GRAND RAPIDS, MI - In honor of National Safety Month, SpartanNash® recently shared several achievements made possible by its various safety initiatives. By implementing preventative and early-intervention measures to ensure the safety of its Associates, the food solutions company continues to fuel its People First culture.

“Becoming a leader in safety is critical to SpartanNash’s People First culture,” said Nicole Zube, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. “In addition to protecting Associates from injury and illness, a safe and healthy workplace improves morale, reduces turnover, lowers costs, and boosts productivity. As a food solutions company operating in the grocery industry, SpartanNash is committed to workplace safety in all our locations—but especially in our retail stores and distribution centers, where most of our Associates work.”

Some of the more notable measures implemented across SpartanNash’s operations include:

• A weekly safety call that includes the SpartanNash CEO, Executive Leadership Team, and all key stakeholders to discuss any lost time injuries that took place across the organization
• A Risk & Safety Manual to standardize and deploy systems needed to deliver excellence
• Quarterly safety campaigns aimed at primary incident causes
• Athletic trainers at the Grand Rapids and Omaha Distribution Centers to coach Associates on proper body mechanics and prevent musculoskeletal disorders

“In terms of broader trends in the supply chain, we’ve seen pallet heights increase over the past few years in an effort to drive freight optimization. While this helps lower operating costs, it also puts more stress on Associates already performing physical tasks—from Selectors to Loaders and Unloaders to Drivers—as they work outside their power zone,” Nicole adds.

To reduce injuries, SpartanNash has invested in additional electric pallet jacks, powered industrial trucks (PIT), and automation to support its Associates as they complete these highly physical tasks. These efforts, along with daily safety huddles and stretching exercises at the start of each shift, have had great success in ensuring Associates go home safely to their families every day.

“As part of our People First culture, we know that enhancing safety and well-being for Associates is critical, so we created a comprehensive strategy to support all Associates. Looking back to 2020, we made our commitment to safety part of our company’s strategic priorities. Using benchmark data, SpartanNash made a public commitment to achieve upper-quartile safety performance by 2025. Having delivered this milestone two years ahead of schedule in 2023, we’ve now set our sights even higher. We want to be the industry safety leader.”

This has been achieved by hiring a Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety, whose EHS team supports SpartanNash’s fleet safety and Drivers as well as distribution center and retail teams to enable the company’s operational excellence. This includes Safety Specialists at each distribution center and Assistant Store Directors who serve as safety captains at each store. These safety networks and project teams were established across the organization to increase the resources available to develop, deploy, and drive safety initiatives.

“At our two largest distribution centers—in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Omaha, Nebraska—we also hired athletic trainers to coach Associates on proper body mechanics and prevent musculoskeletal disorders,” Nicole says. “In many ways, our supply chain Associates are ‘industrial athletes,’ and we want to ensure they understand how to train their bodies accordingly. This includes proper stretching techniques; lifting, bending, and twisting training; and even weightlifting.”

Regular communication, meaningful, engaging work, and recognizing winning performance are all important parts of SpartanNash’s People First culture, Nicole tells me, and its approach to safety is no different.

“Our mantra at SpartanNash is to ‘Do Your Part – Be Safety Smart,’ which includes monthly safety campaigns, standard training, and daily team huddles. In these daily huddles, tips are shared, best practices are reinforced, and reminders are tailored to combat emerging safety trends,” she adds. “We also find every opportunity to recognize and celebrate good safety performance, including behavior-based safety efforts to engage Associates in peer observations and feedback; recognition of top-performing locations or teams at companywide Town Halls and other awards programs; and safety spotlights on digital boards, posters, and more.”

With these innovative measures in place to support workplace safety, SpartanNash is a leading example of how companies across the industry can prioritize the health and safety of their Associates.

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