People-first approach
Keeping people safe is fundamental to our belief in the importance of relationships—with our employees, customers, business partners, and in the communities that we call home. This is why we commit to keeping the people we affect by our activities safe. We care about the safety of our fellow teammates, temporary workers, contractors, and site visitors.
Safety of our employees
We acknowledge that the best way to ensure every employee is committed to promoting a safe environment is to involve him or her. More than just participating in safety activities, employees are active in the development of our safety programs to create ownership.
The level of engagement of employees within safety committees is managed at a local level. In some cases, participation is voluntary. In other cases, all employees contribute within small focus teams and then the team leads make up the committee. These committees create or improve initiatives around maintaining and promoting safety at their location.
Whether in an official capacity or as a voluntary participant in safety promotions and events, this involvement establishes a strong connection to implementing safety into daily work and the resulting performance.
We know that incidents or near-misses can occur when workers are distracted by issues in their personal lives. Boise Cascade offers an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which offers counseling, legal and financial consultation, and work-life balance tools. The EAP vendor provides webinars and monthly newsletters highlighting information about the various challenges life can bring.
Safety of people we work with
We are responsible for our own safety and the safety of those around us. Today we do not have a corporate policy in place to pre-qualify contractors for capital projects or work on site. However, we do have specific expectations of how to keep the people we work with safe in both of our divisions.
We have Contractor Safety Guidelines in our Building Materials Distribution (BMD) division that applies to all contractors and includes the following policies:
- Services Purchase Agreement
- Communication of Onsite Safety Expectations
- Key Safety Information
Temporary agency or contract-employees supervised directly by Boise Cascade are provided with the same training, mentoring, and safety expectations as regular full-time employees.
In our Wood Product locations, vendors and suppliers are not allowed to have access to our facilities without first attending a safety orientation. We also track any contractor and supplier injuries that occur at our facilities in our safety management system, Origami.
When it comes to our products, we provide Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and technical notes to help ensure our customers, as well as our employees, have the information they need to handle the materials safely. The SDS identifies hazards and labels associated with potentially harmful chemicals; it also spells out precautions and special instructions for working around chemicals or manufacturing particulates, such as wood dust.
Tools to keep us safe
Regardless of division, all locations have the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE), disaster response equipment, and fire response equipment relevant for their type of facility. While we don’t provide PPE to contractors, we expect them to adhere to PPE requirements at our facilities.
In addition to being equipped with all required emergency response equipment, each of our facilities also has an automated external defibrillator (AED). Each location is required to have trained responders on all shifts certified to administer first aid, CPR, and/or the AED.
Disaster planning is managed by regions and locations dependent upon what can be reasonably expected at the location. Our BMD locations have written emergency action plans that identify specific roles and responsibilities to respond to each type of event.