Working with my DM Melissa Gano in her role as East Region Safety Lead we identified a question we could help answer. What does a District Safety Lead (DSL) do? What are their responsibilities?
Having been in the role myself we decided to host training tutorial calls with all the East Region DSLs and their DMs to show them step by step the tools that are available to them to help be successful in their role and bringing value to their Districts goal of trying to reach Target Zero. I shared my examples of some best practices from my experience as a DSL and the useful things I have learned along the way. The ultimate goal was to have more engaged DSL’s that were equipped to be the safety “go to guy” for their areas.
An unexpected result was that this also created a resource for these DSL’s to reach out to a peer (me) with questions or asking for help with something. Since I’m not a DM or “Corporate Person” I think it created a more relaxed environment for them to reach out and not be worried about looking bad because they didn’t know. I know these trainings have helped engagement with safety in the East region, Shoes for Crews compliance, SAFE Check completion, SAFE investigations being completed on time and beyond.
