Safety champions recognized for helping NSC reach ‘moonshot’ goal

Indianapolis – The National Safety Council’s newest class of Rising Stars – safety industry standouts younger than 40 – was honored by the council’s Young Professionals Division on Tuesday during a luncheon at the 2017 NSC Congress & Expo. The class was joined by five NSC Scholarship winners.

The Young Professionals Division is an NSC networking group comprising safety pros younger than 45. The Rising Stars are chosen from nominations by the nominees’ co-workers.

“Last year, NSC announced a ‘moonshot’ goal: To eliminate preventable deaths in our lifetime,” NSC President and CEO Deborah A.P. Hersman said. “An endeavor of this magnitude requires a seismic shift in our safety culture, and we will lean on creative and innovative thinkers to help us achieve our mission. We are challenging the Rising Stars to be part of this task.

“In evaluating nominees for 2017, we were humbled to find so many young safety professionals having a positive effect on their colleagues and their organizations. These individuals bring energy, enthusiasm and excellence to their workplaces. They have embraced zero as the only acceptable number when it comes to injuries and deaths.”

A list of discussion questions for the Rising Stars was placed at each table during the luncheon. Among the questions:

• More workplace trends include time compression and multitasking for workers. What safety issues are the result of workers dealing with multiple issues in shorter amounts of time? How can that be stopped?
• More workers from Generations X and Y are assuming a larger portion of today’s workforce. What kind of safety issues have they brought with them into your workplace?
• The use of mobile technology is expanding every day. How does it benefit your organization and hurt it at the same time? Do you see evidence that it helps your organization, or does it make injury prevention more difficult (more distractions, etc.)?
• What is the injury trend you are seeing at your organization? Are injuries falling on the job and rising off the job, or the opposite? What are the most common injuries at your workplace?

"Our Rising Stars are leading the way on safety by taking action every day,” Hersman said. “Protecting their coworkers means everyone can perform their job the right way: safely. We are honored to celebrate their dedication and success.”