Alta receives safety award

The Swing Shift at the Alta Forest Products, Naples, Idaho facility received an honor on Aug. 2, for completing a full year of work with no employee injuries. This honor recognized the Swing Shift’s dedication to safety and the collaborative efforts of employees to keep everyone free from getting hurt while at work.

Historically, sawmills tend to have high injury ratings due to the hazardous nature of the work, which can be physically demanding and oftentimes places employees near industrial machinery. To combat this high stakes work environment, management and employees at Alta have worked together to create an atmosphere that puts safety as its number one goal. Due to these efforts, the Naples facility now has injury rates lower than many other industries, including many entry level professions such as the restaurant and food services industry.

This award was not the first that the Alta Naples facility has received. With the Swing Shift’s new record, every department in the Naples facility has now independently hit the one year mark injury free, with a goal of going one year with no injuries plant wide. “Safety for us is not simply following a policy or adhering to a rule. It is a paradigm of thinking that guides an employee through every choice they make throughout the work day,” said Jeremy Dineen, Safety and Human Resources Manager at Alta in Naples.