Brittany Pomrenke, coordinating group manager at our Rantoul, Illinois, facility, appreciates the importance of relaying safety information to her nearly 40 team members. Recently, Brittany noticed that, while safety has always been a priority, there was room to improve observation of workplace safety precautions.
Brittany Pomrenke is a coordinating group manager at JELD-WEN's Rantoul, Illinois, facility.
The JSA process centralizes critical safety alerts and allows Brittany to obtain employee acknowledgement of processes that protect their welfare. “Safety is the most important. We want everyone to go home the same way they came into the facility,” said Brittany. “But delivering important updates – many related to safety – is challenging because production is a constant flow; once it’s disrupted, it’s hard to catch back up.”
“The first time we used the new process and employees signed the check sheet, I wanted to confirm the process worked,” Brittany said. “I feared they prioritized getting back to work over taking the time needed to read and really absorb the message.” In her second JSA form, she included something that should get anyone’s attention - a policy stating she would receive half of every signer’s next paycheck.
“I think posts labeled as a ‘policy’ may get less attention,” said Brittany. “I think we all tend to think a policy or policy update may be considered less important than, say, an alert. As I feared, some team members signed the JSA without carefully reading it in a rush to return to their job to manufacture products for our customers.”
