PSHSA Consultants David Fretz, Shelly Hurry, Maryam Khan and Blaine Larock (ret.) also recognized as 5-Star Safety Trainers

TORONTO – Over the last few months, Canadian Occupational Safety magazine researchers surveyed and interviewed thousands of safety professionals across Canada to understand who they recognize as Canada’s top safety trainers. Public Services Health & Safety Association (PSHSA) along with four PSHSA trainers are pleased to be among the recipients of their 5-Star Safety Trainer Award.

“One of PSHSA’s key strengths is our client-centric framework which concentrates our efforts on outcome-focused programs and services that generate real value for our clients”, says Glenn Cullen, CEO and COO at PSHSA. “These awards confirm that our clients are recognizing that, and it validates for us that we are working in the right direction.”

Thousands of COS readers and safety professionals participated in surveys and in-depth interviews to rate safety trainers across a range of criteria, assigning numerical scores to companies’ performance. Criteria included customer service, ability to meet requirements, variety of training topics, feedback from staff and an easy-to-use online training platform. To determine the ratings, COS analysts gave a weighting to each criterion depending on its relative importance for customers. Based on the importance of each criterion, an algorithm was applied to determine the star rating for safety trainers. Where companies rated highly enough to achieve an 80% or higher for all criteria, they were awarded 5-star ratings.

On top of the organization award, four of PSHSA’s Health and Safety Consultants were recognized individually as 5-Star Safety Trainers.

David Fretz has nearly 40 years of experience as a safety professional in the municipal, construction, mining and industrial sectors where he has successfully developed and implemented various health and safety programs for his clients. “David demonstrates his competence with a quiet confidence”, says Henrietta Van hulle, PSHSA’s Vice President of Client Outreach and Stakeholder Engagement. “He’s an expert at linking training to real life scenarios.”

Shelly Hurry has been in the health and safety field for over 22 years and currently services over 500 health and community care organizations in the London, Ontario and surrounding area as a Health and Safety Consultant with PSHSA. “Shelly is a passionate presenter, regardless of the mode of delivery. Her dedication and enthusiasm enables her to highly engage participants”, says Van hulle.

Maryam Khan specializes in developing innovative solutions to emerging workplace health and safety issues, bringing new research products to market and facilitating occupational health and safety training, including JHSC Certification and Train the Fit Tester for Respiratory Protection. “Maryam is committed to effective knowledge translation and always ensures participants understand the information presented,” explains Van hulle.

Blaine Larock recently retired from PSHSA after an impressive 30-year career in health and safety training and consulting. “Blaine was always committed to ensuring all participants had the information they need to advance occupational health and safety within their organizations,” says Van hulle.

“There is a strong correlation that exists between the employee experience and the client experience. By investing in a strong employee experience where staff are engaged, we see that our people are driven to deliver the best possible service to our clients, whether that be via training, consulting or other health and safety services,” says Cullen. “Congratulations and well done to David, Shelly Maryam and Blaine, and our entire training team.”

This award is even more meaningful after a notably challenging year for health and safety training. “At PSHSA, we pride ourselves in continually building organizational resilience to prepare for uncertainty and fostering a workplace culture that embraces change and opportunity”, says Cullen. Within weeks of Ontario’s first lock down in the Spring of 2020, PSHSA’s health and safety training was in full swing, with the majority of courses successfully adapted from the classroom and being delivered virtually. “It was seamless from the client’s perspective – Ontario workplaces continued to have virtually uninterrupted access to the training they needed and at a critical time for occupational health and safety”, Cullen explains.

PSHSA’s training program continues evolve in step with client needs and priorities. “We truly believe that workplace training should fit your workplace”, explains Cullen. “That’s why we offer our clients ultimate flexibility and choice when it comes to training. Our agility and internal expertise enable us to offer health and safety training however the client wants them to be delivered – be it in person and onsite, remotely in our virtual classrooms or via eLearning.”

The COS 5-Star Safety Trainer Award winners list consists of a total of 23 organizations and 16 individuals across Canada. Read more about the 5-Star Health and Safety Trainer awards and learn more about the winners on Canadian Occupational Safety’s website or download a copy of the digital magazine.