Battling “Big Brother”: Building Worker Trust with Wearable Tech

Hello, everyone. I'm David Cuff, the Executive Editor of Occupational Health and Safety Magazine. I hope everybody is having a great day. Welcome to today's webinar presentation, Battling Big Brother, Building Worker Trust with Wearable Tech.
 
Today's webinar is brought to us by Blackline Safety. Many thanks to them for making today's presentation possible. I'm really glad we're covering today's topic. It's something that's compelling.
 
It's, and it's timely, and it's covering a tech that can really add layers of safety to the workplace.
 
And we have a couple of really knowledgeable speakers to discuss it. Today's presenters are Andrea Hine.
 
She's field enablement with Suncor Energy.
 
Andrea brings more than she leads digital projects in hazardous areas, streamlines critical processes and drives culture change across eleven sites for ten thousand unionized frontline workers and leadership. So, right there, that is no easy feat.
 
And then, we also have John Storz.
 
John is the Business Development Director for Blackline Safety. John holds the position of Business Development Director within the United States. He has more than 29 years of experience providing insightful solutions to customers in North American industrial and safety arenas.
 
John's background and experience working across all vertical markets really gives him expertise in worker safety and productivity projects and how those two align.
 
Between John and Andrea, I think you're going to get a really, in-depth as well as 360 view of the subject.
 
So I'm, really, looking forward to a useful and enlightening session today. But before we dive into that session, I want to give you a few housekeeping items.
 
At the end of the presentation, we're going to have a Q&A, session where Andrea and John will answer a few questions from everybody out there in the audience. However, you don't have to wait for that Q&A to begin to, to join in. If you want to submit a question, you can do it at any point during the webinar. All you have to do is use the ask a question console on your screen, and you can submit that at any time.
 
If you have any technical difficulties during the presentation, click on the help button located below the slide window, and you'll receive technical assistance.
 
And, also, after, this virtual event, you'll receive an email containing a link to an archive of today's presentation.
 
So you can go back and view it or share it with a colleague who might have missed it. So you can go back and view it or share it with a colleague who might have missed it. Okay. With that, we're ready to kick things off for today's, presentation. So I'm gonna hand things over to our first speaker, who I believe is gonna be John. John, why don't you take it away?
 
Alright. Thank you, David.
 
Well, I wanna start off by saying good morning, good afternoon, good evening to wherever everyone is attending from and where you may be. So, thank you for joining Andrea and I today to explore this important topic of discussing and building worker trust with with connected wearable safety technologies.
 
So today, we're gonna, as you can see the agenda up, we're gonna start by introducing you to black line safety and then provide some insights into the connected worker program at Suncor.
 
And along the way, we'll be able to include in, and start discussing five essential tips for the successful rollout of connected safety programs.
 
And then we'll wrap up with some key takeaways from the meeting and session. And, as David just mentioned, we'll do some q and a at the end.
 
So, with that said, I before I do any meeting, I always like to start off by level setting and touching on who BlackLine safety is. As you can see with our tran our vision, our objective is to transform enterprise workplaces through connected safety technology.
 
And our purpose to ensure every worker has the confidence to get the job done and return home safe.
 
But our vision and purpose are really more words. There there's more than words and truly the backbone of kind of what we do on a day to day basis.
 
The truth is people are alive today because the company they work for chose to partner with BlackLine.
 
And that's because of our cloud connected safety hardware, our software, and value added services help industrial operators truly get, in front of risks and respond more, effectively.
 
So, and also, more importantly, the volumes of data generated along the way really can help transform workplaces as well as we'll get into a little bit through the presentation and conversation here, making workplaces more efficient, more safe, as well as more productive.
 
As you can see on the screen, we have more than twenty two hundred customers across over a dozen industries in over seventy countries.
 
And between them, we protect more than a hundred and sixty five thousand workers around the world.
 
So a little bit further about BlackLine, we're a public company headquartered out of Calgary, Canada in everything from the product development to the manufacturing of our personal wearable devices and area monitoring devices to the services that we provide via our BlackLine Live portal that our clients utilize to manage their fleet of devices to the monitoring services that we provide are all under the BlackLine family, BlackLine umbrella.
 
I'm gonna start by, or next, I wanna share a a brief video that I believe really underscores All across this land, there's work to be done, Work that most people find too challenging, in places most people find too daunting.
 
But thankfully, there are those who rise to the occasion.
 
Those who stare down adversity with an unwavering look of determination because they've made a commitment to keep the lights on, keep water safe, keep the lines of communication open. These are the people we hold in the highest regard, and that's why we help protect them.
 
Through technology, innovation, and a tenacious desire to protect workers from daily hazards, BlackLine Safety is providing a lifeline to countless men and women across the globe.
 
Because wherever there's a lone worker, we're there.
 
Wherever there's the threat of danger from the hazards you can see to the threats you can't, we're there.
 
We're there to make sure everyone is connected so no one gets left behind.
 
We're there to make environments feel less hostile so so workers can feel more confident.
 
And we're there to make sure an emergency ends in a rescue, not a recovery.
 
Because we know that when someone leaves for work in the morning, someone else is counting on them to be home that evening.
 
Wherever there's a need for safety, we're there.
 
BlackLineSafety.
 
So as you heard, it's not about a device or a service, which is what drives us on a daily basis. It's making sure your employees get home safely to their families and their loved ones every day.
 
Many of you may already be aware and are living it today that there's a growing issue of safety amongst, frontline workers, lone workers, and there's a growing need for collective effort as well between companies and their respective unions to do everything possible to protect and ensure their employees are safe and get home to their loved ones.
 
So connected devices can save lives, and wearable safety technology has become the new standard for field safety.
 
As many of you are also aware that there's many, many hazards and risks, and it's really the employers that have that responsibility to mitigate these risks for their employees.
 
However, as you can see on the screen, and we all know, there's privacy concerns that can arise, which is, you know, basis of the topic of our conversation today, and it's important.
 
As you can see, the article reads, CN accused by union of secretly tracking employees' location.
 
So balancing safety, building trust, and protecting people's rights to privacy is so crucial and foundational, to your connected safety program.
 
I'm gonna pass it on over to Andrea, because I'm sure you're getting tired of me talking a bit here and let her share some insights and lessons learned from the connected worker program at Suncorp.
 
Andrea?
 
Thanks so much, John.
 
And, actually, just to to bring this home, my operators, some of them have this, this, news article that you have. They have it posted in their control room just as a reminder that, you know, not everyone necessarily follows the rule of engagement. So, if you can go to the next slide.
 
What gives me credibility to be here today?
 
Thanks for inviting me to speak. I'm here to talk from my perspective as a end user. My background, I'm a mechanical engineer, and I did a master's in organizational behavior and culture. And I spent, the last decade up in the freezing north in Fort McMurray, Alberta working with crew crews of, hardworking operators making oil and and largely being a a disconnected worker. So, you know, I know what it's like to be alone. I I know what it's like to be a conventional worker.
 
It it's tough. I'm making decisions, with out of date information. It's information where I'm walking around with out of date papers, and I'm disconnected from my crew. I'm really frustrated.
 
And I I know there's a lot of, industrial professionals on this call. We we know that we need to work differently, and that technology is part of our solution.
 
And and why are we not doing that? And and so Suncor started this journey of connecting our workers about eight years ago.
 
And and the biggest hurdle that we have in our environments is that we work with hazardous locations. So what does that mean? We sometimes have fugitive emissions and gases or dust that under certain circumstances, when you bring an electronic device into the area, it can cause a risk for explosion. So we can't just go to the Samsung store or the Apple store or wherever and just take something right off the shelf and bring it to our hazardous environments. It it needs to be a certified product.
 
And so, we've really invested in finding out what are those right tools to connect our workers.
 
And and because we've invested in this, workers now have information at their fingertips.
 
They are able to make good decisions. They are collaborating all the time every day with their crew. They feel empowered to do their jobs, and they are truly connected workers.
 
And and I'm delighted to say that for all of our frontline workers we're looking at, like you had mentioned, about ten thousand frontline workers. Everyone is a connected worker, and and it's just been really empowering to see, what that's done for our workforce.
 
So you can go to the next slide there, John.
 
Of course.
 
Awesome.
 
So, so in terms of, like, connected gas detection and and asset tracking, Suncor has been on that journey for over a decade. We've we've been a first mover in this space. And when we first started going down this program of connecting our workers with connected gas detection, a lot of people said we couldn't do it. Like like, you're not going to get unionized workers wearing a wearable device that tracks their location. And, and and lo and behold, ten years later, we have this program and we have engagement, in in ninety to a hundred percent of cases. So, so how do we do it?
 
Ten years ago, we we got involved with our legal teams early. We were fully transparent with our we are looking at connected gas detection for the workforce, but what does that look like in terms of privacy and less legislation?
 
And we were fully open. We worked together as as a broad team. And, what we set initially was a precedent, a very simple precedent that you're not able to track workers when it comes to individual performance. What did that mean from a legal standpoint? We're not allowed to look at worker information on location if it's not a collection of five workers or more.
 
And the other piece is we can only see your location in the event of an emergency.
 
So with this particular wearable, that was if we had, like, a man down alarm where we didn't see someone moving for a certain period of time, if we had a certain level of exposure to gas, or if the individual pressed their a button on their wearable that would be like a panic button for help. Mhmm. So we kept it very high level, like, extremely, like, very easy to understand.
 
And it was again, this was so disruptive that we actually printed out these two guiding principles on big plotter paper, and we posted it in our permit center so that all of the workers could see, these were the rules of engagement.
 
And, and, you know, we started with a small pilot, and and we were off and and it it went relatively well. We actually learned a lot about our operation, just by virtue of having the connected gas detection. It it was extremely positive.
 
Some of the things that I get asked commonly is is, like, I get about the lessons learned that we have. And the biggest one I have to say is is there's was a lot of coaching, especially with our, leadership teams about how rules of engagement work with this technology.
 
Kind of like the CN article at the beginning of your presentation, John.
 
If you don't establish a strong foundation of trust, you're a nonstarter with with with using wearables for for your frontline workforce because you you cannot force people, or at least force like, the, the critical mass to engage in the program.
 
So we we establish this really strong culture of trust, and we even had times where, some of our management would say, hey, we wanna know who is in the washroom because, like, we saw some vandalism in there over the last shift. Are we able to, like, track where workers were in that area? And and our team, part part of what we do is is we actually coach leaders and say, no. That's a violation of the the the rules that we've established in our area.
 
You can't actually do that. And by being really firm with these rules, and really taking that safety approach, we've been able to maintain trust, so much so that, we have excellent engagement. Workers really believe in the program, and and they feel like they are safer and that that the the company is is investing in their safety. So, so it's been really good.
 
Excellent. Excellent. Oh, go ahead, Andrea.
 
No. Back to you, John.
 
Well, thank you so much for sharing all those insights, the learnings, the engagement, and, you know, I think we're gonna visit some of those highlights that you touched on as we move into our next segment here of our conversation. And and that's five essential tips that we're gonna recommend for a successful rollout.
 
And, Andrea and I are gonna kinda tackle these together with you as we go through, and provide some additional insights. And I think you'll you'll hear as we touch on each of these some of the some of the, hot buttons that Andrea kind of mentioned as well. So the first, tip for a successful connected safety rollout is really, engage those stakeholders early. Early conversations and collaboration is so important to ensure that you have that worker buy in. And I'm sure we can all agree to safety is probably the most important key interest that everyone can really align around. So it's a it's a fantastic topic for, for having conversations around. And, you know, there's some statistics on the screen here that I wanted to make sure I point out that seventy percent of organizations report lone worker safety incidents, and then one in five of these incidents were either quite or very severe.
 
And I think it's important to understand those statistics. And, also, the one of our global energy, company partners, there's a quote on the screen. I think it really underscores the importance of messaging, of transparency as well when when you're, approaching, a connected safety program. And it reads, we tell our people not monitoring. We're not monitoring you, but we're monitoring if you pull your emergency SOS latch.
 
So we it'll give your location so we know where you are, and we can radio you to see if you're okay. And talking to an actual person if you need help is critical. So, again, you can see the messaging. It's all about safety, when you're having this initial stakeholders, conversations as well. So bringing everyone kinda wrapping it up, bringing everyone together early, aligning with your workers and unions respective unions on the right to privacy while reiterating, you know, that the main goal is safety first is paramount.
 
Now with that said, I'm sure many of you on the on the call and in this session here know that some unions fear that by having workers having connected safety devices, they may feel that every move will be tracked beyond safety incidents. And, you know, Andrea kind of addressed some of that as well, such as, hey. They're tracking if I'm going on a lunch break or if I'm in the bathroom or if I'm, you know, tracking my location at every time. So, you know, that's a common, you know, topic. So disengagement early, engaging with stakeholders early, having those upfront conversations really instills trust and, again, gives us the opportunity to, reinforce that it's all about safety first.
 
And so with that said, Andrea, what are what are some of more of your thoughts that you have, on this particular, first tip?
 
So I I agree with all of these.
 
Do not underestimate how early you need to get your stakeholders engaged.
 
I mean, especially when we were doing this ten years ago, our lawyers were getting their heads around, what is what are the local legislation in terms of worker privacy.
 
We're benchmarking with what others are doing in the industry. And then and then moreover than just engaging stakeholders early, like, being really transparent with your union, and and working hand in hand as much as possible. It it always pays off in dividends, and it did for us. So, so, yeah, I agree with all of these points, Joan.
 
Excellent. Thanks, Andrea. That brings us to our second tip, for successful connected safety rollout, and that's set parameters for data use. And we kind of alluded to some of that in our conversation so far.
 
You know, we recommend creating a a mutual agreement of sorts between the organization or company and the union.
 
And, that would govern how the devices would be used or would not be used and in order to ensure the governance of the new technology.
 
You know, many of my personal clients, utility clients in particular over the, last few years have created such an such a document, an acceptable use policy document, if you will, with tremendous success because, again, it really helps with the transparency and alignment and open communication. So, in one example here, you can see from another one of our partners, at BlackLine for it's waste management.
 
And it reads, we were always transparent and consistent about the data we collected from the device usage. When we sent out the compliance report, for example, everyone got the same email. It also helped reinforce that we were all one team and that these were our results.
 
So a big, you know, transparency, team atmosphere type approach, all for one and one for all kind of thing. So, Andrea, any additional thoughts and insights, on this recommendation?
 
Totally. This is so important.
 
This is where you really need to live your values because if you don't, it's you're a nonstarter. Like, we like I said, we had a a couple guiding principles in terms of the data shall not be used for individual performance.
 
We had those printed on plotter paper and and large letters and posted in our permit center. And we've been living true to those values for the last ten years.
 
If we violated that, and and I find that people they always figure out, like, how you how would you know that Andrew was in the washroom vandalizing the washroom?
 
Like, it it erodes the trust, and and workers do not participate in the program.
 
And if you have no trust, the this program doesn't work. So, this this is extremely important to me, as well as just even another anecdote.
 
Workers realized that we were not using their their, their location data or their their alarm data gas alarm data for performance management, but we were starting to use it to make their work better for them. So as I had mentioned, when we first started this program, we got a lot of alarms that were being reported for gas exposures that we didn't before when we weren't connected.
 
But when you're connected, it's it's really at one source of truth. It's it's an honest source of truth. And we realized at our operation that we had some opportunities to to fix the way that we do some things. So we actually put an engineered controls in areas because we identified them as being a higher risk than if when we were not connected and and people weren't reporting as much. So, the workers could see the benefit of the program immediately, and it was not about individual performance.
 
Excellent. Fantastic points. Thank you so much for sharing all that insight. It's powerful and very valuable.
 
That brings us to our third, tip for successful connected safety rollout, and that's pilot first.
 
Where it's not necessarily required, but we recommend this especially if this is a new brand new conversation you're having. You know, if you think it and then liken it to you, we wouldn't buy a car without test driving it, especially if it involves your frontline workers, your employees, your company culture.
 
Pilots also provide some other things aside from test driving a technology.
 
It it provides a forum for engagement, you know, an exchange of ideas where those engaged can see firsthand how it provides additional levels of safety versus just taking someone's word for it.
 
It also, ensures, you know, union folk or would I'd also recommend you ensure union folks are engaged in these pilots.
 
That was a must as well for many of my utility partners over the past few years because it provide it allows it brings them into the conversation early, not just leaders and, you know, middle management and upper management, but the union folks and union leadership because it provides them that opportunity to provide their feedback and contribute, have a voice, helping them, you know, you know, be a part and guide the process as you go through the journey together.
 
One other aspect of of that's a benefit when you do a pilot is that champions develop, whether it be a union champion or a field supervisor. But through that process, whether it be a frontline worker or a supervisor, not only leadership as they go through that process, they now know firsthand and can articulate why it's so important, what the value is that a connected safety program will bring.
 
And, in some regards to, through this process, it allows field employees and supervisors to actually have sometimes a bigger voice than a CEO or president because they're really helping sculpt what the program's gonna do and how it's gonna be communicated.
 
So what do you think, Andrea? Any other tidbits and insights you can provide on this topic?
 
Yeah. Like, I I love the idea of a pilot. That's what we did. We had a pilot first, like you said, to get the champions rolling to work out any of the bugs.
 
But then I would say for everyone on the call, you don't wanna lose that momentum.
 
Like, the value of these projects is to deploy them at scale.
 
So, once we proved out the pilot, we had a plan in place to aggressively deploy across enterprise to get the value.
 
So that that's the only thing I'd add there, John. Thanks.
 
Excellent. Yeah. Great point.
 
The one constant has changed. You never know what's gonna happen six months, a year, two years later.
 
Okay. That brings us to our fourth tip that we wanna kinda have some conversation around in for a successful connected safety rollout, and that's third party monitoring as an option.
 
You know, some companies choose to use third party monitoring such as black line monitoring. I mentioned that on, I think, the second or third slide when we were beginning our conversation here versus doing monitoring of their employees' connected safety devices internally.
 
Third party monitoring or utilizing black line, for example, can actually provide some extra insulation or separation, if that is seen as desirable. For example, crews may may feel more comfortable that they don't know personally who the monitoring personnel is that's responding to their SOS events or health events in particular.
 
So, it's a good option to consider if it helps you if you believe it helps your engagement, the acceptance, and if you feel it'll support, positive change management in your organization.
 
Just to provide some context of, BlackLine's client base, about two thirds of our clientele will utilize black line safety monitoring, and the other third choose to do it internally because they have the resources, the, structure in place to do so, and or they just feel it's it's a a better fit, for their change management and for their organization. So, before I turn it over to Andrew, one other thing that just comes to mind that I wanna touch on is that, employee safety can also be monitored anonymously if you choose. So for example, with our solution, you can have the option to use the device assignment, versus a specific individual name assignment by device as well. I just mentioned that because some people want some extra, you know, anonymous an anonymity. Excuse me. I I gotta say, though, most of our clients, once they go through their pilot, they realize that that option is not necessarily, direction that they wanna head.
 
But, Andrea, thoughts here on this topic?
 
So, John, we don't use a third party monitoring.
 
I mean, Suncor makes just shy of eight hundred thousand barrels of oil a day, so we have quite a few, like, twenty four seven operations where we have console operators that will be doing this work.
 
But I can I see the value in this program definitely from, like, a third party standpoint or if you're not quite of quite as big of an operation as we are, and and other considerations? But but we actually don't use this third party monitoring, and, and that's the right fit for us.
 
So Excellent.
 
I appreciate that insight and feedback. So that brings us to our fifth tip, for successful connected safety roll roll out, and that's communicate the impact.
 
You know, we've kinda touched on it through some of the other, slides in our conversation, but reiterating and sharing the data that's being used and some of the quotes from our clients is so paramount and important, to build worker confidence and still trust.
 
Also, you know, utilizing and setting key safety performance indicators where you can ultimately then show that, safety safety has improved, you know, showing the usage, showing compliance rates. There's abundance amount of information that you can provide when you track some of these key performance indicators using connected safety.
 
And then I'll touch also this last point, I think, is just so important. Share and and, Andrea, I think you mentioned to it as well. Share safety success stories, living your values, sharing the testimonials on how coworkers got help when they needed it. Really, again, you know, that's out of this three year pilot.
 
That's three year implementation, and then that's ongoing. You know, your year one, year two really builds that culture that, lays that foundation for success for your connected safety program. And that and that sharing of success stories, you know, could be through a newsletter on a monthly or quarterly or annual basis. It could be at your monthly or quarterly safety meetings.
 
We're just sharing it via group or company emails, but sharing often, those success stories is so powerful.
 
Andrea, any comments on that? Last tip?
 
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
 
I love this communicate impact.
 
So for us, again, we started this ten years ago, and it's almost like every crew has a story now about how being connected, whether it's with the connected gas station device or another device, how how it's impacted them from from a health and safety standpoint and a quality of life standpoint.
 
And it and it's it's crazy how if if you if you nail this and and you really have that culture of trust and you have engagement with the program, once you start getting critical mass of these really, inspiring stories, the the program remains as long as you as you as long as you protect the trust.
 
And I I think back to when when the program started, I was a a young EIT engineer in training for those of you in in the states.
 
And I remember that, someone was wearing a connected, like, man down monitor just as a wearable, which was, again, disruptive for the time several years ago. And they were experiencing chest pain, when they were on the top deck of a of a Coker, replacement project for one of our turnarounds.
 
So so the person in duress, it was not even a workplace scenario, but, they pressed their panic button, and emergency services were able to to administer first aid to the individual really quickly. And and and, you know, the whole site knew about that. And that was one of the first, instances of success with with our wearable program at Suncor. And even just recently, one of our crews up in in Fort McMurray, Alberta, where their scaffolder one one scaffolder on a night shift fell was incapacitated, and they actually broke their arm.
 
And their motion detector, their man down sensor went off. And instead of the individual lying around for who knows how long, up to a couple hours when when people are like, oh, we don't know where this individual is. Maybe we should look for them.
 
Response was was administered within five minutes because of that that that device. So, we just have a whole catalog of stories, and because of that, as as well as maintaining the trust, we've we've had really, really awesome success.
 
Wow. Powerful. Thank you so much for sharing, you know, your insights there and the value of sharing those success stories and and communicating the impact. Excellent stuff. So, that brings us to our last segment here is really just the key takeaways, you know, and kind of a recap of what Andrea and I just went through. And then, you know, first, make sure we engage stakeholders early because that early collaboration ensures that worker buy in for sure.
 
And two, set the parameters for data use, aligning with your union, and having a common document and an agreement, really ensures full transparency and, with the workers and the union folks.
 
Third, pilot. Pilot the op pilot disconnected safety program if it's a new conversation importance up and down, the chain in your organization versus just staying with the safety department, for example.
 
And then the option of using third party monitoring, you know, if you don't have the resources and capabilities such, that Suncor has, you know, you have that option.
 
And also you you know, having professionally trained agent center, can also provide some insulation as we talked about if that was a positive thing for your change management aspects. And then we just wrapped up and talked about the communicate impact.
 
Share those success stories high and wide out of the from your pilot, out of the gates, and then ongoing. They are powerful.
 
So, we hopefully, you thought this information was good for all of you, and, you know, we value the opportunity to provide the five practical ways your organization can, can use to have a successful connected safety rollout. I just I welcome you. You can see on the screen there, there's a QR code.
 
If you have your phones, you haven't already done so, please take a scan that code, and it's gonna take you to a public article that speaks to many of the topics that Andrea and I went over today.
 
I'm sure you'll find it useful as well for having future conversations within your organization.
 
And I think with that, I believe, we're gonna move back. We're gonna move on to some question and answering. And, David, are you there?
 
I sure am. Guys, great presentation. Thanks very much. And not surprisingly, we've got some good questions, already out of the gate. Again, everybody, all you gotta do is use the ask a question console to add your questions to the mix. Let's grab the first one here.
 
And, with all these questions, I'm gonna ask them, broadly so that, either or both of you can answer.
 
This first one, if you have, some holdouts who are resistant and just won't use the technology, what do you do? That's that's gotta be a universal problem right there.
 
Yeah. You want me to go first on that one, Andrea?
 
Go for it.
 
Well, I could first I do wanna first say that, it's a common concern.
 
And one of the resources that actually we have in place at BlackLine is a connected safety technology adoption white paper. It really and it's been developed over years with many of our enterprise clients, lessons learned, and to dos and action items. So you're thinking about everything prior to going live with your program.
 
But, really, the best way to prevent or reduce holdouts when you deploy is you're on that front end. We kinda talked about it. You know, it's having that open dialogue, creating the in an acceptable use policy.
 
So, that alone and when that's disseminated, and the union or workers understand what it's all about, that it's all about safety, we'll reduce those holdouts. But, vocal and visible leadership would be probably one of my, one of the points I'd I would say is important in this regard. You know, the executives and frontline managers should should have a vocal, invisible voice identifying and managing and socializing it because it's gonna take time. You're not gonna have a hundred percent participation right out of the gates. It's just that's how change goes. You wanna build to where your objective is, but it's gonna take time. So your your visible and vocal leadership constantly reinforcing the importance of it will reduce eliminate and or reduce holdouts over time.
 
And then one or two tips too would be, you know, surface resistance as soon as you can. Like, if you have if, a middle manager has one or two employees that are just saying, hey. We're not gonna use this device, you know, surface them right away. Because typically, you wanna operate under the premise that people are resisting for a good reason.
 
Maybe they don't understand the full concept of it or it didn't get to them. But bring those forefronts and concerns ahead quickly, address them, and it'll, you know, it'll further build credibility. And then not to keep, you know, saying the same thing over and over over and over, but celebrate your successes. The more you celebrate your successes and your culture change that's in the connected safety technology is embraced, those holdouts will reduce automatically because they're gonna see that this is something that the organization is doing and it's important, and they're gonna see their peers who've had great experiences with it.
 
So sorry for the and it'll improve your adoption. But, Andrea, do you wanna take a swing at that as well?
 
Yeah. Like, I feel like you're nicer than I am. So, so I agree with everything that John's saying.
 
And and I still I I go back to you can't have this program without that culture of trust because if if everyone's not complying and everyone's not engaged, like you there's no way to to manage through that. You need to have a culture of trust. But if you have a few holdouts, that becomes a performance management issue.
 
And my workers know that, know, we may not know location, but there are compliance reports. We know if people have been wearing their monitor, throughout the duration of a certain period of time. And and we I also believe so strongly, and if you have strong field supervision, as I was a supervisor, I know who's not wearing their monitor versus who is, and that becomes a performance management conversation.
 
So that's where I'm at.
 
I'm gonna pivot off of that with another question we've got here, which is what is the best way to figure out whether, wearables are being used by all crews on the, you know, in the workforce?
 
I imagine reporting is part of it.
 
Yeah. Yeah. You want me to go first there, Andrew? Alright. Well, Andrea, touched on it already, and I'll I'll kinda circle back to that. But, the first step, really, all of our clients have a their own individual BlackLine live account.
 
And the welcome page, if you will, the first page on within that account when they logged in is is a live maps page. So you can easily see right there the devices that are in use where they're at. But also there's a dashboard too. The dashboard will show, in one area, you know, your total fleet, and it'll also give give you an idea and a snapshot of those devices that are online and active. So that gives you kind of a holistic or or high level overview of it. But as Andrea had mentioned, black the black within BlackLine Live, Suncor and our clients have access to analytics, historical data and the reporting that's being streamed in and collected from the usage of the devices. So, basically, our partners had access to the over twelve different automated stock reports.
 
But regarding, you know, are they being used, you would go to our usage of compliance report, and you basically can not only see the usage, but if you have gas detection on your devices as well, you can also see if they've been bumped properly or calibrated properly, which is very important. You wanna make sure that if folks have a a device that's not only the worker, but gas detection, that they're out in the field with a compliant device.
 
And then those reports, they could be broken down further. You can even drill down by location, by team, by data range too. So you have lots of flexibility to kinda have insight on usage. But, Andrea?
 
Yeah. And I was just gonna add on, like, so those reports are fantastic, very but, again, I'm such a strong believer, and it goes with that culture of trust that, you can do an awful lot if you have engaged supervision and management field presence.
 
You can you can manage so many of these issues if if you are engaged in in leadership.
 
So, that's that's all I have to add there, John.
 
So, talking about leadership, Andrea, you spoke about, building trust and value with field workers and unions.
 
But, obviously, there's the other side of the spectrum there, which is getting buy in from management and the executive team, you know, on the value proposition for connected worker safety. Any thoughts there?
 
Yeah.
 
So I get this question all the time. So specific specific to, like, wearables when it comes to connected gas detection, it's it is not like, the the main driver is safety is health and safety and regulatory. So at Suncor, what we said is, we know our biggest risks in our operating plants, and and one of the biggest ones is exposure to gas and fatality.
 
That that made the top four out of out of the risks that we manage at our operating sites. So, if there's an engineered solution, the right thing to do is to implement it for our worker safety to manage that risk.
 
Additionally, we knew that we weren't reporting, as strongly to our regulatory body as we could be. And by investing in a in a tool like a connected gas detection monitor, we are showing the regulators that we are really invested in making sure that our workers are safe.
 
That what are the limitations, challenges, or solutions with, regard this is a technical question with regard to signal in underground locations such as steam tunnels?
 
Yeah. Well, I can go there. Great question. Underground does, provides, you know, certain obstacles.
 
What we typically do is when we have clients that have underground facilities or bunkers, if you will, or even facilities even if it's just in a basement where the walls are very thick or how they're made is, you know, we first, we test that we have our devices get tested with the connectivity.
 
You know, we have a g seven c device that provides cellular connectivity and and pulls from Verizon, AT and T, and T Mobile seamlessly. So it really depending upon the the mobile connect mobile provider in the area, the devices typically provides much greater connectivity than a cell phone. So that alone could could assist in connectivity in certain areas like that. We also have a a g seven x, which has a not only connects via cellular, but also satellite.
 
But there's gonna be certain, but, basically, the only way is to really test the area, bring devices in. Some of our clients have found that, you know, in certain facilities, especially underground or in dams, they may have to put cell boosters up to ensure that they have connected connectivity for their employees in certain areas. So it's kind of a an approach where you, really go in and and evaluate it step by step. I hope that answers the question for you.
 
Excellent. And, another tech question. This one comes to us all the way from the University of Malta. So, thanks for attending.
 
And that is, are your devices, ATEX approved? ATEX, the, the EU standard?
 
Yes.
 
There you go. Easy enough. Easy enough.
 
And then, going back to, the culture and onboarding and, and sort of the the main question of today's webinar.
 
What about ongoing training and onboarding? In other words, you know, you've had a successful rollout.
 
People are on the in the workforce are using wearables. They're wearing wearables. But now you have new employees coming on board.
 
How do you maintain that adoption and that acceptance culture with new employer employees that are coming on board?
 
So I'll I'll take that one, John. Yep.
 
So it's just become the way that we do work.
 
And people know that when they come to work at Suncor, that this is how we work. I actually I actually think that people choose to work at Suncor because we are so heavily tech enabled. And I think about, you know, if I had my children or my sisters and brothers coming to work at an operating facility, I would want one where there is an investment in technology. So I think that, we do have an advantage that way.
 
How we manage new employees coming in to our sites is, they would get training on the device. They would learn all about our protocols and rules of engagement similar to how they get other training about, say, like, fall arrest or, you know, h two s training or or any other training that you would require to be qualified for an industrial environment. So we we have that at our facility at Suncor.
 
You can do some really nifty things like web based training or, like, other interactive training, but it's just how we do work now.
 
Yeah.
 
I can There you go.
 
I can add on that as well if you want, David.
 
Please.
 
The so when we initially do our deployments, we have a a client implementation coordinator team, but a designated client implementation coordinator that does everything from the account setup, but also oversees those critical training exercises, for supervisors as well, you know, to supervisors, employees on how to use the device, but also how to utilize the BlackLineLive and the analytics and the reporting.
 
But, a common practice is for, many of our clients to actually have one or two of those trainings recorded, and then they host them on their internal website as well so they could be reused.
 
And then also, BlackLine has a very robust YouTube channel. So you don't necessarily have to you can even break down just functionality of the use of the device or the reportings or use of BlackLine Live, but there's a a whole slew of, YouTube videos that also can be housed internally in our clients' websites to be used for those new and hot new hires, you know, years later.
 
That's great stuff right there.
 
Glad to hear it. Okay. We've got time for a couple more questions. Anybody, if you've got a burning question, you can always use the ask a question console to add it, to our mix here.
 
Next question. Are there differences in pushback or adoption between different types of workforces?
 
For instance, do lone workers in the oil and gas industry, say workers in high traffic shipping and distribution centers that might wanna use wearable techs as part of, like, a geofencing application or something like that?
 
So, like, I can speak on my experience. Like, I again, I work, like, heavy oil and gas. We have some conventional and offshore.
 
And, like, the the most challenging user base is always the direct unionized operations folks.
 
Mhmm.
 
But again, like like, using, like, the the building blocks that we discussed and that that, the rules of engagement, they've they've been on board.
 
But, like, there are contract workforce, and a lot of our maintainers, they've been easier in terms of adopting the technology, just I think because, they're not, I guess, like, the direct operators, which, are are strongest, in terms of, their voice with the union.
 
I can I can imagine that it would be more challenging if you're going to be using these devices for worker, geofencing and and high traffic areas?
 
I I it could be challenging, but it would have to go back to the messaging of what's in it for them. Like, as if you can accurately and compellingly articulate what's in it for a worker, there should be engagement and buy in. And, if that geofencing is for our workers' safety, again, like, hopefully, you get engagement, you start getting some of those good stories, and then you get the momentum to to continue on with the program.
 
But, unfortunately, I don't actually have a ton of user based knowledge outside of oil and gas. So, John, I don't know if you have anything to add to that.
 
Yeah. I can share. Like, oil and gas is a is a, I guess, more mature industry for us. So we don't experience a whole lot of pushback in that regard, relative to some of the other verticals. I I've been with BlackLine for over six years now, and the whole connected safety conversation when I first started, it was so brand new. People just didn't know what it was. And now six years later, it has evolved, and it's become, as we mentioned, a standard.
 
You know?
 
Several years ago, engagement with utilities, there many of them have unions. It was not a mainstay. It was a lot of conversations. And now, the conversation is is is more common, and it's a very it's a much easier conversation. So I think as time has gone on the past six years in particular, there's really we don't really see a ton of resistance in specific industries anymore because people understand what it's all about. Hope that adds some insight to that question.
 
Absolutely.
 
And then, another question is is okay. So we've asked about differences in pushback.
 
Do you see any commonalities in the kinds of initial push pushback, when it comes to adopting wearables?
 
Yeah. Yeah. You want me to go first?
 
Well, I think I had the the most the most common one is kind of what we touched on.
 
If if there is pushback because everyone wants to be safe.
 
I think, you know, everyone wants to be safe, but it really comes down to people are the most common aspect is just I don't wanna be tracked.
 
And that typically comes from, maybe the, you know, the those more tenured folks in the workforce who've gotten along and they've survived without needing one, but it's really they don't wanna be tracked. But the reality is, you know, as I've engaged with so many partners over the years is they're already have their location is already maybe built into their vehicle and their truck or into their personal cell phone or their work cell phone. So that has actually really reduced significantly, but that's probably the most common one I can share with you.
 
Yeah. It goes back to, like, like how CN that CN article that John pulled up at the beginning where my operators are like, look, Andrea. People are being tracked. And it's like like, no. Like like, that actually doesn't go along with our guiding principles.
 
It it goes back to worker trust and and the workers believing that that you are actually, living your values. So, yeah. It's interesting.
 
Yeah. Well yeah. Alright. Well, it looks like that's it for our questions.
 
So we're gonna wind things down here.
 
Everybody remember in the next day or two, we're gonna be emailing you a link to an archived version of the webinar so that you go so you go back and view it or share it with a coworker.
 
And, so we're good there. Now before we sign off, I wanna give a few notes of thanks. First off, I wanna thank our, expert speakers for today. John Storrs, business development director for, BlackLine Safety and, Andrea Heinz, field enablement for Suncor Energy. John, Andrea, thank you guys so much.
 
Thank you.
 
Yeah. Great stuff. Terrific.
 
And then, and then, also, I wanna thank our sponsor for today's webinar, BlackLine Safety.
 
Many, many thanks, to them for making, today's presentation possible.
 
And last but not least, I want to, thank everybody out there in the audience who listened in and participated, with us today. Thanks for all those great questions. If I missed any questions, don't worry. We'll be giving those questions, to John and Andrea.
 
But, again, thanks very much for the interest and involvement.
 
With that, I think we're gonna sign off. I hope everyone has a great rest of the day. But for now, goodbye until the next occupational health and safety webinar.
 
Thank you.