Innovative interactive training program, "The Road to Safety," is a key element in RSC's overall initiative to minimize the company's OSHA incident rate.

Chicago, IL, December 9, 2009 – An innovative interactive training program designed and developed by Quicksilver Associates is contributing to an impressive industrial safety record at RSC Equipment Rental, one of North America’s largest rental providers. The number of reportable safety incidents at the company continues to trend down.

The program, The Road to Safety, is mandatory and has been completed by every RSC employee in North America. Using techniques familiar in online gaming, users navigate through a typical RSC facility and are challenged to identify safety hazards. Their overall score for the course partly reflects how many hazards they identify. Learning objectives are reinforced by on-screen guides who provide coaching and additional information, and by integrated testing.

RSC’s goal for its overall safety program is “no accidents.” The company is doing well, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) incident rate dropped 33% in 2008 over 2007. As of August 2009, RSC’s OSHA rate stood at 2.3, compared to a 5.8 rating at the start of its Delivering Safety First campaign in 2006.

 “The Road to Safety has helped us advance our safety goals, and continue building our safety culture,” said Ken Colonna, RSC’s Director of Safety. “It forces every person in the company to visually identify the common and not so common safety risks, and just as important, to be very clear about how they can help prevent them.”

The program is structured so that the user must either identify or review every safety risk that it illustrates. As employees proceed through the program their performance is continuously recorded by the company’s learning management system.

 “We set out to establish a new benchmark for safety training in our industry,” said Colonna, “and to demonstrate our safety commitment to our customers and employees. I think we’ve achieved that. The bonus is that it’s a very engaging program that has been well received. The scoring promotes friendly competition, which also seems to have reinforced the learning.”

To learn more about The Road to Safety and the underlying training platform, please visit www.quicksilvernow.com/InteractiveTraining.

About Quicksilver Associates, Inc.
Quicksilver Associates, Inc., a creative communications company based in Chicago, Illinois, designs, develops and delivers integrated communications solutions for corporations and organizations. Founded in 1976, we have partnered with hundreds of businesses, helping them to use the power of communications to more effectively connect with their important target audiences and achieve their business goals.

More information about our solutions and work history is available at www.quicksilvernow.com.

Quicksilver is a certified Women’s Business Enterprise.

About RSC Equipment Rental, Inc.
RSC Equipment Rental, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is one of the largest equipment rental providers in North America, servicing the industrial, maintenance and non-residential construction markets with an original equipment fleet cost of $2.4 billion. RSC offers superior levels of equipment availability, reliability and 24x7 service to customers through an integrated network of 464 branch locations across 40 states in the United States and three provinces in Western Canada. Customer solutions to improve efficiency and reduce cost include the proprietary Total Control® rental management software, Mobile Tool Rooms™ and on-site rental locations. With 4,300 employees committed to safety and sustainability, RSC delivers the best value and industry-leading customer service. All information is as of September 30, 2009. Additional information about RSC is available at www.RSCrental.com.

For more information, contact:  

Michael O’Brien
(312) 943-7622 x117
mobrien@quicksilvernow.com

Heather Schlichting
(480) 905-3341
heather.schlichting@rscrental.com

Per Ohstrom
(480) 281-6934
per.ohstrom@rscrental.com

It isn’t often that we can directly link the business communications we create to hard metrics that benefit our clients. Often the best measurement we can get is the client’s qualitative assessment about the success of a meeting or an interactive component. And we feel appreciated when the holiday basket arrives in December, along with the client’s warm wishes.

But here’s one outcome that is objectively a win. RSC Equipment Rental, for whom we created an interactive safety training program (The Road to Safety) last year, has recorded a 34-percent reduction in its OSHA Incident Rate (OIR) after running the program for a year.

RSC works in the construction, industrial/petrochemical and manufacturing sectors, and it maintains numerous safety initiatives as part of a strong safety culture. So one program can hardly lay claim to all the credit for this result. However, the company’s Safety Director has no doubt that the contribution has been significant.

Every employee in the company, about 5,500 people, has completed this Flash-based interactive training. It’s mandatory for all new hires at the 470-plus locations in the U.S. and Canada. So the opportunity was there for this rich-media elearning program to have a real impact.

These are preliminary results. We’ll be watching with interest as more come in.

Given the current state of the economy, it’s easy for businesses to turn inward, losing sight of the ongoing, even escalating, need for non-profits and other charitable organizations to communicate their message.  While many companies may not have the time or resources to lend a hand, the ones that do should think of this as a way to not only help their community but also build skill sets.

As a company it is important to provide support for organizations that have little to no money for creative pursuits. By helping those in need, not only are you making a difference and broadening contacts, you are encouraging team members to give back as well.

There are additional benefits for team members. First of all, working on new projects will help keep them driven during what may be a slower time. Second, this allows some team members to learn new skills that will assist them in future projects, while giving others the opportunity to refine skills they may already have.

Recently I had the chance to discover what philanthropy is all about.

For the past five years, Quicksilver has been involved in the production of the Make-A-Wish “Wish Ball” here in Chicago. The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants wishes to children suffering from a wide range of serious illnesses. Our President, Diane MacWilliams, is one of the founding members of the Northern Illinois Chapter and has constantly contributed her time, as well as the rest of the teams’, in an effort to make sure the event goes off without a hitch.

Quicksilver is involved in the main program PowerPoint presentation. Realizing that PowerPoint really wasn’t one of my core competencies, I saw this as a good opportunity to learn new skills, while helping out a great charity.  I was very interested in learning more about what PowerPoint is capable of, other than bullet points, and was able to spend a good deal of time creating this presentation.

I’ve since been able to apply my new found skills to sales support presentations, making my time invested benefit Quicksilver as well.

More than anything, it was an honor to contribute to an organization that means so much to our company and to so many around the country. I encourage everyone to consider how they can use the resources at their disposal to give back to those in the community.

To learn more about Quicksilver's philanthropic work, click here.

Tyler Uteg is an associate producer with Quicksilver Associates. He was delighted to aid in creative execution for the 2009 Make-A-Wish Ball.