Health and Safety programs

The City safety programs are managed by the Manager H&S. This manager is actively involved in conducting various safety related programs such as delivering training, facilitating drills, threat assessment and safety inspections.

Training needs are identified by the Manager H&S by conducting job hazard assessments which identify training measures/physical measures. The Job Hazard Assessments are provided to the Executive Director of the affected position and posted on Dashboard. The job hazard assessment also incorporates consideration of the past three years’ incidents reported in the respective site. The Manager H&S provides training to staff including communications such as handling situations, working alone, safety in parking lots, etc. In addition, mandatory training on respectful workplace is also delivered at the time of hiring and is repeated every five years.

At a minimum, once a year, an evacuation/emergency drill is performed as evidenced by the City of Windsor Emergency Response Manuals. A debrief session is conducted after the drill by the responsible person assigned by the Site Manager for lessons learned. Emergency Manuals (EM) are accessible to employees via the City dashboard as well as the departmental Code of Conduct policies. The Code of Conduct is also physically posted on bulletin boards within the facilities.

Workplace Violence Threat Risk Analysis are conducted by the occupational H&S advisors every five years to observe and assess department work sites and recommend potential considerations regarding employee training/safety, or improvement to building efficiencies. This assessment is also conducted specifically when a violent incident occurs at a specific site. The Workplace Violence Threat Risk Analysis’ are provided to the Executive Director or Senior Manager of the site, and the JHSC, etc.

Safety inspections are performed by the Joint H&S Committee on a monthly basis. The Committee members perform this assessment along with the site supervisor. These inspections may identify security concerns. As documented in the minutes of the Joint H&S Committee, the Committee also follows up on past observations and work orders (if any) are tracked to completion in subsequent assessments.

Change management protocols are in place to address changes being made to safety and security procedures. Facility assessment was conducted after the construction of a new facility in 2013. This was observed by inspecting the Joint H&S Committee meeting minutes. Also, when the use of a site changes, a new Workplace Violence Risk Assessment is completed.

In order for management to identify security specific trends and to inform long term security master planning, inputs such as: drills, site inspections, incidents, duress logs, job hazard summaries and number of occupants could be compiled by site and shared where appropriate. These items are currently posted on dashboard, site bulletin boards, and provided to onsite JHS committees.