March 08 Issue - Employee Monthly Magazine

Spotlight

Proactive efforts yield results

Howard Nekimken attributes improvements in snow removal across the Laboratory to the Institutional Worker Safety and Security team's working with facility operations directors to enhance and expedite the process. Photo by Dixon Wolf

During his 12 years officiating high school football, Howard Nekimken of the Associate Directorate for Experimental Physical Sciences operations team saw his share of critics. But the skills he honed on the field—assertiveness, decisiveness, and an ability to handle detractors—serve him well in his new role as chair of the Laboratory's Institutional Worker Safety and Security Team (WSST).

With the scrutiny the Laboratory has been under, Nekimken believes it's important to be proactive and not only identify safety and security problems, but contribute to solving them.

"I understand the cynicism, based on what's happened in the past," said Nekimken, who came to the Laboratory as a postdoc in Analytical Chemistry and has been here 22 years. "We need to be patient and persistent. I encourage people to get involved in a WSST and see for themselves. The WSSTs are starting to make a difference."

In addition to the approximately 3,500 Yaktrax® ice traction devices for shoes provided to employees this winter to help reduce the number of slips, trips, and falls, the team is backing the use of cell phone detectors, which are being tested in multiple Laboratory locations and already have prevented several incidents of cell phones inadvertently being taken into areas they shouldn't be in.

Timely emergency response is another area in which the institutional WSST is investing resources. "We identified issues and have worked closely with Jerry Ethridge [associate director for Infrastructure and Site Services] to ensure the issues get corrected. This is the way it needs to be," said Nekimken. "Management and employees need to team up to address issues. Employees need to get involved, and management needs to be committed to supporting this process."

"WSSTs recognize how important every employee's contribution is to the Lab and that people are the most important resource," he said. "Teamwork and firsthand involvement in safety and security are giving employees hope and a feeling that they are important."

For more information about the Institutional Worker Safety and Security Team, go online to http://int.lanl.gov/esh/wsst/index.shtml.

-Mig Owens