In previous Safety Series blogs we have spoken about OSHA training that is offered for AMS employees, OSHA certification, and the warehouse competitions for graduates of the training course – the OSHA Challenges.
What is OSHA? It is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. An OSHA safety plan is a written plan that describes the potential hazards in the workplace and the company policies, controls and work practices designed to minimize those hazards.
According to the OSHA dot Gov website, “OSHA’s mission is to ensure that employees work in a safe and healthful environment by setting and enforcing standards, and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance. Employers must comply with all applicable OSHA standards. They must also comply with the General Duty Clause of the OSH Act, which requires employers to keep their workplace free of serious recognized hazards.”
AMS Fulfillment is very proud of its safety record, which is in the top percentile for warehouses in the US and has been for some time due to our focus on safety.
Recently AMS made a significant change to OSHA training that enhances our capacity to train employees in warehouse safety. In an interview with Matthew Warholy, Security & Safety Manager at AMS, Matt pointed out that the changes are simply common sense:
“In the past, all of the AMS safety training courses were offered in English. When Ken Wiseman (retired Chief Workforce Development Officer) wondered why we were running out of participants, I realized that we weren’t providing equal resources for our Spanish speaking, and limited English speaking employees.
This week we had our first OSHA Safety Walk in Spanish, and it was a huge success. In the past, our OSHA walks have been instructed in English and we realized that we left out our Spanish speaking and limited English speaking co-workers. This left a large portion of our employees out of the loop. It also kept safety procedures, suggestions and solutions limited.
Today, March 16th, we had seven AMS participants and it was probably the most engaging team that we’ve ever had.
Eric Wiseman and I always lead the OSHA Safety course, but starting today, we had a valuable resource added to our team…….Operations Supervisor Tanya Crespo. Tanya translated our safety procedures in Spanish and our employees not only learned from us but offered valuable suggestions and solutions. At the end of our tour, we always thank our employees for taking time to learn about safety. Our seven participants actually thanked us for inviting them and adding them to our Safety Advocate team. We look forward to our next Spanish OSHA class.”
As a B Corporation, AMS is focused on creating a work environment where there is Diversity and Equity, and Inclusion of all employees. The decision to offer safety training in both English and Spanish is not only common sense, it also brings inclusion to the warehouse floor and the highly valuable OSHA Safety Training, the OSHA walks, and the very enjoyable OSHA Challenge.
