Blog
All in on Safety – During Construction Safety Week and Every Week
by Kristin Clements, Corporate Director of Safety
Construction Safety Week is an annual observance that offers construction companies the opportunity to recommit to sending every worker home safely every day. This year’s theme, “All in Together,” is quite timely given that Boldt is focusing on all the ways we are “Better Together.” To me, that includes how employees work together for the common goal of safety.
That goal at Boldt is one of safety first. While this week offers opportunities to celebrate safety, share examples of it and reinforce best practices, safety is not the “flavor of the week” at Boldt. It is ingrained in our everyday culture and behaviors.
Safety is crucial to Boldt’s culture because of the very real risks job sites pose every day. OSHA recognizes what is referred to as the “fatal four” – the top hazards to construction workers. In order, these are falls, struck-by incidents (being struck by tools or machines), caught in or between (incidents where workers are caught in machinery or between objects) and electrocutions. Collectively, these four comprise 60% of construction worker deaths. That is unacceptable, and that’s why embracing our safety practices, over and over, is so important.
Quite literally, it’s lifesaving.
Being “All in Together” applies to Boldt in a few ways:
- We’re all in together by…Integrating safety into every step of construction, from estimation to project completion. What makes Boldt extraordinary is that our leadership, from executive teams to field leaders, are intensely focused on providing a physically AND psychologically safe workplace where employees are empowered to speak up and share their ideas and concerns. Boldt believes this is key to its extraordinary safety culture.
- We’re all in together by…Teams coming together with a Project Startup Planning Meeting that identifies safety efforts before a project starts.
When we embarked on a cultural journey of safety, we studied the highest-performing job sites and the common denominators for safety. Think of these best practices as the “secret sauce” that, when rigorously followed ensure our employees’ safety. Project hazards and controls range from straightforward to technically complex – from trips and slips to 200-ton tandem crane picks. Our safety approach is focused on mitigating hazards associated with the work through consistent behaviors that, when embraced 100% of the time, create an extraordinary safety culture.
These behaviors include:
- Daily all-hands meeting – Safety starts with our leaders at these meetings with all our team members and trade partners including performing stretch and flex. This sets the tone for safety for the day.
- Planning meetings
- This includes a Safety Task Analysis reviewed by the foreman in the work area with the crew, walking the site to see what has changed since they left the site the night prior. This is also an opportunity for field leadership to engage with employees and reflect on the day before, share concerns and discuss other feedback.
- Preplanning meetings held before high-risk activities are performed.
- Kickoff meetings with subcontractors and trade partners to discuss safety expectations before they ever step foot on the site. This sets expectations so others don’t show up on the site and realize they don’t have the proper PPE, for example.
- Site orientations: These are conducted on each site with the project manager or superintendent setting clear expectations and tone and delivering a personal message about safety based on their experience. I can tell when I walk onto a project if those expectations have been defined and embraced.
- Safer Together: Every week, project leadership and craft workers take a Safer Together Walk and share findings from it during the all-hands meeting. Many sets of eyes are more valuable than one.
- Accountability: Project leadership sets clear expectations and ensures they are met, leading by example.
As with most things, consistency is the key. Safety takes commitment every day on every project – it is not just a mantra but action-oriented. These are actions we mindfully take day in and day out on job sites nationwide. This week, we are celebrating and encouraging our team members to re-energize, refocus and recommit to safe behaviors. Rigorously embracing safety ensures employees can return home to their families at night safely and whole. And there is nothing more important than that.
About The Boldt Company
The Boldt Company (Boldt) is a leading professional construction services firm with customers across the United States and is a subsidiary of The Boldt Group. Founded in 1889, Boldt is a fourth-generation family and employee-owned firm headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin. Boldt is recognized as a pioneer in Lean construction and in the industrialized construction space. Boldt operates 18 offices across the U.S. that serve customers in healthcare, power, industrial, education, automotive and commercial markets.
