The safety sequence

Encompass Electrical Technologies – Midwest first rank its safety challenges, then picked them off one-by-one with plans that put employees in the middle of the process. Result: dramatic drops in incidents and happier, healthier employees.

by Clair Urbain

Just as a building project needs a plan and a timeline, so does an effective safety program, says Ted Sommer, corporate safety director at Encompass Electrical Technologies - Midwest (EET) in Appleton, Wisconsin. It is a part of Encompass Service Corp., with 220 locations and 32,000 employees across the United States.

An effective safety program has a sequence of events that first educates workers in the benefits and practices of safe working habits, then follows up with positive reinforcement to keep safety practices fresh in their minds. “A successful safety program must motivate workers to watch out for their own best interest as well as others on the site,” he says.

With 900 employees, EET is one of the largest electrical and mechanical subcontractors in the Midwest, he says. Sommer is one of three full-time safety consultants on staff.

EET’s safety efforts earned it the Platinum Award in the Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC) of Wisconsin’s Safety Training Evaluation Process (STEP) in 2000 and 2001. Before 2000, it won the Gold Award three years running. STEP is a key part of EET’s quest for safer jobsites.

Safety is a balance
“The key to a positive safety culture is a balance between employee buy-in and company control and discipline to reinforce a safe working culture. Anything that you get from reduced cost of injury insurance or the avoidance of OSHA penalties is totally a secondary benefit,” he says.

Sommer says an effective safety program focuses on why and how the employee can work safely, not because it is an OSHA regulation. “Studies show that between 88 and 95 percent of the jobsite accidents are preventable. With jobsites changing from day to day, you must have employees who understand and actually follow safe working practices,” he says.

Take the first step
The first step entails reviewing your OSHA log and identifying your most common types of injuries. From there, develop a plan to educate workers to address those injuries. “It’s self-analysis. You address your biggest problems and you will see tremendous gains in worker safety,” he says. From there, it takes a team approach to find and implement the best solution.

For example, in 1996, Sommer and others at the company identified hand lacerations as the most common and preventable injury facing employees.

“We asked the workers why they didn’t wear gloves and they said it was because they couldn’t do their job with them on. So we tested several types of gloves and ranked them on dexterity, protection, comfort and durability. We sacrificed durability to get comfort, but we also had to compromise usability to get protection.

“We found we couldn’t use cotton gloves, even though they were the favorite for comfort. They didn’t offer enough protection. Thick leather gloves were ruled out because workers couldn’t pick up a screw with them on. We ended up with a thinner pigskin glove. While it doesn’t prevent all hand lacerations, it does allow the worker to pick up screws and work with them. If any worker suffers a hand laceration now, it tends to need just first-aid treatment, not stitches,” he says.

Another example: Although workers liked the new style of safety glasses, the safety team saw an increase in injuries because falling material could get behind the eyewear. The safety committee identified an equally stylish pair with a closer fit to the eyebrow. Once workers started wearing them, reports of eye injuries decreased.

“We pay less attention to the cost of eyeglasses than we do to employee use. We have found eyewear lasts longer if the worker wears it. We also have gone to eyewear with replaceable lenses. It costs more up front, but in the longer term, the eyewear is less expensive because you don’t replace the whole frame when lenses get scratched,” he says.

Network to build an effective plan
Sommer says talking with general contractors and others about safety programs helps improve the overall quality of the safety effort.

“If I am working with a general contractor that requires us to have a safety implementation plan in our bid, it makes sense that I work with them to understand what they want. It also helps if my program looks similar to theirs. I have found that trading training materials with others is very helpful,” he says.

Networking with others helps Sommer prioritize training. “When I talk with other safety directors, we discuss what training is needed to meet OSHA regulations as well as what’s needed to help our workers be more efficient and safe. Finding out they have the same concerns and what they are doing to address those concerns helps assure us we are not out in right field somewhere,” he says.

For example, Sommer thought the company’s safety procedure for working on large, live panels needed to be updated. Through a three-way phone call, he talked with other EET safety directors and found his concerns were shared by others. With the help of outside manufacturer reps, the company revised its live panel safety procedure.

“We discovered that the insulated screwdrivers we use in live panel work are for arc protection, not shock protection. So if a screwdriver is involved with an arcing incident, we don’t need to have the screwdriver recertified,” he says.

Association provides improvement framework
Sommer says associations are a helpful safety resource. For example, the STEP program offered by the ABC provides a great framework in which to evaluate your safety program and develop an effective plan.

“The STEP program through the ABC is an award and evaluation process where a contractor rates itself on safety issues. It has bronze, silver, gold and platinum awards. It helps the contractor identify areas that need improvement in its safety program. Most companies get the bronze award in the first year, but it takes time and effort to achieve higher awards. With each level, the requirements get tougher and you must keep up what you’ve already accomplished.”

Sommer says contractors that have been a part of the STEP program see dramatic changes in their safety records. “We have seen contractors cut their injury rates in half in the first stages of the STEP program. As you get better, it gets harder to see that kind of improvement, but when it comes to safety, a ‘B’ isn’t good enough. You always need to strive for the ‘A’.”

Get worker involvement
Sommer works closely with front-line workers to identify the root causes of injuries. “We have found that by collaborating with employees, we get to the solution faster,” he says.

Monthly, Sommer calls a safety meeting where representatives from all levels of the company review any recordable injuries, then set new sights for safety initiatives.

Another key to front-line employee buy-in to safety: consistency. “That means applying the same rules to all employees. If a member of the management team comes on the jobsite, he or she must follow the same rules as those who are working there,” he says.

EET reinforces safe working practices through a quarterly “safety bond” mailing that’s an envelope stuffer with employee paychecks. The bonds highlight safe work practices such as fall protection or good housekeeping. Employees carry the bonds in their wallets so they can redeem them when Sommer or another safety director comes on site for inspections. “If the site has not had any injuries for 60 days, the bond can be redeemed for a tool or other item out of the toolbox on the safety director’s truck,” he says. “It helps with peer motivation and also changes the attitude about jobsite safety visits,” he says.

Scott Smith, a 17-year employee and jobsite foreman at EET, says the safety bonds are very popular. “Everyone gets something as opposed to being entered into a drawing where only one person wins,” he says.

Additional awards kick in as employees reach work anniversaries without a lost-time accident. “As the years go by, the awards get more valuable. At 10 years of service, it’s quite attractive,” Smith says. When you compare the cost to a lost-time injury, it’s a very good value.

Smith believes EET’s safety culture encourages safe work practices. “Our QuickStart training program assures workers know how to do jobs safely before they do them. They start out in the classroom, then go into a mentoring program with a work team. These teams are usually two to five people, led by a journeyman.

“The classroom and mentoring work together to establish some good habits. You can definitely see people working more safely. Hand injuries have almost gone away. Workers will pick up debris instead of kicking it out of the way. They are more likely to throw away damaged power cords and inspect the scissor lift before use,” Sommer says.

Reports with a twist
For workers to fully understand the results of unsafe work practices, Sommer puts a slightly different spin on the OSHA injury log that must be posted for workers. “If the log shows 15 hand injuries, I will post a memo explaining the causes of those 15 injuries. So instead of just saying, ‘We had 15 hand injuries,’ say, ‘Fifteen hand injuries could have been prevented if these workers had been wearing gloves.’ It drives home the point that wearing gloves is a good idea,” he says.

It’s a numbers game
Across the 900 employees in Wisconsin, 2000 was the best year ever for going without a lost-time incident. It achieved 1.5 million hours without a lost-time injury. “If you average that out so it compares with an average-sized contractor with 10 or 12 employees, that’s the equivalent of an average-sized contractor working 30 years without a lost-time injury,” he concludes.

Published in the May/June 2002 issue of Contractor Tools and Supplies magazine.

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