SAFER

Stress and Strain: The Changing Role of the Harvesting Supervisor

With 90 per cent of timber harvesting being done by independent contractors, the responsibility for safety management has increased for this segment of the industry, and the supervisor’s role has morphed radically in response

By Sandra Bishop - Truck Logger BC Spring 2017

If the coastal forest industry had a high school annual, the role of supervisor would be voted ‘most changed.’ According to many in the industry, this presents both challenges and opportunities. The challenge is the added stress and strain the new role creates for supervisors, the opportunity is the chance to improve training and productivity.

With 90 per cent of timber harvesting being done by independent contractors, the responsibility for safety management has increased for this segment of the industry, and the supervisor’s role has morphed radically in response.

“If you turn back the clock 20 years,” suggests Rob Moonen, CEO of the BC Forest Safety Council, “we moved away from the fully integrated forest companies like MacMillan Bloedel, where employees were getting support and training internally, to the situation today where they’re now independent owner operators. It’s been an evolution for the industry as far as how the system is adapting and how training has evolved.”

This evolution has caused the role of supervisor to become far more complex and onerous than it ever was. TLA President Jacqui Beban explains, “Historically, we always used to look at who your hardest worker was, who your best operator was, who had the best attitude and those were the people who normally got promoted to a supervisory role. Now you have to look at the whole supervision position, which is a lot more detail-oriented as far as paperwork and reporting goes.”

Today’s supervisor must be more focused on regulations, while maintaining that day-to-day positive relationship with the crew and, ultimately, still protecting themselves, the employees and the company. They must show they’re doing everything they can at the workplace to prevent incidents from happening. This seems like a challenge to even the most dexterous octopus.

Meet Bill Nelson. He’s been in the industry for 33 years—he started out setting chokers right out of high school. Nelson is one of two project managers at Holbrook Dyson’s Vernon Lake camp, located between Woss and Gold Lake.

He describes his job as a balancing act with high stakes where people’s lives are at risk. “My number one priority is to make sure everybody goes out and comes back safe every day. My next priority is to get everything done, to be efficient and productive. Those two things are inseparable. People say ‘safety first’ with a healthy measure of safety and productivity daily.”

Nelson says the last priority is due diligence: keeping himself, his employees, his partners, their company and their customer—in this case the licence holder—safe legally so there are no environmental or WorkSafeBC concerns. “Production, safety, and liability: any one of those things falls through the cracks, and it will come back and get you,” Nelson cautions.

The biggest challenge? “Getting enough sleep,” he quips.

We laugh. But the TLA is concerned and is questioning whether the job has changed so much it’s putting too much pressure on the supervisor. “I’m hearing from many contractors that they struggle to find employees willing to be supervisors. A supervisor used to be able to split their time between supervising and actually getting into a machine and producing. That is increasingly not the case,” explains David Elstone, TLA Executive Director. So the traditional training pathway Jacqui Beban described doesn’t work anymore and the legal accountability that supervisors face today takes the role to a whole new level.

And how has training kept up? “Our industry has great people working in it, but we need to continue to provide tools that can make us even better,” stresses Beban. A few years ago, the industry came together to revise and streamline supervisor training, provided by the BC Forest Safety Council. Since 2014, 165 participants have attended at least one of three supervisor training sessions in Nanaimo or Campbell River. Contractors made up 138 of those participants, coming from 73 different companies to learn more about due diligence, communication and leadership.

“I think one of the things the industry is very focused on, from both the contractor and licensee perspective, is that if you’re going to pull people away from their jobs, the training has to be valuable and delivered in the most efficient manner,” explained Moonen. “And, in part, that’s why this training was developed in modules.”

As industry continues to focus on improving its safety record, it’s critical it continues to improve training and works to streamline the reporting process so supervisors have the tools they need to perform their jobs and ensure the safety of their crews. However, supervisor training courses aren’t going to address all the challenges.

Elstone concludes, “As the transfer (or some call downloading) of responsibilities from licensees onto contractors and their supervisors continues, that cost needs to be understood and recognized. We need to make sure supervisors have the support they need as they work to keep our workers safe and productive and to meet the due diligence requirements of the business owner and licensees as well. More and more, my members are telling me their supervisors are asking to return to a regular worker role because the stress and strain of supervisor responsibilities are too much. I think this is an emerging issue that we need to address—as an industry—before the cracks grow any wider.”

This story was courtesy Sandra Bishop and the Truck Logger BC Magazine - Spring 2017 Edition.

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Faller Certification - A BC Provincial Requirement

Falling trees by hand requires highly specialized skills and a commitment to working safely every day.

The forests of coastal British Columbia produce large trees. The temperate rain forest is perfect growing conditions for giant coniferous trees, some of which can live up to 3,500 years! Trees can grow as tall as 77 metres with a diameter of anywhere from three metres to six metres.

Falling trees by hand requires highly specialized skills and a commitment to working safely every day. Fallers need to be aware of physical hazards, the dangers of fatigue and stress and the exacting requirements of meeting production demands. It’s not for everyone, but for those who are up to the challenge, it is a rewarding and satisfying profession.

In British Columbia, all manual tree fallers in forestry operations must be trained and certified. A forestry operation is generally viewed as any business where money is earned for tree removal and/or harvest by falling and bucking. Any worker who fells a tree larger than 6 inches in diameter must be certified to the BC Faller Training Standard (BCFTS).

A worker who holds a faller certificate is considered to have met the minimum training requirements in the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Regulation for falling in a forestry operation. However, even with certification, employers must still make sure all workers can safely complete assigned job duties. Specific factors employers must consider include type of timber, terrain, and slope.

For For forestry operation production fallers, the BC Forest Safety Council is authorized by WorkSafeBC certify manual tree fallers to BC Faller Training Standard (BCFTS).

Faller Certification Development
Some may wonder how was the BC Faller Training Standard developed and who was involved in developing the standard. One of the individuals who who helped develop the faller training standard was a Vacouver Island faller named Al Lundgren. Over the span on many years, Al Lundgren, along with a number of other individuals, pushed to create a faller training program that would reduce the number of falling injuries and fatalities.

In the following 2013 B.C. Labour Heritage Centre video, Al Lundgren is profiled as one of the pioneers of developing the BC Faller Training Standard. The video is one in a three-part series focusing on the history of health and safety in British Columbia's forestry industry.

Welcoming An Employee Back After Mental Health Leave - Do's and Don'ts

Welcoming an Employee Back After Mental Health Leave - Do's and Don'ts

Below are a few suggestions to make a return-to-work transition a smooth one

A return to work after a mental health leave can be daunting for the returning employee and coworkers alike. Here are a few suggestions to make this transition a smooth one:

Do: Stay in touch with the employee throughout the mental health leave
Work is a core part of our lives. Not only do we spend a major portion of our lives at work, it can provide meaning, relationships, and an important part of our identity. When taking a mental health leave, employees may miss those connections. Stay in touch by sending an occasional email or forwarding a favourite trade journal along with a brief note. Keep your messages upbeat and pressure-free as you don't want to cause undue stress. For example, you might send an article along with a note that says, "Thought you'd find this article about same-day shipping interesting as you've been predicting this for years."

Do: Evaluate the fundamentals
According to Mental Health Works, a project of the Canadian Mental Health Association (Ontario), a successful return to work after a mental health leave depends on three fundamental principles:

• Neither the work nor the employee's presence poses a risk to the employee or others in the workplace
• Meaningful work can be accomplished with appropriate accommodations
• The workplace is welcoming and free of harassment and other factors that could delay or hinder recovery

Don't: Intrude
Remember, you don't need the details of the diagnosis or treatment plan – and your employee most likely wants privacy. What you do need to know is how you can help the employee successfully return to work.   

Do: Ask what the employee needs
Determining the level of work and any accommodations requires communication between you, the employee and possibly, the employee's treating physician. Again, you don't need the reasons behind a request. You simply need to know what would help the employee. If the request is reasonable, by all means, make it happen.

Don't: Make assumptions
It's easy to make assumptions about an employee's return to work. For example, you may assume that the employee won't want to interact with others or may need constant supervision. Alternatively, you might assume that a return to work signals the employee is ready to assume all previous duties. Everyone’s situation is different, so keep that in mind when setting expectations.

Do: Work together to create a reintegration plan
Is the employee eager to get back into the workplace full-time or is a gradual transition a better choice? A frank conversation with the employee is in order. Discuss goals, ask about favourite tasks, and draw up a plan together. 

Employees can and do return to work after a mental health leave. Your role is an important one in helping employees successfully resume their duties in a positive and productive environment.

This wellness article is courtesy of Shepell at workhealthlife.com.

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