Fate led me three years later to start my own SME with my sons. As the CEO was the youngest of my sons, and he referred to me as “safety dad”, I thought that I could fully support OHS as a guide with him and with the employees… As the company was initially unlicensed, we took our time to formulate a health and safety guide, a hygiene guide, identifying and controlling risks in a simplified manner, the whole shebang! I had a hand in creating those tools thanks to my involvement with the 3S&E Network. With a little ritual every morning analyzing the risks for the day, everything was running smoothly and I confirmed that the managers made sure to uphold OHS values.

After only five months in business, sales of our product suddenly picked up, a dream for any new SME! Demand outstripped supply and sales were profitable. Increased production, supply crisis, hiring new employees, it was all a blur! The whole SME deal, you know? We were evolving at a rapid pace. Then one Friday noon, I saw one of our employees with blood on his thigh… What’s going on? He told me it didn’t matter, a glass carboy had broken and he’d cut himself. It was a deep laceration, which required 5 stitches, but he said it could have been much worse. It was then that I realized that OHS had fallen by the wayside. Ensuring successful sales and day-to-day production issues had gained priority over workplace safety. Even more frustrating was that I came to realize I had slipped into this mindset myself. I went through a whole range of feelings… Guilt, shame, failure, disappointment… How did I get there? Me, “safety dad”. That realization hit like a lightning bolt and it was followed by a great OHS call to action. To craft a workplace safety culture, I had put a lot of focus on coaching the CEO, but it became clear that taking the time to help employees come up with a daily risk identification ritual made more of an impact.

Subsequently, after that lesson in humility, I had the opportunity to visit other SMEs in the area, subtly address the topic of OHS, and just observe from an external point of view. I came to the conclusion that safety in SMEs is important, but that it quickly loses its priority. “The business has to run and we’re always in survival mode here”, I was told often. We manage the priority of the day without checking the clock and it’s rarely safety, let alone health, that top the list.

Throughout this three-year learning experience in our small 6-employee business, I must accept that OHS remains important in an SME but is rarely a priority. However, I still believe that SMEs need help and that even if this is not the ideal model, adapted support will prevent injuries. If you have the opportunity to make interventions, the following tips will certainly have a positive impact in reducing injuries:
● Introduce one or two clear and simple OHS awareness tools;
● Aim to promote good OHS handling habits among management;
● Above all, establish daily risk identification and control habits to be handled by employees.

Serge Bouchard
Distillerie du Fjord

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