A model for achieving industry-leading results

One out of five total worker deaths in the United States were in construction in 2013, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The leading causes of fatalities on jobsites were falls, followed by being struck by a falling object, contact with live electricity and being caught-in/between. OSHA estimates that eliminating these leading causes, which were responsible for more than half (58.7%) of the fatalities, would save 468 construction workers’ lives in America every year.

We started DPR nearly 25 years ago with an absolute commitment to safety and a goal of being the safest contractor—all the time! While the industry has come a long way and our safety record is one of the best in the country, we know that we can still do better.

What does it take?

Knowledge. Discipline. Behaviors.

It takes hands on builders and safety professionals who know and understand safety best practices and how to achieve them. It takes discipline every day to pre-plan tasks and execute on that plan. Most importantly, it takes a highly engaged workforce with people focused on people to help change attitudes and behaviors in the field.

DPR is passionate about building a great safety culture that prioritizes spending time in the field, reporting on leading indicators, and on-the-spot training and coaching. Once the focus is shifted from simply enforcing rules and telling workers in the field to be safe to goals and showing them how to work safely as a team, project incident rates have consistently improved to well below the national average.

This relentless commitment to safety has helped us achieve an incident rate of less than 1.0 over the last couple of years based on more than five million hours worked. Our disciplined approach has also proven to enhance quality and productivity on our projects to deliver more consistent and predictable results for our customers.

Approaching safety as a value drives the engagement needed at all levels of the organization to make sure people are asking the right questions, looking out for each other, and helping each other. It builds alignment among our project teams and creates an environment conducive for looking at leading indicators and conducting root-cause analysis so we can all build better.

By continuing to challenge the status quo and working together, we absolutely believe that building injury free can be done and the people we care deeply about go home safely every night. It is as simple as that.