Shauna-Rae Swanson: Driven by a passion for people

When Shauna-Rae Swanson studied social work at university, she had no idea that the people skills she was learning were going to be applied to a career in safety training. Today she is GFL’s regional Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) manager for British Columbia.

Swanson’s life path took an unexpected turn, when shortly after graduating she was facilitating a workshop and one of the attendees offered her an interview which led to her first job in safety training.

“EHS is a people field that’s based on teamwork,” Swanson said. “It’s about working with people, meeting them where they're at and understanding their challenges from a health and safety perspective.”

As regional EHS manager, Swanson oversees the health and safety systems and provides support to frontline workers and the operations and leadership teams. She trains them to monitor the safety systems to maintain compliance with provincial safety regulators.

In June of 2024, GFL was awarded a Certificate of Recognition (COR) Achievement of Excellence Award (large employer) for 2023 by SafetyDriven on behalf of WorkSafeBC.

A lot of hard work went into the safety audits required to obtain the COR itself, including audits of the safety practices at 17 of GFL’s 50 BC facilities and interviews with nearly 10% of the 1,500 employees.

“You need to achieve a score of 80% to receive a COR so the fact that we scored 95% and were recognized with the Achievement of Excellence award provided recognition to the entire province for everyone’s hard work,” Swanson said.

She credits everyone for this achievement from the frontline workers to the supervisors and managers all across BC.

Swanson visits each of GFL’s BC locations at least once a year.

“A really important part of health and safety is developing and maintaining relationships with the people I work with,” Swanson said. “That's how I learn who the safety champions are within the organization and how I can support them and encourage them to share their safety awareness with others.”

One effective way Swanson motivates safety is by establishing creative rewards programs. In Richmond, BC, the safety winner receives the best parking space, a lunch and a letter of recommendation for their employee file. In Coquitlam, a Safety Champion trophy is handed out quarterly as well as many other Role Model awards.

When not promoting safety at GFL, Swanson also serves on the Waste Management Association of BC’s board of directors where she has the opportunity to promote GFL as a leader in waste and recycling management in BC.

She has also served as a child ambassador for World Vision which gave her the opportunity to visit communities in Peru where she visited with children in the schools, as well as her sponsored child.

In whatever spare time she has, Swanson is teaching herself piano and enjoying the beautiful BC outdoors with her family.

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