Voluntary Protection Program visits Cannon

People and safety go together, as evidenced by the recent visit to Cannon by the Department of Defense’s Voluntary Protection Program initial site assessment team.

The team, consisting of both military and civilian employees, was here from Nov. 3 through 7. They visited various work areas on base to give commanders and other personnel some guidance on going above and beyond complying with standards to, over time, be awarded “star” status.

Star status is designed for installations with detailed, successful safety and health management programs.

Alan Westin, with the DoD VPP center of excellence, said, we looked at the flightline, Civil Engineer building, orderly rooms, and in general, places where people were working.

Visiting a total of approximately 25 locations, the team split into two to spend as much time as possible at the places they went to, conducting 29 cross-section interviews and 70 informal interviews with airmen of all ranks.

With the implementation of VPP in progress, the wing safety office is acting as an advisor to base personnel at the lowest level.

“It’s an employee-driven program,” said Mr. Westin.

“The purpose of the program is to have continuous improvement (of reduced safety mishaps) and raise awareness of safety in a proactive way,” said Andy Zimmerly, Air Force Special Operations Command VPP manager.

The ultimate goal is to reduce injury and illness incidents by 60 to 75 percent and everyone in their respective offices and shops to act as their unit safety representative.

Of the more than seven million sites, including DoD installations and private companies, that are eligible to implement VPP, only approximately 2,000 sites are involved, said Mr. Westin.

“It’s a culture change and people are buying into it,” said Mr. Westin. “VPP is on people’s lips and they’re happy about implementing it in a proactive way, and it’s also great for boosting morale."

It’s not a pass or fail assessment, said Lt. Col. Wade Weisman, Director for Occupational Health and Force Health Protection, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Air Force.

After identifying strengths and weaknesses, the team presented a guide to the 27th Special Operations Wing commander, Col. Timothy Leahy, as well as various group and squadron commanders from the base.

The guide offered ways safety could be improved on base, as well as pointed out some positive things the base is already doing to increase safety and reduce mishaps.

“The vehicle maintenance shop is one of the cleanest I’ve ever seen,” said Colonel Weisman.

Some other strong points were overall safety performances and a dedicated civil engineer for contractor oversight, among others.

As the VPP integrates with the expansion of aircraft and personnel, the room for improvement is constantly presenting itself, said Colonel Weisman.

Some opportunities mentioned during the presentation included employee involvement, to involve more personnel in routine safety inspection processes and establishing a VPP cadre, where people of all ranks would be on the Cannon VPP team.

The scoring system presented included three sections: “complete,” “in progress” and a “not started” section. The three are not to be misinterpreted as not being in compliance, but as a tool that the VPP uses to help installations meet the guidelines for the VPP.

Cannon is 38 percent “complete", meaning the base meets or exceeds one of the 246 VPP elements. It also scored 44 percent “in progress", meaning that the processes of becoming complete are in place, and scored 18 percent of “not started".

However, as soon as a process begins it immediately becomes placed in the “in progress” section.

The path toward “star” status for installations can take time to accomplish, but, as Mr. Westin observed, Cannon is well on its way.

“Cannon cares about people,” he said.