By Jim Dolente Sr., chairman of the board, Madison Concrete Construction
Safety is about more than wearing a hard hat. After attending a seminar in spring 2015, at which several speakers spoke about how they went beyond traditional safety meetings and changed their entire culture, our executive team was inspired to do the same for Madison.
Although safety has been one of our cornerstones during our entire existence, Madison is now partnering with our insurance provider, The Graham Company, to implement the Kairos safety program. We have two key goals:
- Zero injuries at any given job
- Continue to make safety an intrinsic part of what we do and who we are.
Madison Concrete works with clients to harbor a safe and productive environment for every project, like the CHOP Schuylkill project pictured above. Photo: Jim Dolente Jr.
Building on the success of our long-time approach, this new program incorporates safety procedures into a company’s culture so that they become a natural part of daily activities. This is done through teamwork, collaborative evaluation of incidents to determine measures that reduce risk, and teaching employees to proactively identify and mitigate risks. Participation is expected at every level of the organization, from executive staff to field workers. However, the program is implemented from the top down so managers can verbalize the message of safety to staff and lead by example.
After surveying 215 employees to help identify strengths as well as areas that needed improvement, we formed a 30-person team that includes staff from all levels: executive managers, project managers, superintendents, foremen, journeymen, and other field staff. This team meets once a month, where members break into two groups to separately tackle safety issues and then come back together to share solutions.
They’ve met twice so far, which has generated a lot of open discussion about what we’re good at and where we can improve. They’ll meet three more times before we implement the safety program company-wide in May.
Safety is a high priority for Madison. Although we had a safety program for which we’ve invested a lot of time and resources, we did it job by job and superintendent by superintendent. This new program is about coming together as a collective whole, so all employees are committed.
We’d love to hear about how you’re approaching safety on your projects, and how we can use our experience to assist you.