Safety Director

Summary of position:

The Safety Director (SD) is responsible for the overall strategy and integrity of safety management compliance initiatives at Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative.  The SD will guide SMBSC by providing safety management through (1) implementing safety programs, policies, and procedures that are aligned with corporate standards and government regulations and (2) improving safety performance through communication, education, and performance management.

Essential Functions:

Policy, Procedure and Program Integration

• Develops, implements, and evaluates policies, procedures, and programs that comply with the corporate operating model as well as local, state, and federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules and regulations
• Identifies best practices and leads continuous improvement initiatives to reduce work process risks, raise safety awareness, and improve safe work practices
• Monitors and evaluates SMBSC construction and renovation projects to ensure compliance with regulatory agencies and policies
• Directs and evaluates employee safety programs to determine their adequacy including review of short and long term strategic safety planning and development
• Manages SMBSC OSHA 300 log and regulatory correspondence as well as customer audit responses

Incident Investigation and Data Analysis

• Performs safety audits and inspects facilities, machinery, work conditions and safety equipment to identify and correct potential hazards and ensures safety regulation compliance and conformance across each work site
• Investigates accidents, near-miss incidents, and occupational injuries to determine causes and installs preventive measures
• Analyzes trends through root cause analysis to identify causation and risk factors to identify corrective or preventative action measures

Training and Development

• Evaluates employees conducting the worker training programs and provides implementable feedback
• Collaborates with external vendors to bring training to work sites; negotiates external training contracts
• Provides technical advice, coaching, guidance, and monitoring to employees on safety initiatives and necessary changes
• Addresses, investigates, and follows up with employee safety concerns in a timely manner; communicates results of the findings and implements necessary changes when needed

Leadership

• Facilitates a work environment that supports a safe and healthy culture
• Advises the Executive Team about safety and health issues related to existing business and ensure compliance with safety/health-related items; partners to improve safety culture
• Provides subject matter expertise on safety topics to Executive Team, the SMBSC Board of Directors, and other vested partners
• Manages and evaluates to the formulation of annual operating and capital budgets for safety; recommends and maintains budgeting and allocation for safety needs based on SMBSC’s established financial guidelines and business planning process
• Coaches, develops and mentors risk management team members including: providing resources to increase individual knowledge, conducting regular reviews evaluating employee performance, and working with employees to identify opportunities for improvement
• Attends staff and board meetings as necessary

Committee Involvement

• Participates on and advises with the crisis management team
• Leads the Be the Change committee, including conducting and evaluating overall safety performance through the safety perception surveys
• Maintains memberships and affiliations with trade and/or professional organizations related to the Company

Other duties

• Leads the Beet Sugar Development Foundation Safety Committee
• Participates with the Minnesota Safety Council Efforts
• Remains relevant in the safety field by participating in conferences and educational opportunities; reading professional publications; and maintaining personal networks

Core Competencies and Skill Requirements:

• Broad understanding of safety laws and regulations
  • Ability to evaluate information to determine compliance using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations and standards
  • Ability to keep up-to-date with changes to regulations and standards and applying the new knowledge at SMBSC
  • Ability to provide guidance and expert advice to executive management and other groups based on technical, systems-related or process-related topics in regard to safety
• Demonstrated analytical and critical thinking skills
  • Ability to gather information by observing, receiving and obtaining information from all relevant sources
  • Ability to identify trends, patterns and anomalies with data to draw conclusions and make recommendations for current and future needs
  • Ability to quantify the characteristics of products and materials used at the Company, which includes estimating sizes and quantities or determining time, costs, resources or materials needed to perform a work activity
  • Ability to inspect equipment, structures or materials to identify the cause of errors or other problems and defects
• Excellent communication skills
  • Ability to develop constructive and cooperative working relationships with internal and external audiences and maintain these relationships over time to advance the overall public image of SMBSC
  • Ability to document information in a logical, sequential manner which includes entering, transcribing, recording, storing and maintaining information
  • Ability to maintain high attention to detail
  • Ability to understand written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents; ability to interpret technical documents
  • Ability to communicate with a variety of audiences with diverse backgrounds
• Strong conflict management and resolution skills
  • Ability to handle complaints, settle disputes and resolve grievances and conflicts; negotiate with external audiences
  • Ability to maintain a high level of interpersonal skills to handle sensitive and confidential situations
• Commitment to safety
  • Ability to work in a responsible, safe manner by adhering to SMBSC’s safety and housekeeping protocol

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Health and Safety or related field; Master’s degree preferred
• 7-10 years of experience in industrial manufacturing