It’s been almost 25 years, but the impact of tragedy has never left Barry Schlouch.

“Dec. 30, 1985, was one of the worst days of my life,” says Schlouch, the president and cofounder of Schlouch Incorporated, a site development firm based in Blandon, Pennsylvania. “We lost a person on a jobsite.” It’s the grief he witnessed when he went to tell the victim’s family that remains with him the most, he says. “His fiancee fell over—she just collapsed to the floor,” Schlouch says. “I made a decision that day that I never wanted to feel that feeling again. When I look back, the accident was preventable. Most accidents are.”

That tragedy, which happened two years after Schlouch started his business with his wife Deb, has shaped his intense focus on meticulous safety planning in the decades since. So when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. in March, Schlouch had already built the foundation to fight against its risks and succeed.

“At our company, we have three main priorities,” he says. “The first priority is the safety of the people. The second priority is the safety of people. The third priority is the safety of the people. I keep those three because sometimes priorities can veer off. You can't veer off when the three are the same.”

Through careful development and implementation of its safety plans, Schlouch Incorporated celebrated zero lost-time injuries last year, and now the contractor is aiming for a similar goal during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We want zero COVID-19,” Schlouch says. “Some people will say that's a little extreme. Well, I don't think so. What's wrong with having zero COVID-19? I think it's a good thing.” Plus, he wholeheartedly believes Schlouch Incorporated’s unwavering commitment to its safety plans will go hand-in-hand with the company’s continued success.

“What I found is that safety takes mindfulness, thoughtfulness, planning, preparation, process, execution and accountability,” Schlouch says. “When you really get that down, you can do the rest. The mindset of safety paves the way for quality and production.”

From ‘Fatal Five’ Plan to Prevent COVID-19

With $80 million in annual revenue, Schlouch Incorporated has 285 employees and about 300 pieces of equipment in its fleet. The contractor focuses its work primarily in Central and Eastern Pennsylvania, with recent projects including the sitework for a $150-million expansion of Hersheypark and an emergency room expansion and new hospital campus for the Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Thirteen professionals with their Safety Trained Supervisor Construction certification oversee Schlouch Incorporated’s jobsites and its plans to prevent the “Fatal Four” incidents, which include falls, getting struck by an object, electrocution, and getting caught in or between an object. In early March, as Schlouch was at ConExpo-Con/Agg in Las Vegas, the company realized it needed to figure out how it was going to respond to the pandemic. The STSCs came to Schlouch with an idea.

“What our STSCs said is, ‘Barry, we need to design a plan for ‘Fatal Five,’" Schlouch says. “What's ‘Fatal Five?’ Well, the fifth is COVID-19. We designed safety protocols of how you mitigate and prevent COVID-19 just like you do with a fall, just like you do with the electrical, just like you do with trenching.”

The decision to treat COVID-19 like other major construction safety incidents is instrumental to its prevention, Schlouch says. “In the hierarchy of controls, the first line of defense is always to eliminate the hazard,” he says. “What you want to do with COVID-19 is you want to keep it off the job or out of the office.”

Create Online Training Resources

Once Schlouch Incorporated formed its COVID-19 prevention plan, based off CDC and OSHA guidance, the company turned it into a narrated, 12-minute online training program.

All employees must adhere to the company’s safety plan, which includes nearly 30 specific COVID-19 infection control protocols, such as traveling to and from work alone, using electronic communication whenever possible, and changing out of work clothes upon returning home. The program, updated continually in accordance with changes to CDC and OSHA guidelines, is part of new hire orientation, and it’s posted for reference on the company’s online portal. Schlouch Inc. also developed a webinar to help employees’ families navigate the risks of the pandemic while out in public.

Track Risks with App

Each day, Schlouch Inc. employees — without exception — begin their shifts by completing a health assessment checklist performed by the designated pandemic safety officer assigned to each jobsite and the office. The pandemic safety officer then logs the information into the B2W Inform mobile app the company uses, and the executive team is immediately notified of potential risks.

“We caught a few cases that way early on,” Schlouch says. “We had one employee who said, ‘Hey, my dad has symptoms.’ His dad ended up being positive. We quarantined that guy for two weeks, and he was fine.”

If an employee is found to be at risk through the daily assessment, the company pays for the individual to be off throughout quarantine. This benefit gives employees an added incentive to be forthright without fear of negative consequences that could affect their jobs or finances. “We want them to be honest, so there's no reason to be dishonest,” Schlouch says. “That's important too in the whole equation to remove the constraints.”

Transform Safety Huddles

Schlouch Incorporated also includes COVID-19 prevention information in its daily safety huddles, which review all plans and potential hazards of the day. “It’s a reset button every single morning,” Schlouch says.

Crews are also required to wear appropriate PPE and practice social distancing whenever possible, but Schlouch says the key is not to rely on those as primary protective measures. “PPE is a second line of defense,” he says. “We wear hard hats, but if you don't have to walk under a cliff where there's rock laying at the top of the cliff that could roll down and hit you on the head, you don't need to walk in that section. You want to remove the hazard instead of relying on PPE.”

Increase Sanitation Measures

In early March, Schlouch Incorporated added hand washing stations on all its jobsites. The stations feature a foot pump to produce fresh water, soap, and paper towels. Crews are also provided with sanitizing wipes to clean equipment touchpoints, including controls, handles and screens. “They wipe down the equipment in the morning, we wipe it down at the end of the day, and if a mechanic works on the machine, they wipe it down,” Schlouch says.

Retain Valuable Takeaways

Though there have been challenges with adapting to the pandemic, Schlouch says the company has also learned lessons that can help them succeed in the future. For instance, like many employers during this time, Schlouch Inc. saw much of its office staff shift to working at home.

“We learned that in some cases it may make sense and be more convenient for employees to be working from home,” Schlouch says. “It could be a recruiting tool that we can start employing people that live further away. We see that we can access more talent at a greater geographic location.”

Online training is another benefit that Schlouch plans to continue beyond the pandemic. “There's just a lot of opportunity in online training, and we want to pivot and keep that going forward,” he says.

Use the Power of Social Media

Schlouch says achieving safety plan goals should be celebrated — and one of the best ways to do that is through an active social media presence, such as on LinkedIn or Facebook. “We have a huge presence with our families and our employees on social media,” Schlouch says. “It's a good reinforcer. If Jane or Joe is at work, the spouse sees we’re doing training or recognizing people.”

Schlouch says a positive social media presence works not only as a retention tool, but it also helps recruit others to join the team. “We have people that then say to me, ‘How do I get on your team? I want to be a part of this. This is the kind of company I’ve been looking for all my life,’” Schlouch says.

The results of Schlouch Incorporated’s COVID-19 safety plans speak for themselves. So far, the plans have paid off with zero cases, as well as increased attention from their customers and prospects. “Our clients want what we have on their jobs,” Schlouch says. “They don't want to be shut down because of positive COVID-19 on their jobsites. And a lot of times that's what happens. We paved the way for our clients to be safer, and we built more trust with our clients as well. So we have a competitive advantage from that standpoint, because this is what they want.”

These are benefits that will last long after the pandemic has ended, he says. “I think the companies that can build the trust are the ones that are going to be around,” Schlouch says. “Because people want to go to a place where they feel safe and even more so today than before.”