The Importance of Safety, Tips for Improvement, How Customers Benefit from a Collaborative Program

Safety is in the spotlight. People want to feel safe and secure at work, and the rising cost of insurance has companies taking an even greater interest in improving safety practices. Creating an injury free environment, however, takes much more than implementing initiatives, making procedural changes and complying with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards.

In a successful safety program with great results, the focus isn’t on insurance modifiers or premiums, the focus is on people,” said Rodney Spencley, corporate safety director for DPR, who leads the Injury Free Environment (IFE) Program along with a designated Safety Champion from each office. “The people at DPR - from individuals in the field to senior management - truly believe that zero accidents is an achievable goal, and we approach every project, every task from this mindset.”

DPR’s IFE program centers around consistent communication, education and training for the entire project team, including owners, architects and subcontractors, as well as provides the tools and information people need to make informed decisions through detailed root cause analysis and pre-task planning. For example, project teams develop daily work plans that:

• Describe the tasks they are about to undertake together,
• Identify potential hazards associated with the tasks, and
• Discuss in detail how to mitigate injuries.

“Safety is about changing your state of mind - accidents do not have to occur,” said Spencley. “The daily work plans are just one element that illustrates the amount of time and level of detail we dedicate to pre-task planning. Safety is important to us, to the industry and to our customers. By spending more time upfront to plan tasks, we’re able to deliver projects more efficiently, minimizing potential risks for all parties involved.”

IFE Program = Great Results

The result of DPR’s proactive IFE efforts is a robust, value-based safety program that looks upstream at leading indicators and root causes to produce exceptional downstream results that have made the company one of the safest contractors in the nation.

DPR has a combined lost time/recordable injury rate of less than 2 incidents per 100 employees, as well as a California experience modification rating (EMR) and National Council of Compensation Insurance (NCCI) global rate of .33. These ratings indicate the average number of claims, compared to number of workers, and demonstrate that DPR’s progressive approach to safety is working. Currently, the national average is 1.0, and with a .33 EMR, DPR’s rate is significantly less than other general contractors.

“DPR’s EMR record over the last five years has been extremely low for a company of its size in the industry,” said Bill Talbot, Supply Chain Specialist for Dominion Power. DPR’s Richmond, VA office has recently been awarded the construction contract for the new two-story, 46,000-sq.-ft. administration building for Dominion Power at the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant.

“Our company places a high value on safety,” said Talbot, who noted that his organization is extremely conscious of safety issues as they operate daily in an environment where errors can be fatal - much like construction. “One of the criteria for selecting a contractor was safety, and DPR’s safety record did stand out from the competition. It was really amazing when I looked at it over a five-year period.”

Talbot did exactly what all companies should be doing - looking at and analyzing EMR and injury trends during a frame of time.

“Companies need to establish a culture where safety data, including incident rates, recordable injuries and leading indicators, are assessed on a regular basis and evaluated for areas of improvement,” said Spencley.

Continuous Improvement

An example of DPR’s commitment to its employees, project team members and customers, and their well being, is the implementation of two-hour, quarterly “Cut to the Chase” meetings that provide an open forum to discuss safety. Several years ago, DPR’s San Francisco office was experiencing a higher incident rate than other DPR offices and launched “Cut to the Chase” meetings to determine the root causes for these incidents and offer additional education and training.

According to Michel Sagredo, Safety Manager for DPR’s San Francisco office, the first hour of the meeting is dedicated to an update on performance measures - past and present - and trending of future performance, including what systems require enhancement, how to better identify hazards, preconstruction planning, and other areas of focus for continuous improvement.

The second hour is a technical session on a particular topic, such as demonstrations on excavation safety, infection control during healthcare renovation projects, fall protection, and lock-out/tag-out (electrical safety).

Over the last three years, DPR San Francisco has not missed one “Cut to the Chase” meeting and has extended invitations to business partners, architects, owners, subcontractors and consultants to attend, provide input and participate. The meetings have really helped DPR’s San Francisco office “cut to the chase” with zero recordable injuries in the region this year to date.

In 2001, DPR’s Houston office also achieved zero recordable injuries for its employees and subcontractors on each of its 18 projects. And, according to Tim Timmis, Bayer Corporation’s project manager in Baytown, Texas, one of the primary reasons why DPR was selected for the two-story, 60,000-sq.-ft. office building project is the company’s exceptional safety record and comprehensive IFE program.

“Workplace safety is a top priority at Bayer,” said Timmis. “DPR not only presented an experienced team for the project but also demonstrated the company’s commitment to safety, which was a key factor in our selection.”

What Customers Can Do - What Questions to Ask

As with any part of the project delivery process, customer participation is a vital component to achieving the ultimate goal - in this case, zero accidents. Following are some suggestions for how customers can become more involved in the creation of injury free environments:

• Pre-qualify contractors with safety as a key factor in the process and support the pre-qualification of subcontractors.
• Ask questions. Customers should be asking their contractors not only about their rates and injury trends but also about the vehicles they have in place for looking ahead, as well as how safety standards and techniques are communicated between the field and the office.
• Recognize that, from a business standpoint, safety is not mutually exclusive and goes hand-in-hand with quality, schedule and budget. Accidents on the job can have a tremendous impact on the quality of the work, add downtime or re-training time to the schedule and open the door to potential lawsuits.
• Meet regularly with project teams and actively participate in a way that holds all members accountable.

Through pre-task planning, root cause analysis, and safety meetings, DPR has proven that it is possible to construct high quality facilities in aggressive timeframes without injuries, while maintaining one of the best safety records in the country.

“Planning, executing, caring - it’s so simple,” said Spencley. “Safety is really about putting people first.”