Adelia Marchese, the head of health, safety & environment at Wolseley Canada, is reshaping the way companies approach occupational health and safety (OHS). Her innovative leadership has earned her the BGIS Award for Safety Leader of the Year at the 2024 Canada’s Safest Employers Awards, a testament to her dedication to cultural transformation within her organization.

“It feels amazing,” Marchese says, reflecting on the recognition she’s received. “Everyone’s been extremely supportive, and I’m proud of the recognition it brings not just to me, but to my team and our company.”

Fresh approach to health and safety

When Marchese joined Wolseley in 2020, the company's health and safety practices were siloed, focused mainly on enforcement rather than engagement. “Safety was seen as policing,” she explains. “No one really understood why we were enforcing rules, and there was little focus on coaching or partnership.”

Determined to change this, Marchese led a comprehensive overhaul of Wolseley’s safety strategy. One of her first major moves was to restructure her team into health and safety business partners. “We shifted from being enforcers to collaborators. It was about identifying opportunities and helping teams fix them, not just calling them out for mistakes.”

Her holistic approach focused on the "three C's"—culture, compliance, and capability. Marchese emphasizes the importance of culture in her work: “We needed engagement from every single employee. They had to understand that safety was everyone’s responsibility, not just the safety department's.”

Embedding safety into leadership

A key element of Marchese’s success was her ability to embed safety responsibilities at every leadership level, from branch managers to the C-suite. “I made it a condition that when I started, I needed to report directly to the president,” she says. “That wasn’t for my ego, but because I needed people to know safety was a priority at the highest level.”

Marchese's approach required buy-in from senior leaders, who soon recognized the importance of her work. “When you have strong leaders willing to get uncomfortable for the sake of positive change, that’s when you really start to see results,” she says.

Her methodical restructuring of leadership accountability—simplifying safety processes and tailoring them to specific risks—enabled Wolseley to dramatically improve its safety performance. For example, inspections became more focused and targeted to specific issues each month, cutting down unnecessary bureaucracy while ensuring key risks were addressed.

Transforming the culture from the ground up

With a fresh approach focused on those “three C’s” and buy-in from every leadership level, Marchese’s cultural transformation started taking shape. “We saw a huge shift in how employees interacted with each other when it came to safety,” she explains. “It wasn’t just about numbers anymore; it was about how people felt about their roles in keeping everyone safe.”

Her leadership has not only resulted in better safety outcomes but has also created a lasting cultural shift at Wolseley. “This award isn’t just about me,” she insists. “It reflects the collective efforts of our team and the entire company. Safety is now part of our DNA.”

Looking forward, Marchese is focused on continuous improvement. “As long as I’m creating positive change and adding value, that’s what matters to me,” she says. “We’ve come a long way at Wolseley, but there’s always room for growth.”

It’s a journey that is far from over, but Marchese has already made an indelible mark on the industry—one that earned her recognition as a top leader in the field. “I’m honored, but the real success is seeing how far we’ve come as a team.”

With Marchese at the helm, Wolseley Canada’s commitment to safety is stronger than ever, proving that when culture and leadership align, real transformation is possible.