America’s Safest Companies 2016: Club Car LLC

Safety is a SLAM dunk for Club Car LLC's 1,000 employees.

“Our routine tasks have job hazard assessments completed to identify potential hazards and necessary controls," said Christine Jay, CSP, EHS leader at the company. “There is a greater opportunity for evaluation and oversight for non-routine work, projects and rework events."

She said these hazard assessments are completed using a SLAM (stop, look, assess and manage) tool. Time is spent in the planning phases for facility and production line remodels or changes, to ensure that EHS requirements and recommended actions are included in the project to minimize risk and prevent injuries.

“Leaders within Club Car agree that even one injury is one too many, and we collectively have an opportunity to eliminate the cultural and technical causes of occupational injuries and ensure consistent, injury-free performance going forward," said Jay.

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She said that since safety is a core value of the business and is integrated into the culture, “it's easy to make the case for safety investments." Typically, when the cost of a capital improvement needs justification, the leadership team looks at more than just risk or injury reduction and cost avoidance.

“We look for ways to make the job easier and quicker by improving ergonomics and workstation design; reduce the probability of creating a quality issue due to challenging tasks, tooling or fatigue; incorporate environmental improvements, increase employee engagement, gain productivity, etc. Safety is a win-win for Club Car and its employees," she added.

Leaders are held accountable when serious injuries occur and the reporting of serious injuries goes up through the CEO, who personally will get involved to ensure measures are taken to prevent future incidents.

“Safety is reviewed by executives during all their site visits and business reviews," said Jay. “Since safety requirements and expectations are integrated into our business operations, we don't necessarily have to make the case for safety if we follow our existing processes."

Club Car began its journey to safety excellence five years ago and since then, has been able to achieve a 100 percent reduction in LWIR, a 90 percent reduction in TRIR and almost 4 million hours without a lost-time incident. This is in addition to improvements in ergonomics, behavioral safety, employee engagement and sustainability for EHS.

“Club Car wants to improve the quality of life and overall well-being of all employees by reducing the physical demands and risks associated with the workplace," added Jay.