Dr. Kevin Kelloway

 

 

The Canadian Agricultural Safety Association's national conference wrapped up yesterday. The event brough ag safety specialists from across the country to Manitoba.

Dr. Kevin Kelloway, Canada Research Chair in Occupational Health Psychology at St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia was one of the speakers. He focused on making safe practices a part of farm culture. This is best done through "transformational leadership."

"Transformational leadership is about going beyond the basics like making sure guards are in place and people are wearing safety gear, to becoming an active proponent of safety. Leading safety is really about promoting safety and making it a real priority. I think that can be hard in a farming environment where there are a lot of other concerns, but we have to get safety up on that same level," says Kelloway.

"It has to become a part of your everyday way of doing things. I think where we go wrong is we treat safety as an add-on. Really, safe working has to be built into how you do the task in the first place. It's not an additional requirement or an impediment. It's the way you do it," he says.

The three-day conference wrapped up yesterday. The theme was "Plan.Farm.Safety - Working the Plan."

The 2011 conference will be held in Vancouver.

~ Thursday, November 18, 2010 ~