Occupational health and safety is more than a metric

If you are living in a metropolis like ?stanbul and work in a sector that involves driving such as the delivery sector, dealing with busy traffic begins to seem normal and occasional accident start to seem inevitable. As a result, we normalize accidents and justify them by saying “this is all we can do.”?

Unfortunately, change only comes when you recognize every accident can prove fatal and that safety must be engraved in the DNA of every employee.

In 2014, I became Operations Director at UPS Turkey and was given the responsibility of managing a very large team of approximately 2000 people.?I’ll never forget the day where we had seven accidents across different regions in Turkey. Even though the accidents were not caused by our drivers, most of the responsibility still fell on me. I recognized that I had two choices moving forward - either to get angry and sad or take proactive steps. And while neither option guaranteed the safety of tomorrow, I knew more had to be done.

?This day marked the start of a journey with a dedicated team who led not only with their head but more importantly, with their hearts. I can proudly say that today, we have less accidents over the course of a quarter than we did in a single month back then.

Occupational health and safety, a culture

The first order of business was sharing the importance of occupational health and safety as part of our culture with our employees and managers. If you are sloppy in your private life, you can’t expect a different result in your professional life. Unfortunately, a lack of organization in our private lives can extend into our work lives – we had to communicate this to our teams. Between 2014 and 2018, the correlation of the improvement between our monthly occupational health parameters and productivity parameters was 87%, and as our employees and leaders understood the link, they became more efficient in both areas.

?“The 5 Safe Driving Habits” and “10-Point Commentary,” both developed by UPS, are life-saving practices that must be understood and become common practice today. I’ve come across training like “fast vehicle use”, and “quick vehicle uses for logistics” but what really needs to be taught is safe and defensive driving. These are the fundamental elements of training that prepare you for adverse conditions you may encounter on the road and teach you to expect the unexpected. All of our employees who use a company vehicle receive this training. Since 2014, even our employees who do not distribute or collect parcels have to renew this training regularly, including me as the General Manager.

Not for the metrics, but for our people!

A driver makes dozens of choices on the road between the time they leave home in the morning and the time they return home in the evening— all of which, not only affect them, but affect others. A single mistake can result in a fatal accident. At UPS, the most important stop of the day for our employees is home. Our sole purpose is to ensure that our employees and the people they interact with arrive home safe and sound at the end of the day.

?Any training or program that does not focus on the human element will not be successful. It simply does not resonate in the same way or have the same amount of impact. We’ve recognized this at UPS Turkey and have hosted dozens of unique safety related events and activities. For instance, we have had our employees’ children write letters to their parents, we had painting and video contests, and we even left miniatures of children on vehicle seats during the first week of school. When it is understood that all we want is to keep our employees and their families in good health, we can create wonders together.?

Creativity is key

I have seen incredibly creative practices when it comes to safety. When there are real people involved and their personal safety is on the line, there is no end to creativity. In Turkey for instance, at the beginning of Ramadan, we’ve made announcements using a drum before our package cars leave the center to go make their deliveries, or we’ve had employees walk backwards with a mirror in hand to explain blind spots. These and dozens of similar activities have served not only as educational and instructive activities, but they’ve also proven to be fun and memorable.?

Throughout my eight years at UPS Turkey, I’ve been proud to contribute to amazing achievements in its occupational health and safety journey. Similar to an organizational barometer, occupational health and safety is the best area to get information about a workplace, its culture and organization. It is imperative that organizations continue to integrate safety and health practices with the employee front of mind.