To begin with, Mother Parkers creates a physically safe work environment through welldesigned barriers Page 23 and cues at its awardwinning automated production facilities in Mississauga, Ontario, and Fort Worth, Texas. The production oor includes physical barriers to separate people from moving equipment. Safe walking areas are brightly marked, including specic spots where people must stop and look both ways before crossing forklift travel areas. At eye level next to doors are signs specifying what equipment (shoes, eyewear, etc.) must be worn before entering the next area. Updated lighting systems provide superior visibility and eye comfort. Another way that Mother Parkers supports safe behaviour is by investing in employee training. Sta' learn safety procedures before they are allowed to enter the production floor. They also learn about new safety technology and practices from community experts at special health-andsafetyday events. Employee involvement is an important part of safety improvement at Mother Parkers. Employees participate in safety issues so decisions are based on a full complement of knowledge from employees, not just from management and outside experts. \"We wanted to empower the operators to recognize hazards in their work area, voice those concerns, and to be a part of the solutions,\" says Khan, who recently won a national safety leadership award. \"When it comes down to it, they are the experts running the machines who know exactly what the hazards are in the workplace.\" For example, when the company decided to buy an ergonomic roll lifter (a machine that holds and transports heavy rolls of metal), employees on the ergonomics team tested many of the roll lifters on the market to determine which one was the best t for their application. Mother Parkers has held numerous \"ergonomic blitzes,\" whereby an external consultant and production staff conduct an intensive review of health and safety concerns in each specic work area. \"We jump-started our program by having ergonomics blitz events so that the team could 'Find It' (hazards), 'Fix It (countermeasures), and 'Check It' (happy operators)," says Khan. \"From there, the team would have a number of shortterm solutions that could be implemented immediately, and also a list of longerterm improvements that could be planned for." A special crossrrnctional team developed from these \"ergo blitzes,\" whose members now serve as role models for safety behaviour and as valuable sources of safety knowledge. \"This creates a goto group of operators on the oor that their peers feel comfortable with and can go to if they want to report an issue,\" Khan observes. Employee involvement also generates employee commitment to safety. "There's a high level of engagement here," says a Mother Parkers production manager. "The operators have been developing most of the procedures for equipment operation, cleaning, quality checks, and troubleshooting. The operators take ownership of their positions." Mike Bate, Mother Parkers's vice-president of human resources, notes that employees are more motivated to act safely because the company pays attention to their ideas. "Our health and safety committees are now engaged, they have plans, they have ideas, people's voices get heard. And when they bring issues on the table, those issues get dealt with and they get addressed and they are part of the planning process." Another way that Mother Parkers promotes workplace safety is by continuously reminding everyone that safety is an important part of everyone's job. This message occurs through ongoing safety training, employee involvement in ergonomic risk prevention, and the presence of numerous workplace safety cues. Reminding everyone about safety is even a daily event. "Safety is the core of everything we do here," explains the production manager of Mother Parkers's award-winning RealCup operations. "We begin our production meetings and shift handovers by talking about safety." Safety-focused expectations also extend to contractors, all of whom complete a safety training program before their projects begin. "We set expectations and standards with contractors before they come on site on what it means to be on site at Mother Parkers from a health and safety perspective," says Mike Bate. "Before they even get approved to come on site and work with us as a contractor [they have to] register themselves to say they have gone through this education. So by the time they arrive, [contractors] understand the risks, they bring the proper protective equipment that may be required, or they understand what they need from us to make the workplace safe for them to work in." Discussion Questions 1. Apply the MARS model to explain how Mother Parkers improves safety in the workplace. 2. What other organizational behaviour topics are generally apparent in this description of how Mother Parkers creates a safe workplace