BCCSA communications manager Alicia Brady-Deaust
When you’re having a conference, you want to make sure the right people find out about it.
Take Bridging the Gap, for example. It’s a construction safety conference hosted by WorkSafeBC in partnership with three industry-funded health and safety associations – the BC Construction Safety Alliance, the BC Association of Restoration Contractors, and the BC Association for Crane Safety.
I’ve been working with conference organizers to spread the word, helped by a crew of people using the good old-fashioned telephone.
We are telling employers about the conference and directing them to a web-based form so they can sign up. This is another safety job I do, in addition to this here blog.
I’ve been working on the conference project with Alicia Brady-Deaust, BCCSA’s communications manager, who I met recently at the 2012 Safety Forum and Awards Luncheon at Newlands Golf Course. She suggested, in addition to the phoning, that I post a link to the Bridging the Gap conference on the BC Construction Safety Officer Page on Facebook CSO.
The BC CSO Page is “a place for CSO’s to network, exchange information, and stay in touch” and it’s “intended as a resource and sounding board for individuals interested in developing and improving a culture of safety in their work place,” reads the About page.
Members (who send a request to join) are invited to “share information, career opportunities, and opinions related to improving safety in your industry”
Word of mouth travels fast
I asked Alicia what the CSO Facebook Page offers its members.
“Word of mouth travels fast in social media circles, so it is a really good way to access a lot of people at once,” Alicia said. “This BC CSO group on Facebook is a great forum for CSOs to share safety tips and info. Through our BCCSA account, we receive notifications by email letting us know what the latest conversations are and we’ve had information of value to share with the group on a few occasions.
“It keeps us connected to what industry is doing and what CSO’s in particular are needing help with in terms of occupational safety. It is a good group – really dedicated to making a difference in the industry and we’d like to continue to contribute and help them do that.”
Alicia said the BCCSA has “only recently started getting more active in social media” and they are looking into how much time it takes to maintain and build an online community. You can follow the BCCSA on Twitter, where they are @BCCSABeSafe
“Ultimately we’ve seen some good things come out of it, such as connecting people with our Regional Safety Coordinator service, getting input for improving our online audit documents, and the possibility of facilitating a safety meeting once a month at our office.”
Speaking of Facebook, visit Speaking of Safety on Facebook.
Cool site , just wish it had been around years ago and hope the many OFA 2 out there being ask to do CSO work can find it.
The Alliance is industry’s non-profit safety association. We are happy to be part of the conversations going on around safety in the construction industry. Your blog is a great addition to this safety forum online. Thanks Susan 🙂
My business and passion focus on OHS in the private security industry.
Recently. I coauthored a paper about section 115 of WCA (please find it in my website)
I’m very concerned about the lack of safety focus for security workers on construction sites and wonder why general contractors overlook this particular obligation?
Cheers.
Jim
Safety at the job-site is probably the top priority considerations for workers. That is a primary reason why, the law bounds the organizations that really work in confined spaces or places like that, to employ safety officials like safety manager or safety coordinator to make certain that steps are taken to maintain the employees safe at their places of work.
Hi Susan,
Nice post and yes agree with, social media has become a power especially when it comes to awareness people on main issues. Safety at the workplace is always important, especially for a worker’s life. Sometimes employees are at fault and sometimes companies don’t pay attention. Therefore, it is important to ensure worker safety first along with keeping the construction material quality on top.