Whenever Tony Wallace’s wife chops vegetables, he can’t help but put his safety professional hat on. “I’ll gasp, and she'll say, You don't trust me,” he says. “I’ll say, No, I trust you: I don't trust the knife.” Tony has tried to explain that this helicopter approach to safety is an overflow from his workday. “She goes, You must drive people nuts,” he says. “I do, but I just want to make sure that she's safe. If she were to cut her hand, that would be horrible, but there are a lot of other ramifications. And this is where it comes into the workplace too.”The cost of an accident is just one of many topics Tony, the Global Vice President of Safety, Health, and Environmental Quality at industrial gas company Linde, speaks on in this episode of the No Accident podcast, presented by TRUCE. He also explains why Linde’s leaders take a hands-on approach to safety, and the importance of viewing it as a disciplined group effort that helps the whole business, not just individuals. “When our senior leadership goes into the field … they’ll walk around and ask questions like, How are you doing on your safety?” he says. “Talking to the employees and asking the question, What are some things we can do to help make you and your site safer? and then following through. It’s making that connection with our employees and our lineman.” In Tony’s more than 35-year career, he’s never had to deal with anything like COVID-19. But the pandemic reminded him of the impact that everyone’s safety decisions have on one another.Tony says that he’d never hire anyone who doesn’t wear a seat belt, for example, and that translates to people who don’t take COVID-19 precautions, such as wearing a mask on an airplane. The people implementing such rules are still seen as “safety cops,” but he believes he can overcome that mindset by reminding people that following these protocols makes everyone’s lives better. “My background is being able to understand how and why we do things — not simply what the safety answer is, but how we do it together to ensure we can accomplish all of our goals,” Tony says. Featured Guest👉 Name: Tony Wallace 👉 What he does: As the Global Vice President of Safety, Health and Environmental Quality at Linde, a multinational industrial gas company, Tony uses his diverse business background to implement a we’re-all-in-this-together approach to safety. 👉 Company: Linde👉 Key quote: “Safety is like integrity. Somebody once told me that integrity is what you do when no one's looking. Your ultimate value of safety is what you do when no one is looking.”👉 Where to find him: LinkedIn Safe Takes⚠️ Safety isn’t selfish. Tony says strong safety policies are put in place not only to keep each individual employee safe but to help them keep one another safe. That’s why he encourages his employees to constantly ask themselves, Am I doing these actions solely for me? Or am I doing those actions to help others as well?⚠️ The motivation is to get everyone back to their family in one piece. Tony keeps his employees focused on following safety procedures by reminding them of the ultimate motivation: their family. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been more important than ever to think about everyone’s fundamental values, and who they want to protect the most. ⚠️ The best way to determine the value of safety is on the ground. When Linde’s senior leadership visits a site, they’re not just doing it as a formality. They actively ask employees about safety procedures, so they can get a sense of how certain protocols are impacting the way the company operates. The company’s leaders take the hot seat too: Tony believes that companies led by people who have a strong working knowledge of safety procedures function more safely than leaders who are out of touch. Resources⛑️ OSHA — Learn about the latest OSHA guidance for mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in all industries.⛑️ The Effectiveness of Management-By-Walking-Around: A Randomized Field Study — Learn more about Linde’s on-the-ground approach to management from an academic perspective.⛑️ Linde’s Safety Commitment Day — Watch Tony talking about Linde’s Safety Commitment Day. Top quotes from the episode:“We come to work — and we do work — for our family. It's important that we get home safely at the end of every day. So no, I don't think we can be too safe.”“Over those 36 years [of working at Linde], everyone has grown in our understanding and our ability to be safe, and our ability to protect our employees, our customers, and the communities that we operate in.”“When we hire people, we explain to them what our process is, how safety is a core value, and that they need to be part of that. So if a person doesn't wear their seat belt, even though it's law … if that's the type of person you are, we don't want you working ...
