Doing safety differently at Nutrien

Published: Apr 12, 2022

March 7 marked Nutrien’s first Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) Prevention Day, and we were joined by global thought leader Dr. Sidney Dekker for a virtual keynote about doing Safety Differently.

During his presentation, Dr. Dekker reinforced that honesty is at the heart of a strong safety culture. Traditional safety encourages the absence of negative events, which can breed a culture of secrecy. Instead, Dr. Dekker explained that it’s important to “keep the discussion of risk alive” and “create a culture that allows the boss to hear bad news” – all without judgment.

The presentation sparked conversations across the organization, with employees feeling empowered to challenge the way we do things in order to improve and enhance our Culture of Care. A workplace that only focuses on achieving zero incidents won’t stop incidents from happening, it will only make people afraid to report them. Our leaders are here to listen and “keep the discussion of risk alive,” as encouraged by Dr. Dekker.

As one of Nutrien’s core values, safety is at the heart of everything we do. By striving to do safety differently, we can achieve our planned outcomes while increasing SIF prevention – a core practice of The Nutrien Way.

“I’m very proud of the work we have done in this space, but I know that we have more to do,” says John Horne, VP, Safety, Health & Environment. “Our approach to safety must be grounded in looking for the things that go right and creating the capacity that, if and when we do fail, we are able to fail safely.”

Together, we’re creating a safer Nutrien every day.

Culture of Care

At Nutrien, our vision is for everyone to go home safe, every day. Bringing that vision to life starts with a culture that guides our choices and actions – that’s where the Culture of Care comes in.

Having the right culture ensures that our safety tools, programs and practices are effective. Our strategy is to build a safety culture where everyone at Nutrien is empowered to lead, collaborate, challenge and trust. These behaviors are our safety DNA, and everyone has a part to play in growing and strengthening the culture.

The Nutrien Way

The Nutrien Way is our playbook and action plan made up of programs and practices that any and every worker at Nutrien can engage in to make our workplace safer and bring our Culture of Care to life. Simply put, The Nutrien Way is how we do safety. It includes everything we do on a daily basis to support and sustain our safety culture.