Building a Safer, Smarter, More Durable Business 

(July 1, 2021) - Back in May, in recognition of Construction Safety Week, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) recognized five safety practices that contractors can implement that could increase their safety rating against the industry average by up to six times.

The practices easily apply to both construction and transport, and include: A robust substance-abuse policy with provisions for drug and alcohol testing where permitted. / Intensive onboarding and new-hire orientation programs that clearly outline policies and expectations. / Frequent and regular toolbox talks, at the beginning of every shift, and in some cases, even when crews return from a lunch break – to bring everybody on the job back to focal point to perform their work safely. / Leadership that practices safety from the top down, so that executives and supervisors onsite follow the same safety initiatives and protocols as the front-line workers doing the day-to-day work. / Protocols to measure and use safety data from the job to consistently raise the bar and focus on jobsite safety.
Drilling down, within its 2021 Safety Performance Report, ABC revealed that, among its best-performing members, the ones that put into practice the above workforce programs had a recordable incident rate of just 0.41 per 1,000 hours in 2020 – compared to all companies tracked by ABC, whereby the average rate was 2.7 per 1,000 hours.

A Deeper Dive  

Taking a deeper dive into the report, ABC found that companies that conduct an in-depth indoctrination of new employees into the safety culture, systems and processes based on a documented orientation process experience 52–54 percent lower incident rates than companies that limit their orientations to basic safety and health compliance topics.

Additionally, ABC revealed that substance-abuse programs/policies with provisions for drug and alcohol testing where permitted led to a 59 percent reduction in Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) and a 61 percent reduction in Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART) rates.

Relatedly, ABC found that companies who ensure that all supervisory personnel have an in-depth, well-versed understanding of the company’s safety policy, supervisor safety expectations and other specific competencies reduce TRIR and DART rates by more than 50 percent.

That said, companies that established a process to define the scope of work, analyze hazards, develop and implement hazard-control methods, perform the work within established controls as well as provide feedback and continuous improvement were found to exhibit a 60 percent reduction in TRIR and DART rates.

Personal Investment

One thing ABC also shined a light on was a need to focus on workers’ mental health and total well-being. While the stigma around mental health has started to diminish, with many industries making an effort to raise awareness and offer support, around one in four construction workers still struggle with some type of mental health issue.

Indeed, companies have shown great progress in promoting and supporting a healthier work environment. Unfortunately, mental illness still greatly impacts the construction workforce.

As ABC’s Vice President, HSE and Workforce Development, Greg Sizemore emphasized, “We have adopted a total human health approach, which is the next frontier in worker safety in our industry. That's looking at the craft professional wearing the hard hat, the safety glasses, high visibility vest and steel-toed boots, and asking if that individual is ready to do the day’s assigned work. You need to look at the heart and mind, in addition to the physical."

One of the most important initiatives a company can take is reaching out to its employees on a human level. Start conversations about mental health and open up in your team meetings. Doing this helps employees feel supported, and encourages them to share. At the end of the day, to realize a healthy work environment means cultivating a foundation of care beyond just profits. A personal investment in the team on multiple levels will only ever strengthen the culture – and all but assure long-term growth and success.