Safety Is Job One

Providing reliable and affordable electricity to our cooperative members’ homes, farms and businesses depends on many factors, the most important being safety.

Your cooperative’s employees receive safety training continually and conduct and share best practices through a coordinated statewide safety program. Along with daily safety meetings and briefings, safety councils meet monthly to review and plan safety tasks and go over close calls. Annual safety conferences include the latest trends, technology and processes to ensure our workers’ safety.

Training events, such as the underground and aboveground schools, take place twice a year. Apprentice training in basic meters and transfers is held annually. There is continuous orientation training for new employees and supervisors—plus professional and technical development training—to help ensure electricity is there when you want it.

Recordkeeping and audits ensure safety is maintained for regulatory compliance. They are also used to determine the safety program’s effectiveness. Our member cooperatives are part of a self-insurance fund, our own workers’ compensation program. Through our self-insurers fund and because of the safety program described above, our member cooperatives enjoy a favorable experience modifier in terms of workers’ compensation programs.

We used to say in the Army, “Show me a unit with a great safety program, and I will show you a great unit.” The same can be said for great cooperatives.