The Emerging Role of Safety Leaders in the Workplace.

Remember when the concept of Workplace Safety was more about falls, wiring, ladder safety, machine guards, and hazardous communications? Welcome to 2020. We’re past the half-way point and COVID-19 has created a whole new industrial safety environment where machine guards are more about the plexiglass or other protective barriers between your associates. Consistently ensuring social distancing is more prevalent than scaffolding. Ensuring frequently touched objects are disinfected ranks right up there with proper forklift operations. And monitoring your team for individuals with sniffles and fevers is a KPI that could trump reduction in slips and falls.

A documented COVID-19 plan that ensures your associates are safe at work is key in many organizations. Especially if you are looking to expand your workforce! Cleanliness and additional preventive measures are now key recruiting tools. And whose responsibility is safety anyway? Many organizations are lucky enough to have a Safety leader in place, in some it falls to the Human Resources department and in others the Operations leadership takes on the role. Reality today is that safety is everyone’s responsibility. If you're a hiring manager, you should know the policies and preventive measures your company has in place and have an elevator pitch on that point. And of course, If you’re sick, stay home. If you see something, say something. If your facility doesn’t have COVID-19 signage, share this blog!

One consistency within all this change around safety in the workplace is the ever present need for training and communication tools that keep “the new normal” in work place safety top of mind. At Nichols we’ve innovated to be sure our customers have signage, training, and tools for their facilities through our #BetterTogether program. We also offer all the products you need for Clean & Healthy Facilities, and are continuously adding newly sourced COVID-19 feature products to help every facility that is now rallying to get their associates safely back to work.

In the spirit of fulfilling the promise of I.K.E. (Innovation, Knowledge & Excellence)… we have our experienced teams training customers both via virtual webinars and in-person (with proper social distancing). Nichols has distributed several thousand posters to Nichols customers on topics such as Hand Washing, Masks, PPE, Disinfecting vs. Sanitizing, Disinfecting FTOs, Break Room Cleaning and more. We offer free downloads of 10 different posters, along with carry along cards, and a set of training videos on our YouTube Channel #BetterTogether playlist. All of these are available for Nichols’ customers and in light of helping in our communities, can be accessed by the general public.  To check out the whole program, see this #BetterTogether page.

Our product selection has evolved to help you manage new safety initiatives too. From custom masks to social distancing floor decals to thermometers and innovative hand sanitizer options, many additional safety items are listed on our new COVID-19 flyer. The Nichols team updates this piece frequently as the fluid supply chain challenges continue to change and our creative buyers find new sources.

Finally, our premier safety resource is our Nichols associates! Our sales and customer service teams are knowledgeable and creative problem solvers dedicated to putting You First and #H2H, Here to Help, you with any questions you may have. We practice social distancing in our own offices and warehouse and have implemented numerous safety initiatives to help everyone stay well.