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Let's face it: There
are dangers in every construction workplace. Working off the ground,
below the ground, or with powerful tools and equipment is dangerous
work. Any slip or misjudgment can lead to a serious accident. A
landmark 1993 study by the Construction Industry Institute's Zero
Accidents Task Force put the situation into stark perspective with
the following assessment of the then-current situation:
"The construction
industry in the United States … employs five percent of the
nation's work force–yet that five percent experiences a disproportionate
20 percent of all traumatic occupational fatalities and 12 percent
of the total number of disabling injuries.
"Studies indicate
that between 1980 and 1987, workers' compensation insurance costs
in the US doubled….These same studies also indicate that it
is not uncommon for contractors with poor safety performance to
pay twice the premium costs as compared to those with excellent
safety records.
"Research shows
that development and implementation of effective safety programs
reduce accidents. Unfortunately, when it comes to spending time
and money on safety, many do not feel safety is vital to the success
of their projects. This attitude stems from a failure to recognize
that effectively implementing project safety techniques will, while
reducing job injuries, also reduce the workers' compensation premium
by 50 to 90 percent and the indirect costs of injury by a like amount."
While some contractors
heeded these words (as we shall see later in this article), others
clearly did not. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fatal
injuries in the construction industry have continued to rise, reaching
1,190 deaths in 1999. In that year, the construction industry employed
6% of the total US industrial work force, but it still had 20% of
all occupational fatalities and 10% of all disabling injuries.
The Role of Videos
Given the 20% increase
in the relative numbers of construction workers (from 5% to 6% of
the total labor force), that represents some progress in six years.
It also indicates, however, that a large number of contractors and
subcontractors are not investing sufficiently (or effectively) in
safety programs, much less zero-accident safety programs. And according
to Rick Longstaff, president of Vista Training of Burlington, WI,
"The top reason given for not training is lack of money. The
industry average percentage of total payroll dedicated to training
for all contractors is between 2.5 and 3%. For small contractors,
that won't pay for a training staff and an elaborate program, but
it will pay for a video-based safety program.
"Video has a place
as an economical training tool. We can stage scenes with a well-thought-out,
good-quality video that can effectively drive home an important
point. Video is infinitely patient. It will repeat the story as
many times as you want and never lose patience with a person who
may be having a hard time grasping the point. Video is consistent.
It will deliver the same quality performance every single time.
And video can take your audience into situations they cannot safely
experience any other way and bring them back alive and without injuries.
"But a video cannot
take the place of a live instructor and should never be expected
to. Video, regardless of whose it is, should be used as support
for the person responsible for doing the training, not in place
of him. The audience wants and deserves a person they can question.
They want to express their own opinion regarding the situation.
"A well-designed
video lesson will have a simple leader's guide, some form of test
to provide validation of the training, and–ideally–some
student materials they can carry away with them. Videos cannot replace
trainers, but they can help them get their job done better,"
Longstaff concludes.
Independent Trainers
Where are these trainers
coming from? In most cases, a contractor might not have to develop
his own training courses. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration
(OSHA), Associated General Contractors (AGC), and National Utility
Contractors Association (NUCA) all have prepared safety-training
courses for the construction industry, and there are independent
trainers who are knowledgeable and experienced in leading these
courses. George Kennedy, vice president of safety for NUCA, says
the association has trained more than 60,000 of its members in the
general OSHA requirements for an excavation site. The training covers
such areas as sloping and benching, timber shoring for trenches,
aluminum hydraulic shoring for trenches, access and egress exposure
to vehicular traffic, exposure to falling loads, hazardous atmospheres,
stability of adjacent structures, fall protection, and a full range
of protective equipment and systems.
"We have one of
the best training programs in the country," Kennedy asserts.
"We have 90 trained instructors who are located throughout
the country and who train 5,000 to 6,000 people every year. They
don't just train the people who labor in the trenches either. Owners,
project managers, foremen, and supervisors all go through an eight-hour
training program. And they have to score 80 or higher on the test
to get a NUCA card that verifies that they have successfully completed
the course requirements.
"Some of these certified
instructors are employees of contractors and train just their company's
employees, but most of them are independent and will teach anyone.
We now have eight bilingual instructors who have already taught
400 Spanish-speaking people this year. We completely converted our
course material to Spanish so that we could serve this rapidly growing
segment of the work force. That was no small effort. Our OSHA course
provides each trainee with a 300-page manual that they take home
after completing the course."
The AGC has an extensive
program of disseminating safety information and offering training
to its members. On the summer agenda promoted on its Web site were
a Professional Crane Operators Train the Trainer course, a Safety
Management Training Course, the AGC/OSHA 500 Trainer Course, and
a Safety Education and Incentive Program system for contractors.
The latter system is particularly innovative. It provides packs
of safety training cards and a prize catalog. To win a prize, an
employee must correctly answer the safety questions on the cards
and have a zero-accident safety record for at least the previous
three months. Moreover, a contractor can customize the program to
fit its business by selecting any 12 of the 21 available topics
that best address that contractor's specific safety-training needs.
The National AGC also
sponsors a Safety Awards program that offers general contractors
an opportunity to compare their safety records with other AGC members
that perform similar construction and are of similar size. According
to Carolyn Guglielmo, AGC's director of safety and health services,
"Participating contractors receive a confidential printout
to compare their company's safety statistics with their peer companies.
The data are tabulated to produce total lost workday case incidence
rates [excluding restricted workdays]. The formula for computing
‘incidents' is structured to multiply the lost-workday cases
by 200,000. The resultant product is then divided by the work hours
of exposure to generate the lost-workday case incident rate."
It also provides a great
opportunity for contractor members to compete for nationally recognized
awards for outstanding safety records. Last year's winners and second-
and third-place finishers all had outstanding records. Upon interviewing
some of these companies, we found that those records were not accidental
(so to speak). Each had a comprehensive and innovative safety program
in place that produced these results. Consider the case of last
year's Grand Award winner, Stacy and Witbeck Inc. of Portland, OR.
Stacy and Witbeck:
Emphasis on Preplanning
Stacy and Witbeck earned
the Grand Award by virtue of having a lost-workday case incident
rate of zero. "That's right," confirms John Bollier, vice
president of operations for the Northwest region, "and we haven't
had a lost-time incident here for five years. What's more, the type
of work we do here is inherently more dangerous than the average
construction work. When I came here, the comp factor for our type
of work was 20; now it's down to 12, but that's still 50% higher
than Oregon's comp factor for normal construction work."
Stacy and Witbeck is
in the street and underground utility business, with particular
emphasis on streetcar and other light-rail transit systems. The
company has successfully built complex downtown transit systems
in some of the West's busiest urban areas. The company's work on
Portland's Central City Streetcar and Tri-Met's Airport Max Project
extended the company's zero lost-time incident rate into 2001, despite
working in congested downtown traffic conditions.
Stacy and Witbeck has
a broad safety program comprising a safety manager, a safety committee,
weekly safety meetings, and two types of safety incentive plans
for workers: One is a corporate plan tied to general liability claims
and employee lost-time safety records, and the other is a project-specific
incentive plan developed by the onsite staff of large projects with
greater-than-usual liability potential.
"Perhaps the most
significant factor in the success of our safety program, though,
is our application of job hazard analysis [JHA]," Bollier observes.
"These preplanning and hazard identification documents are
developed prior to the start of work on a project by the foreman
of the crew that will actually be performing the work. After this
draft JHA is reviewed by our safety and management staff, it becomes
the planning document for that project. We actually began this process
about five years ago when one of the agencies asked us to provide
preplanning sheets. It seemed like a time-consuming and unnecessary
chore at the time, but we soon found that this type of preplanning
focused our attention on specific hazards and other conditions we
might have overlooked otherwise. So we started to use it even if
it was not a mandated contract requirement, and now it has become
[standard operating procedure] here."
Bollier again uses the
current downtown Portland job to illustrate the power of JHA. "This
construction operation required us to complete 10,000 worker hours
while working under live overhead power, adjacent vehicle and pedestrian
traffic–all while maintaining Tri-Met's operating light-rail
system. We produced and rehearsed JHAs and hourly schedules. The
result? Without a single incident, we completed the work on time,
the revenue service went on without interruption, and subsequent
public comment was extremely positive."
With this perfect safety
record, the firm's workers' compensation experience modification
rating (EMR) has steadily come down to its current 0.62 level. Steve
Zajc, branch manager of Argonaut Insurance's Milwaukee office, explains
the importance of a declining EMR. "The amount of premium a
company pays depends on its accident record. The lower the claim
cost, the lower the premium. And the EMR is the standard of comparison
used to determine what the premium should be. An EMR of 1.00 is
average, an EMR lower than 1.0 will cause the premium to be lowered,
and an EMR higher than 1.0 will cause the premium to be increased.
And yes, EMRs do go above 1.0. I have one on my desk right now that
is 2.84. Apply an EMR like that to what is normally a $1 million
labor cost, and you would be looking at a premium surcharge of over
$1.8 million just because of a pattern of accidents.
"What's more, the
EMR is based on the last three years of experience, excluding the
most recent year. So if a company just renewed its workers' compensation
coverage on July 1, 2001, the EMR would be based on policy years
7-1-97/98, 7-1-98/99, and 7-1-99/00. The 7-1-00/01 year would be
added on next year, and the oldest year would be dropped off. Therefore,
if a company has a bad year of safety losses, it will impact their
experience mod rate for three years, even if they have a perfect
record during those years."
Southern Constructors:
A Small Company Can Do It Too
Sue Caldwell, safety
director of Southern Constructors in Knoxville, TN, is painfully
aware of the long-term ramifications of a bad year of safety losses.
In 1995, Southern's workers' compensation EMR was a hefty 1.68.
But Southern, which has annual revenues of about $10 million, proved
that smaller companies can implement effective safety programs too.
By 2000, the company's EMR had been brought down to a very respectable
0.67. And the company earned the AGC award for best record of companies
with fewer that 100,000 work hours in the municipal/utilities division.
How did the company do
it? Caldwell explains, "In late 1993, we had established our
safety program that included written safety procedures, posted safety
rules, and volumes of manuals at each job site. But we still had
a problem: The most important component of any safety program–employee
participation–was missing. Therefore we implemented a written
company policy that states our intentions are to provide the safest
possible working environment for all of our employees. The purpose
of our safety program is to provide policies and guidelines in order
to reduce the risk and occurrence of accidents and injuries. It
is the goal of our company to provide an accident-free workplace
from an economic and humane standpoint. Our programs are designed
to assign responsibilities to all employees and to outline actions
and methods that will aid in the reduction of unsafe acts that may
result in accidents and control losses.
"Our safety committee
involves employees at all levels. The members include the safety
director, a superintendent, a laborer, and a carpenter. The committee
performs job-site inspections utilizing a checklist and makes recommendations
for corrective actions. Safety committee members are extremely perceptive
in identifying hazards on the job site. Each member serves for one
year. The safety director, AGC safety director, and insurance company
loss-control personnel randomly perform job-site inspections.
"Each quarter, we
conduct companywide safety meetings, providing lunch as well as
training. Either our safety director or another resource performs
the training. Other sources utilized are representatives from AGC,
insurance agent representatives, equipment-supplier representatives,
and our insurance carrier. Each superintendent discusses any accidents
that may have occurred and the results of job-site inspections.
Employees discuss any needs of the field regarding signage, personal-protection
equipment, and site-specific training.
"We have also implemented
a safety incentive program for all employees," Caldwell continues.
"Each employee who has worked six months accident-free receives
an award. We also give awards to employees who work all year without
an accident. To reinforce supervisor's accountability, we distribute
monetary rewards for safe man-hours supervised minus any cost of
accidents that occurred on their job site.
"All of our job
superintendents and management have successfully completed the 10-hour
Occupational Safety and Health Training Course in construction safety
and health. All superintendents attend classes at the American Red
Cross to obtain their certification in first aid and CPR. Superintendents
conduct weekly toolbox talks on each job site. Confined space training
has been performed at job sites where the need existed. Our employees
really participate in the program now, and that has made all the
difference."
That sounds like an expensive
program for a small contractor, but Caldwell begs to differ. "As
a direct result of our safety program with employees actively involved,
our company saved over $165,000 on our annual premium for workers'
compensation insurance in 2000. Moreover, our company has become
more competitive in bidding too. For a bid with a $1 million estimated
labor cost, we would have had to add over $150,000 in 1995 to cover
workers' comp costs. Today that figure is just over $25,000. All
in all, our revitalized safety program has been worth every penny.
Not only has it had a very positive effect on our company's financial
performance, it also has become a great confidence builder for our
employees."
Swinerton Builders:
Train, Train, Train
The co-winner in 2000
of the AGC Best Record Award for contractors in its building division
that had more than 500,000 work hours was Swinerton Builders of
San Francisco. Averaging close to 2 million work hours per year,
the 113-year-old company boasts an OSHA recordable rate of 2.86,
a lost-time incident rate of 0.36, and a workers' compensation EMR
of 0.63. "To put this in perspective," says Wade Obermann,
vice president and director of safety, "we have a recordable
injury rate 68% lower than the national average of 8.8, and our
lost time rate is 89% lower than [similar industries'] national
average of 3.3 lost-time incident rate per 200,000 hours worked."
They take safety seriously
at Swinerton. Obermann reports directly to the president of Swinerton
Inc., and the company's safety program budget has increased each
year by approximately 15% "to allow the program to expand by
approximately 15% and to allow the program to expand and improve
in step with company growth." Each of the company's 12 major
offices has a professional safety representative who is hired strictly
for the purpose of accident reduction and loss reduction.
"They are also responsible
for monitoring safety programs and training in their respective
areas," Obermann adds. "Safety representatives are also
responsible for ensuring contractor and subcontractor compliance
with all project safety requirements. The safety representatives
also work with the project superintendents and project managers
and coordinate with an owner's safety department on safety, security,
environmental, and industrial hygiene matters. And they indoctrinate,
instruct, and train employees on safety matters and environmental
concerns."
Swinerton really believes
in training its employees to maintain safety. Obermann says the
company did a survey "several decades ago" and concluded
that more and broader training was needed. Among the training programs
the company offers–and pays for–today are OSHA 10-hour
training, the Certified Safety Trained Supervisor in Construction
program, and training needed to comply with new regulations, such
as forklift training and certification. In addition, it does on-the-job
employee safety training ranging from safety orientation training
for new hires, weekly toolbox meetings held by supervisors at each
site, and monthly supervisor training sessions that are also open
to project managers, engineers, and estimators. "We do a lot
of auditing of safety performance," Obermann points out, "and
if we determine training is needed in any function or area, we select
or devise a training program focused on that specific function or
area.
"We are constantly
seeking new ways to expand our safety program. For example, we have
created the ‘Minimum Performance Safety Standard for Subcontractors.'
This document, which is included in our bid specifications for subs,
clearly defines the safety culture of this company and delineates
the minimum acceptable safety requirements a subcontractor must
meet. Our Minimum Performance Safety Standard can be more progressive
than standard OSHA requirements.
"Also, we have become
the first contractor to become VPP [Voluntary Protection Program]
certified through the Cal/OSHA Construction Program. The VPP is
designed to recognize contractors with nonfixed work sites who have
achieved occupational safety and health excellence. It's not easy
to get certified and get into that program; you really have to have
an outstanding health and safety program in place. But once you
are certified, OSHA no longer dictates your program. You are allowed
to design your own safety program that works best for a specific
project and that complies with OSHA standards. You are removed from
any Cal/OSHA programmed inspection list, you receive letters instead
of Cal/OSHA complaint inspections, and any Cal/OSHA inspections
are limited to the specific area of complaint or accident. In other
words, you have proven you're good so the agency lets you self-police
your operations and spends its time policing contractors that haven't
proven they have good programs. I would encourage any contractor
or subcontractor doing business in California to take the time and
trouble to get certified for this program. Cal/OSHA is trying to
sell it in other states too, so the opportunities VPP offers may
soon expand."
Brandenburg Industrial
Service Company: It's the People
Brandenburg is in perhaps
the most dangerous construction business of them all. It is the
largest demolition contractor in the country, with a staff of 550
that typically works between 1.3 and 1.4 million employee-hours
each year. The workers' compensation rates vary from state to state,
but as an example, when demo contractors take down a steel building
in Brandenburg's home state of Illinois, their manual comp rate
is $34 per $100 payroll.
"However,"
asserts Bill Moore, Brandenburg's vice president of marketing, "because
of our comprehensive safety program, our rate is a fraction of that.
For the past three years, our lost-time incident rate has averaged
just 0.71 and our workers' comp experience modification rate has
averaged just 0.48. How did we achieve this record? Well, we now
have a staff of four safety engineers and four environmental engineers,
a wide range of safety training materials and safety equipment,
and a computer system that can track accidents and accident costs
by job, by foreman, by superintendent, and by employee. But the
single most important ingredient in our safety program is our people.
"It starts at the
top. Our owner has always been a safety fanatic. He won't put up
with unsafe conditions. That's vital. If you don't have your CEO's
unwavering support for your safety program, you're just rearranging
deck chairs on the Titanic.
"Second, we try
to hire only the very best employees. We hire almost all of our
employees from referrals from our best current employees. In any
event, we insist that prospective hires have some type of construction
experience, because people are most susceptible to injuries during
the first few weeks on the job. Also, we have a good relationship
with our unions, so we get some pretty talented people from them
too."
Once Brandenburg decides
to offer a person a job, the company makes sure he understands the
company policy on controlled substances, safety equipment, and safety
rules. Once a person is hired, a Brandenburg safety person gives
him or her a one-on-one safety orientation that usually takes four
hours and includes a general orientation video and separate videos
on torches, skid-steer loaders, asbestos, and so on. If the new
hire is Hispanic, a Spanish-speaking safety person does the orientation.
Even if new hires are
experienced, Brandenburg initially keeps them on simple jobs, at
grade level and away from heavy equipment. They are put with the
company's most safety-conscious foremen who watch them closely for
the first few days. Then, depending on how safely and effectively
that new hire works, he or she is moved up to more responsible jobs.
The company prides itself on both its safety record and its low
turnover rate, so it wants to make sure it doesn't take on an employee
who is careless or otherwise accident-prone. Again, Brandenburg's
good relationship with its unions helps. They have come to know
that if the company lets someone go for a safety reason, it is a
valid reason.
"All of our people,
especially our new people, are reminded constantly about safety,"
Moore says. "We require our foremen to have daily safety meetings
and to record what was discussed at the meeting on the formatted
back of the daily time card. If, for some reason, a foreman forgets
to document the meeting, our payroll department is instructed to
give the time card to our owner. Needless to say, it doesn't happen
twice.
"I personally think
that it's much better to have a two-minute meeting five days a week
than have one weekly 10-minute meeting. It took OSHA a few years,
but they finally figured out that in most cases, it's not the equipment
that causes or prevents accidents, it's the workers themselves,
and the key to controlling accidents is through training and good
equipment."
Brandenburg equips its
employees with a variety of safety equipment specific to the hazards
they are likely to face. Thus, in addition to hardhats, safety shoes,
and respirators, the company provides proper safety uniforms for
specific jobs. For example, disposable uniforms are provided for
asbestos work, whereas washable, flame-retardant suits are recommended
for workers who use torches in their demolition work. Showers and
locker rooms are provided in all Brandenburg facilities. In all
remote job locations, the company provides decontamination trailers
that are also equipped with locker rooms, equipment storage areas,
showers, and a laboratory for a hygienist. And on jobs that require
it, Brandenburg provides fall-protection systems and similar devices
to protect its workers.
Brandenburg backs its
conviction that workers are basic to achieving effective safety
with an incentive safety program that is extremely generous. "If
our entire company goes a month without a chargeable accident,"
Moore explains, "our 30 foremen get an extra 40-hour check
that month. Our salaried people also get a bonus, but their bonus
is also contingent on the company being profitable for the month.
It's a powerful incentive too. Depending upon the amount of profit
we make during the month, the salaried people can make up to twice
their regular salary each month."
There is a lot of controversy
about how effective incentive programs are. Brandenburg obviously
thinks they work well if they apply to the group as a whole.
But is their incentive program too rich? Probably not, given
the high costs of even one accident. Argonaut's Zajc points out
that every accident results in costs that are either direct or indirect:
- Direct: Medical
expenses incurred from injuries sustained in the accident and
indemnity payments to injured workers while away from work. These
costs are most often reimbursed by insurance.
- Indirect: Other
"nonbillable" costs that result from internal systems
adapting to the accident and its aftermath. Among them are the
wage cost of the injured worker, wage costs of others caused by
the accident, property damage, and administrative costs that include
increases in workers' compensation costs and legal costs and/or
increases in liability insurance premiums. Indirect costs are
most often uninsured and therefore unrecoverable; they account
for 70-90% of the true cost of an accident.
But cost is just one
measure. Brandenburg's owner probably said it best when he asserted,
"I would rather give the money to employees than to insurance
companies, lawyers, and especially widows."
And Bollier of Stacy
and Witbeck wraps up the entire defense for good–and perhaps
high-budget–safety programs with the statement, "We have
found that when safety is treated as the number-one priority, all
other facets of the business follow to a successful conclusion.
Safety not only promotes personal well being and high morale, but
it facilitates planning, reputation, do-it-right-the-first-time
thinking, schedule, public appreciation, and corporate profit."
Guest author Charles
D. Bader is with Dateline II Communications in Los Angeles, CA.
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