Putting Employee Safety First

Safety is more than a priority, it’s a core value at Crown and it is instilled into each of our processes, procedures and systems. We aim to foster a Total Safety Culture by giving employees the support and tools they need to make safer decisions, correct unsafe behaviors and reduce incidents, injuries and near-misses.  

Our SAFE (Safety Awareness for Employees) program is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2017 and continues to enhance safety standards across the Company. This behavioral safety program aims to identify and implement safer working methods through observation and peer dialogue. Guiding the program is a SAFE card which documents observations from leadership and peers on a specific task. The process is anonymous, focusing on dialogue and finding safer ways to perform the task, with thousands of observations performed every month that cast a second set of eyes upon various tasks across the Company. The card’s activity checklist identifies behaviors in the following areas: worker’s actions, proper use of tools, machinery and equipment, ergonomics (e.g. posture, lifting stance), use of personal protective equipment and lastly, the employee’s familiarity of the task’s job hazard analysis. 

The SAFE program has made an important contribution to our Total Safety Culture philosophy. We have seen a significant decrease in recordable injury rates at Crown since the program’s introduction in 2007. The program, along with other initiatives such as Safety Circles and Human Factor Training, has helped employees develop a keen sense of responsibility for observation, behavior and attitude, identify ways of instilling safer work practice and foster communication so employees feel comfortable discussing safety issues with their peers.