Workers shouldn't be afraid to ask questions, says senior manager
Workplace health and safety can be a complex thing to navigate, which is why it is so important for organizations to create workplaces where their employees feel comfortable asking questions – even ones they may think are "dumb".
“Usually people feel afraid to ask things. I tell them that there are no dumb questions, that they should always feel free to talk and ask anything. Be curious about things and you will get to learn from your peers,” says Daniel dos Santos, Senior Health and Safety Manager, Deltera.
Dos Santos got his start in health and safety after suffering from a serious work injury. He previously worked as a carpenter but back in 2009 he sustained a lower back injury at work. “At the time, I didn’t get any support from the employer and I didn’t know much about my rights.”
After this confusing time, he decided to switch careers and go back to school to learn something different. As he had previously worked in Brazil in HR, he decided to go to George Brown College and study in the same field. Dos Santos says that during the course, there was one part of it that was talking about occupational health and safety which he found captivating. "I decided to switch gears and focus on OHS," he says.
He completed the certificate program at Ryerson University in 2012 and has been working for Deltera ever since. He started as a Department Coordinator and has worked his way up to his current role.
Through his previous experience, he understands how important it is to keep workers safe – a value espoused by Deltera. “At our company, we say that safety is never compromised,” he says. “So we keep referring to that because that’s part of our core values. Safety first.”
Safety is teamwork, says dos Santos, because “if you don’t work together then everything falls apart. Workers all have to work together with the same goals. If not, we’re not going to get home safely".
The company has put into place a number of initiatives to promote worker safety and keeping workers from all departments engaged and educated. For example, Deltera recently had a campaign called "Built for Respect" which focuses on promoting a safety environment where people should respecting and treating everyone equally. The campaign was not only supported by workers but also by the City of Toronto and Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton. The company has also donated to nonprofit Threads of Life for some years now.
One of the biggest challenges right now in safety is that “so many things have happened in the recent years,” says dos Santos, such as COVID but also mental health issues and reports of racism in the industry. Though there has been a learning curve, ultimately this has “created more awareness and more debate on how to tackle this new challenge".
“I think that now we are working really hard to try to keep everyone safe and try to figure out a way where we can have a good environment,” says dos Santos. “Workplaces are more challenging now considering that for two years people were isolated and felt deprived of their normal activities. And I think now the challenge is bringing everyone together again, and feeling motivated and determined to live a normal life, enjoy life, and still be satisfied to do what they usually do because they love their work.”
