RICHMOND, KY FACILITY HONORED WITH GOVERNOR'S SAFETY & HEALTH AWARD
HAWKER® is proud to announce that our Richmond, KY battery manufacturing facility has been honored with the Governor’s Safety and Health Award. The Kentucky Labor Cabinet created the Governor’s Safety and Health Award to promote safety and health awareness, good sound work practices, and the reduction in injuries and illnesses in the workplace. The award provides employers and employees special recognition for outstanding safety and health performance and encourages the development of programs designed to reduce and eliminate occupational injuries and illnesses.
The Governor’s Safety and Health Award recognizes employers and their employees, who together have achieved the minimum required number of hours worked without experiencing a lost-time injury or illness at their establishment. The Richmond campus easily surpassed the 1 million man-hour threshold. Between September 7, 2019, and June 30, 2022, the safety-minded facility had over 2.2 million man-hours with no lost time due to illness or injury.
Eric Ripberger, Environment Health and Safety Manager at Richmond, submitted the application for the award and has been helping lead the charge towards a safe workplace environment. “There are four ingredients to our success,” he says. “We have excellent leadership, we have a fantastic EnerSys® Operating System (EOS) program that holds people accountable, we don’t skimp on resources for safety, and our employees really care.”
Eric is especially thankful for the support of leadership both at the local and corporate level, “Any time we’ve done the research and found safer equipment, they’ve given us the full go-ahead to make those changes and make the workplace safer for our employees.” Equipment like machine guards, personal protection equipment, safety shoes and dock locks are some examples of recent purchases to enhance the safety of the Richmond facility.
“Personal safety is an extension of sustainability,” says Troy Baxter, Director of Manufacturing Operations and manager of the Richmond plant. “When employees are healthy, safe and happy, we have a sustainable operation.” Troy was at the Richmond facility to receive the award with his team, which was presented by Lynn Whitehouse, Acting Director of Education and Training for the Kentucky Department of Labor.
While the Richmond team was certainly thrilled to receive the Governor’s Health and Safety Award, they know the job is one that is never complete. Troy observed, “Safety is an ongoing process and something that we need to continue to adapt and work towards. Making our facilities as safe as possible for our employees is an ongoing priority at our Richmond facility and all other EnerSys® locations.”
