A Sudbury-area business offering equipment rentals is one of three businesses to earn provincial accolades for workplace safety.
Northern Equipment Rentals & Rigging, which is based in the Sudbury community of Lively, has received a 2022 Elizabeth Witmer Small Business Health and Safety Leadership Award from the Workplace Insurance and Safety Board (WSIB).
Aimed at businesses with fewer than 50 employees, the awards recognize outstanding achievement in promoting health and safety initiatives in the workplace.
Businesses are judged on safety culture and leadership, inspections, hazard identification and control, quality of return-to-work programs and employee safety engagement survey results.
The gold-level winner receives $10,000, the silver-level winner receives $6,000, and the bronze-level winner receives $4,000. Prize money can be reinvested into health and safety programs.
Northern Equipment Rentals & Rigging was named the silver-level winner during the WSIB’s virtual Small Business Health and Safety Forum, which took place on Jan. 26.
"We are very proud of all the efforts and progress to date from everyone and for the hard work and continued dedication towards Northern [Equipment Rentals'] health and safety program and ongoing continued improvements that lead us to our second place win across the province," Kim Donnelly, Northern's operations manager, told Sudbury.com.
Operational for more than 40 years, the company rents cranes and related equipment, and also provides maintenance services to clients across industries in Northern Ontario.
Donnelly said Northern's submission described their efforts to introduce "our new health and safety/maintenance app, Salus, customized by our team, including form building, tweaked to meet our industry specifics."
"The app was implemented to excel our efforts in having our safety forms always available to be able to monitor and review form completions from everyone, including those working out of town," Donnelly said. "We had some resistance in the beginning, but our safety team and Salus app representatives worked hard to train everyone and educate them on the new platform while management held meetings and additional training sessions to get everyone on board.
"In the end, not only was our Northern team submitting their forms, but they were using our safety app to collaborate with one another regarding hazards they discovered and sharing what to watch out for!"
Joining Northern Equipment on the winners' list are Just Working Construction Inc., based in New Hamburg, and Diamond Tree Care & Consulting Inc., based in Halton Hills.