Safety is Everyone’s Responsibility

As the chair of ACRT’s Area Safety Representatives (ASRs), Operations Manager Anna Davis works each day to make conversations around safety more approachable.
She recalls her early days at ACRT and how she didn’t want to “mess up or do the wrong thing.” Now, Davis wants to talk through those mishaps.

“If you do mess up or have a near-miss, you need to talk about it. You need to share it with your coworkers and have those open lines of communication because they can learn from what you experienced,” Davis shares.

Davis, who has served as the ACRT ASR chair since 2020 and oversees the ACRT Ready Force® team, compares the job of an ASR to the “be your brother’s keeper” concept.

ACRT ASR members assist in safety communications, safety auditing, identifying at-risk behaviors, near-miss reviews, and incident investigations. Members are safety champions and serve as a conduit between safety management and field employees. They aid in the training and tracking of safety-related items throughout their region and mentor those who need extra help.

“Our team of ASRs gets to lead that charge on their projects and be the ones to do safety audits on their peers and managers. It speaks to our culture of safety because we’re all responsible for safety. It’s not just a manager’s responsibility to deliver that message – it’s everyone’s responsibility,” says Davis.

She appreciates that field employees can take ownership of not only their safety but their peers, as well.

Davis emphasizes, “Our ASRs allow ACRT to have different leaders in the field and foresters across our company who take the time to talk about safety, what’s effective, what’s not, and where we see a need in terms of changing policy and keeping our field employees safe. This group’s commitment to safety and their openness allows us to create some great ideas to keep every employee safe!”