without a lost workday incident is really something to celebrate,” General Manager/CEO Tony Cannon said during the breakfast. “It is something you can be very proud of. Very few organizations accomplish this milestone, and you have now done it 10 times since we started the Corporate Safety Initiative in 2010.
“I am proud of the way you work. I am proud of the way you look out for each other because it represents your dedication. What you are doing is working, and what it really means, is you are making the right decisions every day.”
Chief Operating Officer Chris Padgett celebrated those decisions employees make and those conversations they have. “Operating and maintaining electric, water, and natural gas systems is not for the faint of heart,” Chris said. “This 1 million hours is an indicator that more and more of those decisions are including conversations about exposures, and that’s how we are going to continue to build this safety culture, one brick at a time, and getting better and better every day.”
Chief Administrative Officer Andy Anderson recognized the accomplishment and encouraged employees to continue to look towards the future. “A milestone like this should give us confidence but not permission to become less comfortable,” Andy said. “The goal is for every person at GUC to go home safely today, tomorrow, and every day in the future. When we go back to work, we begin with one act, one task, one conversation, and one decision at a time to continue to keep us safe.”
Assistant Dean of the ECU Thomas D. Arthur Graduate School of Business Andrew Herdman, PhD, gave the keynote address, “The Discipline Behind the Milestone,” during the breakfast. He highlighted the commitment it took to earn 1 million hours and the leadership it will continue to take – at all levels - to maintain a safe work environment.
“It’s a clear, non-negotiable promise: We do this work safely, and everybody goes home. It begins with people knowing what matters most and acting like it,” Dr. Herdman said. “Every employee becomes a trustee of this promise – to themselves and their team members, not when it is convenient, not when it is easy, but every time, in every decision. The promise lives or dies where the work happens – not in a safety manual, not in a leadership meeting, not on a poster.”
Learn more about the GUC’s safety initiatives over the last year.
Lighthouse is Working and Employees are Shaping What Comes Next
New Close Call Process is Now Available
PENDING: Barriers Removed - Gas Ventilation/Main Office Safety
