
A local man has been recognized for his work in the safety field. Greg Zigulis, president of Sixth Sense Safety Solutions of Rogers City, earned the Safety Professional of the Year award from the Council on Practices and Standards of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), a nonprofit organization that has more than 35,000 members across the United States.
“The ASSP is an advocate and professional networking organization for individuals who are engaged in providing safety, health and environmental services to their employers or to organizations that they might serve as consultants,” Zigulis said.
He had earned similar honors from the Michigan chapters for his safety work, but this award is nation¬wide.
“This is the safety professional of the year that covers several practice specialties as well as several different common interest groups,” he said.
In his practice, Zigulis has focused on small or medium-size organizations who have questions about regulatory compliance or best practices in regards to safety and health, he explained.
“It could pertain to safety of machinery or equipment, chemicals or exposures to toxic materials they might work with or it could pertain to the management systems they use. To help them know and be confident they are doing the right things,” Zigulis said.
Most times companies are proactive in seeking safety advice, wanting to protect employees from hazards that may arise in the workplace.
“Sometimes people use tools and equipment that they have not had adequate training upon. Sometimes, the hazards are not so obvious. Sometimes, designs are flawed. Sometimes, human factors can become an issue, like for fatigue, where there could be a lower ability to monitor sensors and control devices, lessening awareness, increased potential for poor decisions, etc. For those cases, we often rely on multiple layers of protection to help keep people safe. That can include various levels of guarding, different processes to identify risks, team-based development of job safety analyses, and many other things that I couldn’t describe in a paragraph or two,” he said.

It is important to get safety protocols in place, not only for the safety of workers, but to adhere to laws in place.
“Another key point is that while yes, employers have obligations to keep workers safe – it is also the case that employees have obligations under OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to follow work practices and procedures that are based on OSHA requirements. There is also an obligation of the worker to do certain things,” Zigulis said.
Zigulis says consultants like himself, not only advocate safety for the good of the employee who has the expectation of going home uninjured after a day’s work, but also to give value to the company to promote a safe place to work. These efforts often give a positive return on investment by improving safety and operational processes, he said.
He has been in the profession since 1985, but started as an independent consultant in 2015. He worked with several different kinds of industries to build his expertise across many platforms.
The award Zigulis earned represents a lifetime achievement within the society of safety professionals.
“The award is given to people who have contributed to ASSP activities and other safety-related activities on a volunteer basis in an appreciable way, consistently over time. The organization is recognizing your accomplishments and your volunteerism. It is really fantastic for me to receive the award as a consultant, because normally these awards go to people who work directly for organizations, a particular company. It is much more difficult to get this recognition as an independent consultant,” Zigulis said.
By Richard Lamb, Advance Editor