Company: Russell Construction
City: Davenport, IA
Number of Employees: 100

Nomination Essay

There are two main points that I always make very clear to our new employees during their safety orientation. First, the goal of safety excellence is not preventing accidents and secondly, safety is not a priority here! This usually gets their attention pretty quickly as I hope it does yours.

To summarize, I explain, that if we are focused primarily on preventing accidents we are missing the boat. Our focus is not to prevent accidents but it is Process Improvement. The quality field taught us in the late 70's that it is ineffective to try and 'inspect out' defects at the end of the production line. Therefore we need to focus on pre-planning, safety observations, safety meetings, awareness, near misses, etc. in order to prevent accidents from happening in the first place. Next, I discuss the difference between a priority and a value and explain why Russell Construction has made Safety a Core Value of the Company. Priorities will change from day to day, even minute to minute, depending on what's most important at that particular time. A value, however, does not change. It is a deeply set belief that we have that dictates our actions in any circumstance. We spend a lot of time and effort in developing this value in every employee because the ultimate success of our Company is a direct result of our safety performance.

An excellent safety program starts and ends with what I call "Demonstrated Management Commitment". This is different than a CEO or VP just telling everyone during a meeting to "Be Safe". While this is a nice thing to say, it has virtually no affect on someone's behavior. What does have the largest impact on safe behavior are those 'unwritten rules' at work or the 'culture'. Back in 2006, we began the process of building a Zero Injury Safety Culture and Safety was identified as one of our six key focus areas for our three year strategic plan, which began in 2007. Our Safety Committee developed the framework for how we wanted our Safety Processes to improve and then we developed some metrics to measure our progress. Everyone has specific safety responsibilities and their performance evaluations and bonuses are tied directly to their safety performance. The old saying "what gets measured gets done" holds true.

Here are just a few examples of what our different team members do to demonstrate their safety commitment. Each member of our executive committee is challenged to provide at least 12 safety communications per quarter, such as a thank you card to an employee for demonstrating safety as a core value or by actively participating in a jobsite audit or safety meeting. Project Managers are responsible for and measured on the number of jobsite safety plans that are completed before work begins and the number of safety audits they perform.

Both our Project Managers and Superintendents are measured on the results of safety audits performed by myself with our DBO2 system. This safety inspection software is loaded right onto my smart phone, which can identify both safe and unsafe observations giving a project a safe % score. When an inspection is completed it is uploaded to a server and then a report is generated and sent to all Russell Construction team members and each Subcontractor who was observed. This allows us to get real time involvement from all management and allows us to capture the data and analyze it at the click of a button to identify trends and focus areas. It also sends out a daily email reminder to all team members if an item has not been corrected. This makes it very easy for our executive team to follow up immediately with a Project Manager and Superintendent regarding safety issues.

Our Superintendents are continuously looking for hazards and perform a daily and weekly documented safety inspection. They also lead a site wide safety meeting once a month to discuss basic safety rules, emergency procedures, review any incidents or near misses and to plan ahead while our Project Managers lead safety discussions during their weekly owner/progress meetings. Actually, safety is the first agenda item at all of our Company meetings, including our Quarterly Company Wide Meetings. I always try and present a quarterly summary of our safety results and focus on key issues in a fun and interactive way. Not only is it fun but it is another learning opportunity for the office employees. We do a lot of different regulatory training but I always try to make it interesting and engage the employees to get the best impact.

Our Project coordinators have specific risk management responsibilities which are measured such as the tracking of insurance certificates, subcontractor pre-qualification questionnaires and subcontractor safety paperwork. Even the rest of our office support staff have responsibilities from participating in training events to recognizing other employees for safety.

While the first line supervisor plays a major role in maintaining a safe jobsite, they could not do it without the buy in and participation from the men and women performing the work in the field. Every worker receives a safety orientation at our office when first hired and then the Superintendent conducts a site specific orientation for not only new employees to the Company but also experienced workers who get transferred to their job. Along with the orientation, an experienced employee is designated as their mentor to help educate and reinforce safe work habits. This job specific orientation has been driven down to all of our subcontractors along with out newest safety procedure. It is a weekly safety planner that every contractor uses to identify safety sensitive tasks throughout the week. This triggers safety permits and training for tasks that include fall protection, scaffold erection, confined space entry, cranes, critical lifts, etc.

Two additional ways we promote active involvement in our safety process is with our safety perception surveys, where all employees' rate different areas of our safety processes and through our High 5 recognition program. Every employee is empowered to recognize fellow team members for safety performance and contributions. High 5 recipients receive a gift certificate for Russell apparel and they are recognized in our newsletter and at each quarterly meeting.

Being excellent in Safety is not the opposite of mediocrity...Excellence is different. At Russell Construction, it's not just about telling everyone to work safely but being able to create a working environment where employees can and want to work safely.

When all is said and done you can take a look at our results. Our EMR has steadily declined to .72 and it will continue to drop next year. We have worked over four years and have eclipsed 1,000,000 man-hours without a lost time injury. Our recordable rate for the last four years has averaged 1.82 and our costs are averaging just over $.04 cents per hour worked for the last four years. I believe that these results are not just lucky but are the result of the very dedicated employees that work at Russell Construction.

We respect and appreciate our position of Leadership within the construction industry. We believe that we are an outstanding champion of safety to represent the SafetyXChange Community.

We understand there are many deserving companies who will apply for this award...win or lose...our mission does not change. We will continue to strive for continuous improvement through our Culture, Leadership and Organization. We will also continue to promote our safety approach and insights to improve the industry. That's Leadership.