LOC partners with Institute for Work and Health for safety culture survey
This past year has been transformative for the League of Champions (LOC) with the introduction of a new leader and the addition of a number of new programs and initiatives.
In addition to in-person events, the league, a cross-sectoral organization aimed at promoting health and safety excellence in the construction industry, launched a brand new website, a quarterly newsletter and a virtual roundtable focusing on industry issues.
“We’ve got a bunch of exciting things happening,” stated Brian Leech, who recently celebrated his first year as executive director of the LOC. “Last year we had our worker engagement event, we had our C-Suite event and then we had our AGM and all of them went very well. We are continuing to build on each event in terms of engagement as well. We’re having more and more participants which is very positive.”
Education is an important focus for the LOC. With an effort to get more students interested in construction, the LOC held its first speaking engagement at Mohawk College in December. They are planning to get speakers into Conestoga College, Centennial College and George Brown College.
“We want to push school education because there’s a gap between the education and the professional trades where we can really fill a niche,” said Leech.
The league has also developed new relationships with Jill of All Trades and Honour the Work.
“Those are trades-based educational initiatives that promote trades through education – elementary, secondary and post-secondary,” said Leech. “We want to showcase that trades are great careers for young people and to make sure that they get the safety culture built into those educational programs as well.”
The new and improved LOC website includes a resource centre for members.
“Members can find various resources that they are able to use for their organizations,” said Leech. “That’s our vision long-term for the website is that we want people to be able to go on there and find things that can help contribute to developing policy and programs for their organizations and improve safety culture.”
The LOC roundtable also launched last year with an introduction to psychological health and safety.
“The idea behind the roundtable is not just to have an informative webinar but to actually have resources and supports and tools that they can take away that day and begin to implement into their programs,” Leech explained.
One of the big things the league is working on this year is an initiative with the Institute for Work and Health (IWH). IWH is helping design a safety culture survey exclusive to LOC members.
“We’re really excited about this because it’s a very targeted to construction and our members specifically,” said Leech. “IWH is a third-party, unbiased scientific research organization…We want to have a campaign where we get as much engagement and data as we can because obviously that is going to help give you insight as to where you are in your own organization, but also in comparison to the rest of the participants.”
For Leech, it was important to understand what the objectives of the board were and what they wanted him to focus on and prioritize. Leech said he wants to get more involvement and engage as many members as possible.
“One of my main priorities is to continue with growth of the LOC,” said Leech. “I want to continue to build the membership base. I want to continue to add members. I think we have a great opportunity to involve as many GCs and frontline trades as we can but also a lot of patrons who provide support, service and tools to the industry that can help our champion members.”
The LOC currently has 112 members and has grown from last year.
“I think 25, 30 new members is positive and I want to continue to build on that because I believe in this organization, on a fundamental level, that we can really affect change within the industry, the more voices we have involved,” said Leech.
His first order of business was to make sure the league continues to provide tangible content and value for members. The LOC also wanted to find a niche and set themselves apart from other safety organizations.
“When I started I had a campaign to meet with every member and pick their brains about their experience with the league and ask them what they wanted to see in the future and that’s how we developed the LOC Spotlight and the roundtable,” Leech explained. “I started to use their input on how we would develop content for the live events. That really increased engagement and that was my objective. We wanted to get people who were already part of the league involved and interested and part of the conversation.”
Leech brings a unique perspective to the role. He grew up in the trades and has held management roles in logistics, health and safety.
“I’m honoured to have this role,” said Leech. “I feel privileged to be able to do the work that I do every day and I can’t wait to reach what I believe the potential of this organization is and that’s really what I’m striving for.”
