Milestones
1994
2014
2017
2019
2019
Graduates from Marquette University law school
1994
Appointed as commissioner of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission by President Obama and unanimously confirmed by the US senate
2014
Chosen as the acting chairman of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, which turned into the official role of chairman of the commission
2017
MacDougall is nominated as VP, worldwide, workplace health and safety at Amazon
2019
Curabitur feugiat eget leo id tempus. Maecenas commodo, nibh at ultricies pulvinar, ipsum erat porta metus, et tempus justo tellus euismod dolor.
2019
MacDougall is nominated as VP, worldwide, workplace health and safety at Amazon
2019
Safety with a global vision
With over 1.5 million employees around the globe, Amazon knows that safety is a big challenge. And safety amid a pandemic is an even bigger challenge.
Having started as VP, worldwide, workplace health and safety at Amazon in April 2019, Heather MacDougall was very quickly thrust into the thick of the action with the pandemic. “As safety professionals, this has been the biggest challenge in our careers.”
But, she says, Amazon was able to leverage its resources to respond to the crisis. “I learned that there’s speed in business, there’s Amazon speed, and then there’s Amazon-in-a-pandemic speed!”
Despite the challenges caused by the pandemic, MacDougall says that the important work that she, her team, and her organization have done for Amazon’s workers and committees has been “energizing” because of the
“critical importance of the work that we do for our employees, our customers, and our communities.”
Even before the pandemic, the team understood the importance of collaboration. But, she says, it’s interesting to see how adept the organization as a whole is at collaborating, and how that has taken on a new meaning. MacDougall says COVID required the team to execute quickly and make a series of rapid pivots, which were aided by a lot of collaboration and adaptability.
“The bias for action is the secret sauce of Amazon; we make decisions quickly, and we’re very quick to pivot and to innovate.”
“Don’t be afraid to take risks”
MacDougall is a lawyer by profession, and started her career in workplace safety, practicing law and representing employers on labour and employment matters.
She then moved to Washington, DC and took a job with a trade association that represented Fortune 500 companies. There, she was recognized by the US government. “I pivoted toward a more niche area within labour and employment, which is safety.”
She served as a member of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) from 2014 until 2017, and then became the federal agency’s chairperson until 2019.
A unique role
Now, MacDougall oversees nearly 8,000 people around the globe. And she says her favourite thing about her role is leading this global team that uses innovation to solve safety problems, saying that there are “so many unique roles and unique voices on the team.”
Three years into the unique role, she highlights the importance of technology as part of keeping workers safe. “We use Amazon tech to save people every day, keep people safe, and provide people an environment in which they’re proud to work.”
A huge part of her role is leveraging the expertise of the team, and combining that with the Amazon tech at hand and the extensive capabilities that the company has to offer.
Within the context of safety, she says that how you promote safety at work really relates to how you address risk management. “We always look at how we can design safety into our front end. That’s across all teams and embedding safety into all processes.”
Amazon is particularly interested in preventing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), which MacDougall says are currently the organization’s most common category of injury. Through its WorkingWell program, Amazon is targeting proper body mechanisms, wellness, and nutrition to ensure better health.
In addition, Amazon is investing in expanding safety capabilities across the board. How you engage with your employees is very important, says MacDougall, which is why the company has deployed its Safety Leadership Index across all of its US operations.
Employees are surveyed each day, giving the organization insights into how employees perceive safety in their facility, from frontline workers to leaders. “It’s really instructive in terms of daily perceptions about safety.”
Amplifying the voices of safety pros
Within such a large organization, promoting safety across the company starts with leadership. “Not every organization has the same resources as Amazon, but safety should always have that equal footing with leadership.”
She highlights new leadership principles that the company is keen to integrate and that are part of the company’s stated vision to be “Earth’s best employer.” The first principle is that success and scale bring broad responsibility. Safety is woven into both of those things, and she says that it is important to realize how critical they are. Second, leaders “have to be asking themselves all the time whether their employees are empowered and growing.”
MacDougall recognizes that safety is a perpetual journey – especially at a company as large as Amazon – but she says that she and her team enjoy constant support in fulfilling their mission of keeping workers safe. And she is part of a process that “amplifies the voices of safety professionals.”
“We’re all obsessed about the work that we do, which is really protecting people. I can’t imagine where you could make more of an impact within the company,” says MacDougall. “It’s great to be able to do that here with the support and resources that Amazon has to offer. Our number-one priority is always to focus on safety, truly and always.”
Spotlight
It was when she was in this position that she first got contacted by Amazon, offering her a new role. “I got an unexpected call about this new role as vice president of safety and single-threaded leader of the safety team.”
At first, MacDougall turned the offer down because she felt that the timing wasn’t right – she had just been confirmed by the senate and had time left on her tenure. But, she says, as a couple of weeks went by, she just couldn’t stop thinking about what a great opportunity it would be.
In the role now, she hasn’t looked back. “Don’t be afraid to take risks; often your next great opportunity comes from recognition for the good work you’re doing at something you love.”
Amazon is a multinational technology company initially founded as a US e-commerce platform in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington. The company has since expanded and globally has almost two million employees. As of 2021, it is the world’s largest online retailer and marketplace. Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the United States. In 2021, the company announced that it has committed to hiring 15,000 full-time and part-time employees across Canada, as well as increasing Canadian employees’ wages. Amazon Canada currently employs around 25,000 Canadians.
Company Profile
1994
Founded by Jeff Bezos
2025
Year by which Amazon aims to be the safest company on earth
2020
Year in which Amazon invested $11.5 billion to keep employees safe and get products to customers
1.6 million
Number of people Amazon employs globally
25,000
Number of people Amazon currently employs in Canada
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career highlighT
Becoming chairman of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission in 2017
Heather MacDougall
VP, worldwide, workplace health and safety at Amazon
As one of the largest employers in the world, Amazon is keen to have a global view of its workers. From addressing musculoskeletal disorders to promoting great leadership, safety VP Heather MacDougall wants to create an environment where all workers are healthy and safe
Read on
“We’re all obsessed about the work that we do, which is really protecting people. I can’t imagine where you could make more of an impact within the company”
Heather MacDougall, Amazon
“We use Amazon tech to save people every day, keep people safe, and provide people an environment in which they’re proud to work”
Heather MacDougall, Amazon
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“We use Amazon tech to save people every day, keep people safe, and provide people an environment in which they’re proud to work”
Heather MacDougall, Amazon
“We’re all obsessed about the work that we do, which is really protecting people. I can’t imagine where you could make more of an impact within the company”
Heather MacDougall, Amazon
Copyright © 2022 Key Media
Advertise
About us
Contact us
Privacy
Terms of Use
RSS
Newsletter
Digital editions
Authors
External contributors
News
Topics
Resources
Events
Best In Safety
Subscribe