Embracing Safety: Employees at Crown Battery Gear Up for Safe + Sound Week.
Workplace safety is a cornerstone of every successful business, especially the battery manufacturing and recycling industry. It makes safety a top priority year-round. But some industry members, like Crown Battery, really step it up during OSHA’s Safe + Sound Week 2023.
The annual nationwide event, held the second week in August, celebrates and recognizes workplace health and safety programs. It offers valuable information and ideas on how to keep America’s workers safe.
For Crown Battery, safety has been a way of life for nearly a century. Based in Freemont, Ohio, the company has nearly a century of expertise, innovation and growth in the global energy storage industry. The privately owned company supplies customers with OEM-quality, Made-in-USA lead batteries throughout the Americas and in over 60 countries around the world.
A Commitment to Zero-Harm
Crown Battery’s President and CEO Hal Hawk emphasized the company’s commitment to creating a sustainable, zero-harm culture that protects their most valuable assets – employees.
“Employees are our most important mission-critical asset,” Hawk said. “Our top objective, year-on-year, is to maintain a sustainable, zero-harm culture – supported by management and owned by our workforce. Success is achieved when our team members remember the training roadmap and follow hazard identification and safety control measures.”
The Company’s Three Key Safety Initiatives
Crown considers Safe + Sound Week a fantastic time to reinforce its safety-centric culture and engage employees in building a safer future for everyone. There are fun incentive prizes, too, like gift cards to restaurants and free gym memberships.
During the week, Crown highlights three key initiatives:
- Find & Fix Hazards
Identifying and addressing hazards is crucial for maintaining a safe working environment. To encourage proactive reporting of potential hazards, Crown employees can simply scan a QR code provided by the company to report facility safety hazards. These could range from trip hazards and blind spots to sharp edges and pinch points. The aim is to involve everyone in the process of maintaining a safe workplace, making safety a collective responsibility.
- Personal Wellness Benefits
Safety isn’t just about the workplace; it extends to the overall well-being and mental health of employees. The company understands that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce. That’s why they encourage team members to use the company’s personal wellness benefits, including free wellness checkups, annual onsite biometric screening events, reimbursed gym memberships and an easily accessible and confidential EAP (Employee Assistance Program). By staying healthy and looking after their well-being, employees can enjoy their most important assets – their family and friends.
- Employee STOP Observations
Open communication and feedback play a crucial role in fostering a culture of safety. Crown encourages employees to have candid conversations with their coworkers about specific safe or unsafe behaviors. By filling out a STOP card that describes the conversation, employees and their coworkers enter themselves into a prize drawing. This initiative not only promotes safety awareness, but it also encourages a sense of responsibility among the workforce.
Safety “Engrained in Every Action”
Jim Anderson, Crown’s health, safety and environmental manager, echoes the company’s commitment to safety.
“Safety is not a one-time effort; it’s a continuous journey we embark on together. Our goal is to create a workplace where safety is ingrained in every action, where employees feel empowered to make safety-driven decisions, and where we never compromise on protecting our team’s well-being.”
The Battery Industry Protects People and Communities
The battery industry is proud to uphold Crown Battery as an inspiring example of “safe and sound” practices. Their approach to safety as a top priority reflects their understanding that their employees are their most valuable assets.
As we celebrate Safe + Sound Week, let us all take a moment to reflect on the importance of safety in our workplaces and how it impacts the lives of those we care about. Together, we can create safer work environments by making safety a priority every week, not just during Safe + Sound Week.
About Crown Battery
Crown Battery, founded in 1926, is privately owned, with corporate and manufacturing operations in Fremont, Ohio. The company has 14 sales and distribution offices throughout North America, 615 employees and a network of authorized business partners, distributors and dealers throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asian-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Crown’s batteries power railroad industries, underground mining equipment, steel mills, renewable energy installations, recreational marine and automotive industries and aerial access equipment.
