Hi Everyone! Welcome to my blog! My name is Christian Soriano and I am currently a third-year student taking Applied Economics with a Business and Entrepreneurship Certificate. My friends refer to me as Christian, however my Starbucks name is Chris. I don’t have any preferences really! I am extremely involved within the innovation community and mainly focus on social enterprises and EdTech. You will probably always see me around Mitchell Hall at the Innovation Space as I love being involved and actively engaged in tech and entrepreneurship organizations at Queen’s. During my spare time, I like to go to different local coffee shops and get a taste of their ice coffee. In addition to that, I love to try exotic food as well. So far, I have tried snails, frog legs, crickets, grilled chicken blood cubes, octopus, and more!
I started working when I was 18 and my first job was at a Shoe Store called “Little Burgundy.” My main functions revolved around sales and floor management. I would often work with different customers and make sure that they have the best retail experience as they step through our doors. Working there was a transformative experience. I got to learn more about business functions and how conflicts would sometimes come about within organizations. Every day was a learning experience from communications to finance. I would say that I owe my confidence and eloquence to my first job. Not only was I able to experience working with a team of diverse individuals, I also learned how to communicate value and how to continuously improve your skills.
I want to learn more about the Health, Safety and Injury aspect of Labour Policy. I want to get a grasp of what the current trends are for claims, compensation and compliance of companies. There are hundreds of thousands of claims every year, and there is definitely common patterns for these claims which can question the proactivity of companies to respond to these workplace claims. I also want to know how these claims are being compensated and how effectively can you quantify injuries at work which can go beyond medical coverage. Finally, with the rapid digitalization and technological changes in the workplace, companies seem to cut corners and put their workers safety at risk. I want to learn more about current policies that contribute in mitigating these instances and protect the welfare for the labour force while making sure companies stay honest and comply to these policies.
Christian Soriano's EMPR 240 Blog 
Hello Christian
I must start with saying how very adventurous you sound in you openness to food. I know many people who have tried frog legs and cricket – but never grilled chicken blood cubes!! But you are still here to tell about it, so hopefully they were good!
My employment history includes working for a family run business, working in unionized environment, working for a union to protect the rights of young workers across Ontario, and unfortunately was an injured worker.
I agree that many places of employment are not well equipped to proactively address areas of concern in regards to Health and Safety, and this can lead to many incidents of injury. There are many policies in my current workplace that look to address all areas of Health and Safety from Harassment to Physical Building Inspections, with a joint health and safety committee and a Health and Safety Representative dedicated to informing all workers or their rights to health and safety.
It goes beyond policies and procedures to ensure we are protecting people – we need to implement these policies to their fullest, in a proactive manner. What do you think the best way to implement a policy would look like?That is what I hope to accomplish through this course (and other EMPR courses) – how we take these policies and apply them in the workplace!!
Have you seen policies implement well? Or not implemented at all?
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Hi,
Thanks for the insightful comment. I am a big advocate for business technology and one thing I have been really interested in is digging deeper into the workplace technologies that exist today.
Although most of the technologies that exist are in the software area particularly in managing claims and incidence reports, I believe that machine learning can be integrated in workplace security which can include monitoring workplace infrastructure, risk monitoring devices and depending on the type of firm, other devices could be implemented to make sure that workers are working in a safe environment.
Thanks,
Christian Soriano
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