“Cutting” Edge Technology & Safety

For Wm. T. Spaeder, technology is a means of our present and our future. We pride ourselves in utilizing cutting edge technologies to develop and create complex, yet, seamless projects for our customers. This technology assists us in project layout, fabrication & pre-fabrication and, in turn, meeting our project budgets. Although the employees of Spaeder are all well-versed in utilizing these technologies they are also still capable of ‘doing-it, old-school’ which is great as there are some people who just haven’t quite gotten the ‘hang’ of the ‘new-ways’ yet.

During a recent conference I attended, I listened to a speaker discuss the future of technology (NSC Congress & Expo 2019, Jim Carroll). Mr. Carroll quoted, as a fact, that 6 out of 10 kids ages 0-4 (presently) will work in jobs that do not exist at this present time. He also stated that, presently, in the technology world, three months after technology is released, it is replaced by something better and is, thus, obsolete. How crazy is that?

So you’re probably wondering, how does this advancement relate to safety and, trust me, it does relate. You see, with this new technology new doors will open allowing us to streamline our safety management systems, trainings, tracking and auditing styles and how we communicate with our employees. But what will also happen is with this new accelerated technology, we will accelerate our risk. You see, right now, as safety professionals, we manage the gaps created by our employees (whether that is morale, general personality issues or maybe it’s a lack of available resources). In the future, we will have to manage the gaps that technology creates. Let’s look at a common home device as an example of a potential gap. Most modern households are leaning towards utilizing devices that allow you to ‘virtually’ control your temperature in your house. As technology progresses and we continue to provide our ‘HVAC’ service, do you think handling these systems will remain the same? Will the chemicals that control these systems remain the same? Will the hazards remain the same?

You see, the world is changing and although, in my opinion, Wm. T. Spaeder is progressing ahead of its competition and analyzing the potential hazards proactively as a team, we aren’t the only ones in the business. As we recruit new employees who may not have been immersed in our progressive and pro-active ways, we have a great potential for risk. In-attention leads to risk for an organization and risk, leads to unnecessary failure.

From the management team at Spaeder to, most importantly, our employees and their families and to our customers and competitors, we will not allow ourselves to fall victim to this in-attention. Change your future before your future changes you.