December 2017 Issue 15
IN THIS ISSUE
Quick! Winter is here: it’s time to hibernate! Better yet, let’s make sure you are prepared to enjoy this wonderful season that lasts half a year. Snow-covered ground and dark mornings make for imperfect conditions when driving. Remember to put an emergency kit in your vehicle and to leave extra time to get to your destination. These are some of the easiest things you can control in winter to assist you in arriving safely.
Our snowplows will be out across the province, so help them do their jobs safely. Driving beside, passing, or crowding them puts the drivers and plow operators at risk. The best spot to be is
Winter is Here behind the snow plow: let them clear the way. If there is room, the plows will pull off to let traffic pass at safe intervals.
This winter, remember to stop and think before you start a task! Train your brain to recognize the hazards and spot the positives on site will help you and your co-workers stay safe. We are all responsible for safety and we should hold each other accountable for our actions. Speak up if you see something and listen to the warning signs around you. We all want to grab that hot cup of jo and put our feet up with our families at the end of the day!
We are wishing you a Safe and Happy Holiday season!
A Safety Perspective: 6 Questions with ACP
Page 2
Tis the Season for Stress: A Guide to Stress Management
Page 3
End of the Season at Canadian Road Builders
Page 5
Company Matters
Brought to you by
The Canadian Road Builders News Team
SAFETY NEWS Issue 15
Page 2
A Safety Perspective: 6 Questions with ACP Applied Products Via: FieldRelay.com
Here at Field Relay, we’re lucky to serve companies that value safety culture and innovation as much as we do. From time to time, we’ll be featuring some of those companies and their safety managers on our blog, to find out what they do to create a culture of safety and the tools they use to help them achieve those goals.
We recently spoke to Sam Dehod, safety manager at ACP Applied Products, about her company’s road preservation services, her commitment to getting employees home safe every night and her belief in communication.
About ACP Applied Products
As a leader in road preservation and inno-vation, ACP offers services and product applications to help keep critical infrastruc-ture in good operating order. Their services include asphalt milling, chip seals, gravel seals, FiberMat, microsurfacing, fog seals, crack treatment and cold in-place recy-cling.
As the safety manager at ACP, Sam skillful-ly stays ahead in an ever-evolving business. She proactively monitors regulatory chang-es and keeps her team informed, and works to develop a foundation for long-term growth and sustainability in a chang-ing market.
Here is what Sam had to say about safety at ACP.
What are the top three priorities for safety at ACP?
Ensuring employees arrive home safely each and every day is top priority.
Transparency – we strive to operate in such a way that it is easy for each other to see what actions and solutions are being performed across the company.
Two-way communication – We need our employees to have a voice and feel comfort-able coming to safety to report incidents and ask for advice.
What steps do you take to get your em-ployees invested in workplace safety?
We have multiple safety committees that allow our employees to voice their concern. These committees not only give the employ-ee a voice, but control over safety on the job.
What’s your best advice for inspiring a culture of safety within your team?
Give your team a voice. When they know their viewpoints matter, they flourish. And as a manager, remember to be a resource and not the safety police so that your team knows they are trusted.
What advice would you give to new safety leaders?
Small steps will ensure you get there. Trying to change the world over night will only
Field Relay helps companies access their safety activities,
practices and procedures on the jobsite and in the field.
Imagine your safety manual online and completely
searchable by keyword.
Manage and record your toolbox meetings, field level hazard
assessments, near misses, incident reports and SDSs (MSDSs).
All on your mobile device.
Hello, paperless jobsite.
What is Field Relay?
cause more stress and fighting.
How has Field Relay impacted your busi-ness?
Field Relay has saved us countless hours with our foreman being able to access information online with ease. It has decreased the cost/impact on the environment with the reduction of printing materials, and helps keep us in compliance. It has also given us a better, real-time view on our multiple job sites spread out over the provinces.
How has Field Relay helped you to achieve specific safety goals?
Field Relay has made it easier to give our em-ployees a voice. It has helped engage the younger generation, who are all about tech-nology. Ease of access has allowed us to in-crease our near misses reporting, which has given us better view of what hazards are out on our job sites. This has allowed our safety team to push for more engineering controls in the field by having the data to back us up. It also allows our foremen to manage their crews better by being able to access employee certifications at their fingertips. Field Relay has strengthened the communication of inci-dents and hazards within the company as they are instantly shared when reported through the program.
Great work, Sam!
If you’d like to tell us about your organiza-tion’s safety culture and how you use Field Relay, drop us a line. You could be our next featured company!
SAFETY NEWS Issue 15
Page 3
FAST FACTS
Stress is one of the main causes of
insomnia
Your blood vessels contract when you
are stressed
Ancient Aztecs chewed resin gum, potentially reducing stress
Cocoa has been known to reduce
stress levels
One side-effect of stress is a higher
incidence of blood clots
Constant stress increases your chance of having diabetes and heart disease
Tis the Season for Stress By: Sam Dehod @ Safety Division
Here are 10 simple tips to help reduce stress levels in your life.
1. Indulge in physical activity. Incorpo-rating some physical activity into your daily routine can help metabolize excessive stress hormones and im-prove your quality of sleep.
2. Get more sleep. Make your room a sanctuary you can use to escape the world and take a break. Remove dis-tractions from the bed room and take some time to unwind before hitting the pillow.
3. Try relaxation techniques. There are multiple techniques you can find online to try. Try a different one each day till you find the one that fits for you. A very simple technique is to focus on your breathing: count to ten as you breathe in then control your breath to stretch 8 counts on the way out.
4. Talking to someone can work by either distracting you from your stress or helping to release some built-up tension.
5. Keeping a diary can help you deter-mine exactly what is causing your stress. Note down the date, time, and place were you felt stressed and rate it
from one to ten then write down how you dealt with it and how you could better manage it in the future.
6. Manage your time by setting up rou-tines and sticking to them. Maybe one hour before bed you plug your phone in and don’t touch it until morning. Set your clothes out the night before to help reduce the stress of figuring out what to wear the next day.
7. Learn to say “no.” Having too much to do and not enough time is the larg-est stressor. Saying “no” can be a struggle but it is self-created. Practice saying phrases like “I cannot commit to this as I have other priorities at the moment” or “Now is not a good time”.
8. Using an ATM only once will help control spending. Pull out your allotted budget and don’t be tempted to charge it: leave the plastic at home.
9. Don’t be too serious. Remember to laugh. Carry around a silly picture or rhyme to help yourself crack a smile when you feel your blood starting to heat up.
10. Use optimistic statements to help the brain trick the body into tranquility. Mind over mood really can do won-ders.
Financial stress is considered to be the
largest cause of stress across the developed world
SAFETY NEWS Issue 15
Page 4
Safety is focusing more on performance
based stats to determine what need to be
done to improve the safety culture of our
organization. Moving forward we will be
featuring foremen/divisions for their com-
mitment to safety based on information
sharing with their crew/safety.
Leaders in Safety By: Safety Division @ CRB
# of Near Miss Reports
Aug Sep Oct Nov
LRM 13 2 4 0
ACP 2 0 3 2
AHSL 3 3 1 3
Colasphalt 0 0 1 0
Gecan 0 0 0 0
Safety Meet ing Leaders
Division August September October November
ACP Leader
Christina Zwanenburg
2 Meetings
Christina Zwanenburg
3 Meetings
Lucas Moeller
2 Meetings -
ACP Runner Up
Morgan/Kenny
1 Meeting
Morgan Luciak
1 Meeting
Christina Zwanenburg
1 Meeting -
AHSL Shops Leader
Lacombe
6 Meetings
Wetaskiwin, Caroline,
Rimbey, Red Deer,
Lacombe, Innisfail
5 Meetings
Wetaskiwin, Ponoka,
Warburg, Caroline, Red
Deer, Lacombe,
Innisfail, Crossfield,
Olds, Beiseker
5 Meetings
ALL SHOPS
4 Meetings
AHSL Shops Runner Up
Wetaskawin, Ponoka,
Warburg, Beiseker
5 Meetings
Ponoka, Warburg, RMH,
Crossfield, Olds,
Beiseker
4 Meetings
Rimbey, Red Deer,
Lacombe, Innisfail
4 Meetings
Mechanics/
Office
1 Meeting
LRM Foremen
Simon Stuehler
20 Meetings
Josh Keller
9 Meetings
Kyle Zurbyk
4 Meetings
Manufacturing
1 Meeting
LRM Runner Up
Kyle Zurbyk
5 Meetings
Simon Stuehler
5 Meetings
Josue Moreno
3 Meetings -
SAFETY NEWS Issue 15
Page 5
The last few months have been busy at Canadian Road Builders! From Service Awards to soccer tournaments, our employees have been very busy. Our annual Christmas party raised $1,800 for the Acheson Food Bank and the Colasphalt Diamondbacks placed third in the annual Step Up To The Plate Slo-Pitch tournament where they raised $3,015 for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. What a great way to end another successful season!
End of the Season at CRB
SAFETY NEWS Issue 15
Page 6
HR Corner
P A T H W A Y S
A NEW SOFTWARE CLOSER TO EMPLOYEES
People are the pillars of every organization, and great business results start with great
people.
Starting in 2018, Colas Canada will roll out a new Human Resource Information System
(HRIS) to collect, store and help us leverage information about our employees so that
we can continue to deliver great business results company-wide.
The new system is called Pathways and it is currently being used at Colas USA. Path-
ways will provide information for employees, people managers and Human Resources
departments that can be used throughout employees’ work life with the Colas group of
companies.
Pathways includes seven different modules, which will be rolled out as follows:
Phase 1 (2018) Employee Central, Recruiting, and On-boarding
Phase 2 (2018) Performance and Goals Management
Phase 3 (2019) Succession Planning (career paths) & Training and Develop-
ment tracking (learning management system)
Phase 4 (2019) Compensation and Benefits (annual planning process)
We will begin the Pathways implementation within three to four months of the final
JDE roll-out that is being led by Sante Pulice’s team.
With Pathways, employees will be better able to drive their careers by having access
and populating their employee profile, work with their manager to identify and man-
age performance goals, and use the online training and development tool in support of
their continued growth and development. Pathways will also help people managers
and Human Resources departments to analyze data and trends, as well as support em-
ployees in their career management and development.
More information about Pathways will follow in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!
—Francine Charette
Director, Human Resources
Colas Canada
Employee Updates on the
CRB Web Portal
We’ve been testing this year our new online section to share information about upcom-
ing events, pictures, job posting and more! To find out more, check out
C R B I . c a / p o s t s
CONGRATULATIONS!
Christine Marleau (AHSL)
Ryan McDonald (ACP)
For making it to the Runner Finals in Paris, France in February 2018!
Bring home the
gold medals!
Welcome to the team!
Daniel Muench Accounts Payable @ LRM
Welcome also to all our new field operations
employees within all our divisions!
Now Hiring
Keep an eye out for our job postings on websites like Kijiji, Indeed, LinkedIn. Here are our current opening:
AHSL is looking for:
Snowplow & Tandem Axle Gravel Trucks
operators with Class 1 or Class 3 DL for
the winter season
Contact HR for more detailed information!
SAFETY NEWS Issue 15
Page 7
Upcoming Events Curling Funspiel
It’s that time of year again! Canadian Road Builders is once again hosting the annual
Curling Funspiel for CRB employees and their friends and family!
Participants must be at least twelve years old. For more information, contact Sam
Where
Shamrock Curling Club
9330 80 Ave
Edmonton
T6C 0T9
When
March 10, 2018
8:00 am to 6:00 pm
Send us your stories!
Here at Company Matters, we love to
hear about what everyone in the Canadi-
an Road Builders family is doing. If you
and your crew have been working tire-
lessly on a project and would like to share
your experiences and photos with the
rest of the company, let us know! We are
looking to expand the scope of Company
Matters to cover broader topics in order
to better disseminate information
throughout the company and we need
your help. We know you work hard and
are excited to share your accomplish-
ments with co-workers who might other-
wise never hear about it.
If you’d like something published in the
next issue of Company Matters or if you
have any suggestions concerning what
could be included in the future, feel free
to drop us a line. We’re always looking
for new ideas and are open to sugges-
tions!
Shoot us an email at:
or
Zone 4, 1-26228
Township Road 530A
Acheson, Alberta
If there’s anything you’d like to see in the next edition or if you’d like to contribute, send an email to [email protected]
using the subject Safety News
Safety News
Sam Dehod Writer/Design
Mikael Raheem Editor-in-Chief
Zone 4, 1-26228
Township Road 530A
Acheson, Alberta
Safety News
Sam Dehod Writer/Design
Mikael Raheem Editor-in-Chief
CRB News Team
Company Matters
Sam Dehod
Writer/Design Mikael Raheem
Editor-in-Chief
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