Acapulco Pools started its Certificate of Recognition (COR) journey just about three years ago when the certification began gaining momentum in Ontario. I have had the pleasure to be part of this journey every step of the way and was absolutely thrilled to receive the news that we had achieved this standard of safety excellence in Canada. Our team’s hard work, blood, sweat, and tears had finally paid off.

This feat has certainly come with its challenges, but anything worthwhile pursuing is never easy. Our first hurdle was making the differentiation between OH&S legislation and COR, and having employees truly understand why we were pursuing this. It was easy once we positioned it this way: we were the leaders in the aquatic industry, and it was only natural to also be leaders in safety. When you see our worldwide aquatic facilities, it is clear that Acapulco Pools employees take pride in their work, so we wanted safety to be embedded in everything we do.
 

We quickly learned that to get genuine buy in from employees, their input is integral. For this reason, all of our Safe Work Practices and Safe Work Procedures were developed by different trades alongside management and reviewed by our Joint Occupational Health & Safety Committee. It was important for us to use our most valuable resources, our workers, to ensure that they had a safety program that works for them.

Another key element to our success has been investing in our employees and affording adequate resources to reach the goals we set out on an annual basis. It was a major turning point when we decided to go digital and provide all of our crew leads with tablets so that they could complete their paperwork on an app that could be reviewed in real-time. This largely increased reporting and communication from the field to the office, as well as overall organization of our safety program framework. 

We have invested in other ways such as holding annual start-up meetings and other informational events; sending all of our crew leads for supervisor training and ensuring that specialized training and new hire programs are carried out as needed. Our employee recognition program focuses on our safety goals and has been effective in increasing employee morale and our safety culture.
 
During this time I was also undergoing my own personal safety journey as I had only worked in construction for a couple of years. My first instinct was to read as much of the safety and construction literature that I could find. I even enrolled into the local college’s safety diploma course, but at the end of the day my most significant learning was from our project management team and field crew who were happy to share their experiences and insight. Each and every employee at Acapulco Pools should be proud of this achievement.