Safety sits at the very center of the construction industry. But like so many fundamentals of the trade, this six-letter word has the potential to be an overused cliché with less than stellar results. Experts insist safety must be constantly monitored and put into real practice.
“Safety is part of our company culture; it’s not just a slogan,” says Scott McCart, corporate safety manager for W.M. Schultz Construction, Ballston Spa, N.Y., one of 56 recipients of Associated Builders and Contractors’ 2017 National Safety Excellence Awards. “We walk the walk, and we’re always thinking about safety. We’re constantly trying to push the safety envelope and come up with new and interesting ideas.”
As W.M. Schultz Construction and the rest of this year’s class of exemplary firms can attest, elevating safety to a No. 1 priority is no easy task.
In addition to maximizing buy-in and support from the top level of leadership down, contractors share common practices that are essential to building success.
From a focus on inclusiveness and a thorough review process to a strong hiring and orientation procedure, today’s safest construction companies are redefining what it means to cultivate a company culture centered on safety.
Here, three of the 2017 honorees reflect on the highlights of their programs to help inspire others working toward a safer work environment.
A Wake-up Call
Roughly five years ago, W. M. Schultz Construction had a serious near-miss that shook the firm to its core. Founded in 1999, the company had a solid safety record and, until then, the leaders of the heavy civil construction company believed their program had been working well.
“It really woke us up,” recalls Executive Vice President Terri Boland. “We realized that we didn’t need something terrible to happen to make a change.”
Following the incident, W.M. Schultz Construction reevaluated its program, created a safety focus group led by CEO Bill Schultz, and worked to establish and implement the innovative processes that continue to drive home one of its four core values: world-class safety. Based on hitting this objective, the firm has taken an oath whereby it promises to make no compromises.
“If a work practice is perceived to be unsafe, we do not proceed until the issue is resolved,” reads the company’s safety mission statement.
To encourage its subcontractors and employees, who self-perform approximately 80 percent of the overall work, to heighten their safety awareness, W.M. Schultz Construction’s strategy continues to evolve. Whether it’s through the weekly Schultz Safetyline newsletter for employees and their family members, a snow removal policy that exceeds most hospital facility standards, accountability charts, pre-task safety plans, monthly safety video calls, or a life-saving policy for trenching and excavation, the firm continuously works to engage with its staff and drive home its commitment to their safety.
In 2012, the company began hosting an annual safety awareness conference for all office and field employees. The three-day event takes place in early March and features presentations, breakout sessions, discussions, and live demos led by senior foremen and superintendents. The conference encourages direct participation and feedback from employees while educating the team on everything from the latest standards and proper equipment use to new company policies, such as the firm’s required weekly near-miss report and safety inspections for each active site—all of which help identify and create awareness of trends.
“We don’t want this to be a one-way street,” McCart explains. “The best ideas come from the people in the field who work with the equipment. We love getting ideas and feedback from them.”
Such was the case with an issue identified in 2016. Low-bed truck drivers were having difficulty backing into congested jobsites or entering a site from a busy roadway. In response to this growing concern, W.M. Schultz Construction now requires all low-bed truck drivers to be accompanied by a passenger who is a certified flagger. In doing so, the company says it has created a safer environment while also streamlining its heavy equipment delivery.
More recently, W.M. Schultz Construction has placed greater emphasis on ergonomics and the prevention of soft tissue injuries. Last year, the firm fully launched its ergonomic assessment form, which every project manager is required to fill out monthly for all sites they oversee. Doing so helps identify risk factors and control measures that will ensure the most efficient methods are followed. This assessment is coupled with the company- wide flex and stretch program for even greater results. In October 2017, the company also mandated a new hand protection program that requires gloves to be worn at all times when on a jobsite, in the yard or in the shop—a move that has eliminated all hand injuries since its implementation.
As a result of these efforts, W.M. Schultz Construction and its roughly 100 employees have achieved a TRIR rate of 1.46 for 2016 and an EMR of less than 1.
“It’s nice to see something that we put into effect that is successful. It’s always satisfying, and it is a tribute to our team members,” McCart says.
Mining the Diamond
In recent years, Primoris I&M, Baton Rouge, La., has experienced an uptick in near-miss and first-aid reporting. This is a good thing, according to Vice President of HSE Troy Allen.
“I think the incidents were always there; the employees just weren’t reporting them,” he says. However, thanks to recent efforts, the decades-old company specializing in large-scale industrial earthwork and site development projects has been successful at creating an atmosphere where crews and subcontractors are not afraid to make note of even seemingly insignificant injuries.
“It’s a paradigm shift to get people to report things, especially if they think they will get in trouble,” Allen explains. “But we truly try to make this a classroom versus a courtroom, and we want people to understand and learn and not feel like they are being called to the principal’s office. When it’s not done just to be a police state, but rather to be helpful, the dividends are tremendous.”
By spending time fully analyzing these near-misses—often more so than an actual recordable injury because those are such a rare occurrence—Allen says Primoris is really “mining the diamond” and uncovering very serious potential threats to its employees.The firm’s safety performance in rooted in two fundamental principles established by President Michael Killgore: All accidents, injuries and occupational illnesses are preventable; and if an operation cannot be done safely, we will not do it.
With this in mind, the firm includes the following message on all its internal correspondences and documents: “No business objective is so important that it will be pursued at the sacrifice of safety.”
Following these mottos, Primoris has achieved a near-perfect record, with only two minor OSHA recordables in three years while performing more than 4.1 million manhours. Overall, its employees have helped achieve a perfect DART rate for three years in a row, a TRIR rate of 0.31 for 2016, and an EMR below 0.70 for the last three years.
During this time, the company has cultivated a deep culture based on truly caring for its employees, and this is reflected in the safety procedures it continues to implement. Accident prevention plans, HSE procedures, daily toolbox meetings, pre-job reviews, an accident review board, a monthly senior management safety council and training are all critical components of the company’s processes.
Despite its impressive figures, Primoris works to avoid creating a false sense of security by continuing to analyze near-misses. The company established a new Actual/Potential Severity Rating System (APS), which drives further evaluation and learning from potential incidents that could have been serious. The Severity Matrix offers a standard set of definitions across the four key components of injury/illness and are rated from one to five, with the latter being the most severe. Prior to this, the firm acknowledges that it was not effective in gaining a true understanding of the key causative factors of an incident. Today, the APS process provides Primoris with a method to ensure a thorough review of potentially serious incidents and then share the information with the organization.
With its new web-based proprietary Safety Information Management System, Primoris also can track everything from first-aid visits and recordables to vehicle accidents. The firm can then pass on this information in real time using a built-in company-wide email communication tool.
Meanwhile, an enhanced accident review board meeting is now required following any incident that could have or did result in an injury, at-fault vehicle accident or significant property damage. The classroom-style procedure includes all of the employees involved in the event, a supervisor, project manager and divisional president.
Perhaps the most significant advancement is the STAR Card, a task-driven control document that has morphed over the last three years. The planning tool takes a granular approach to the daily work plan for each individual project. The information gathered is then analyzed and applied to other safety practices and principles.
“It’s more than just a JSA; we take it to the next level. By having that specificity, you can eliminate hazards and risks,” Allen says.
All of this is helping Primoris prepare for the change in guard that is expected to come as veterans retire and a new breed of Generation X and millennial-age employees, many of whom are inexperienced, enter the trade. In anticipation, the firm has established new hire safety screenings to ensure all employees align with its safety culture from day one.
All in the Family
Well before OSHA enforced the rule, Houston-based Peterson Beckner Industries (PBI) has required its crew to use a 6-foot tie-off on all its projects. In fact, in 1995 the steel erection company became the first in the state of Texas to do so. It’s a point of pride for the company that is licensed in 36 states, but it’s also an indicator of the success of its safety measures.
“Since that time, we have tracked each one of the people who have fallen into their harness, and we have had 22, and every one of them has gone back to work the same or next day without injury,” says PBI Senior Vice President Bob Beckner.
This is a critical aspect of the firm’s safety culture, which emphasizes employees as members of the family.
“We want everyone to be able to come to work every day, work safely and go home to their families just as they came,” Beckner says.
Of course, safety is much more than just fall protection, he acknowledges. And this policy is just one of myriad ways the 82-year-old company has maintained an EMR rate at or below 0.70 since 2001—dropping to a mere 0.55 for 2017—and a TRIR rate that sits 80 percent below the national average in steel erection.
“It’s all about saving lives and preventing injuries, and there should be zero incidents,” Beckner says.
In addition to behavior-based training, weekly production meetings, tracking incidents and daily JSAs, the firm strives to use its onsite safety audit program to develop trends or tendencies that will allow them to predict potential hazards for its 150-plus employees, and then eliminate the risk.
The program calls for weekly documented site inspections by a variety of managers, supervisors and craft-level employees that are then filed for monthly tracking and trending.
Equally impactful is PBI’s Line of Fire Incentive Program, which is intended to promote employee awareness and observations of potential safety hazards. If an employee conducts three interventions and has either corrected the issue or has made a positive intervention on a qualifying situation, he or she will be eligible for an incentive item, such as a company hat or shirt, among other rewards.
As the construction industry continues to struggle with a labor shortage, PBI has had to come up with innovative ways to ensure it is hiring safe and qualified workers. Thanks to its mentoring initiative, called the Short Service Worker Program, the company hopes to reduce the number of injuries to employees with less than three months of service and requires any worker who is new to the craft of steel erection to remain on the program for a minimum of six months.
Ultimately, Beckner says it all comes down to training, education and communication. Repetition is key, so Beckner approaches it much like he would coaching football.
“My coaches always used to say, ‘You can tell them, tell them and tell them, but then you have to tell them again,’ says Beckner, who once played offensive tackle at the University of Texas Arlington. “They think they got it, but they don’t, so you have to keep working and educating them on buying into the system.”
