By Tara Macaulay

Doreen Maruska, CHRP, CHSC was presented with the National Best New Entry Award for her exceptional efforts during the North American Occupational Safety Health (NAOSH) Week (May 1-7, 2011) at the annual National Health & Safety Conference held at Whistler, BC in September 2011.

This prestigious award recognizes the Squamish Nations’ continued efforts in the area of occupational health and safety. Among the many initiatives Maruska developed, she led and managed a comprehensive occupational health and safety management program that allowed her to establish volunteer safety teams in all Squamish Nation offices. The initiative also provided emergency preparedness training to more than 100 Squamish Nation employees; close to one quarter of the workforce.

What do you enjoy most in your current role?
In the past three years since my appointment, the Squamish Nation volunteer workplace safety team has grown from eight to over 45 members. The annual safety team recognition event held in December is always the highlight of my year. It gives me immense satisfaction to see that I am making a difference in the lives of the people that I coach and mentor.

What do you think is the most important aspect to the comprehensive occupational health and safety management program?
Search the web and you’ll discover that there is a seemingly endless supply of formatted occupational health and safety programs. While these “generic off-the-rack” programs may appear to be great time savers; they seldom produce the desired outcomes. In my experience, best results are achieved with the development and execution of customized programs which address the specific needs of an organization.

What is the foundation to having such a successful program?
The occupational health and safety management system, like the safety professional, function within the management systems of the organization. It is key during the development process to gain an understanding of the organization’s management structure, current safety culture, core values and goals. Further, a coalition of support for the health and safety initiative must be built at all levels of the organization. There are no short cuts to successful change management.

If you could give one piece of advice to other officers that would help them run a more successful program, what would it be?
One thing I know for sure is that for great work to be done, the heart must be invested, along with many hands. A safety professional gets the work done through others and therefore the ability to lead, communicate and manage effectively is essential to success. Other key components include working strategically and a thorough understanding of safety metrics. Prior sales experience is also a definite asset!

What is the future for your management program?
Going forward, my goal is to continue to inspire positive change that achieves the shared goal of zero workplace injuries; to foster throughout the organization a concept of Internal Responsibility by adapting and creating workplace safety initiatives that incorporate First Nations traditions and cultural values.

The Canadian Society of safety Engineering was founded in 1949 and is the leading health, safety and environmental organization in Canada For more information on the Society or the wards, visit www.csse.org.

Tara Macaulay received her BA from the University of South Florida in Mass Communications/Journalism where she was a correspondent for the student paper. She currently work for a software company in business development while taking courses towards an HR Certificate at BCIT.  She is a member of BC HRMA and is excited to be taking part in the mentoring program.