COVER STORY By Tracy Bennett
A company specific safety program is specific to the workforce, the work site, and the scope of work. Photo Credit: Tara Garner/Under Construction Photography
PROACTIVE SAFETY STRATEGIES How Industry Leaders are Building Safer Job Sites
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arlier this year SEAA recognized 14 member companies for their outstanding safety and training records. Of those, five achieved World Class status. Representatives from these companies spoke candidly about the issues they face and the priorities their companies make to nurture a culture of safety. The discussion took place during the 2024 Convention & Trade Show in Glendale, Arizona, on April 4. The session was moderated by Bryan McClure of Trivent Safety Consulting and a member of Tracy Bennett is Editor of Connector and President of Mighty Mo Media Partners
SEAA’s Safety & Education Committee. The panelists acknowledged there are three follow up steps to having a successful safety program. Once you build a program that is company specific and you implement it, you must also train your people to use it, regularly audit it, and continue to adapt. “A company -specific program is specific to our workforce, our work sites, and our scope of work,” said Guy Callahan, Safety Director, GMF Steel Group. While lagging indicators, like incident reports, reveal where things went wrong, leading indicators are increasingly recognized as tools to prevent incidents before they occur.
28 | THE STEEL ERECTORS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA
Michael Quinn, Safety Manager, MAS Building & Bridge, highlighted the importance of tracking near-miss reports, safety inspection scores, and even monitoring the relationship with general contractors on-site. “If it’s a challenging GC to work with, or the project is experiencing schedule pressure, that’s going to distract the foremen, that’s going to distract the crew,” he said, emphasizing that these indicators can signal when a site may need additional safety oversight. This information ca n guide everything from what topics to focus on in daily tool box talks to bigger tasks like formal education and re-training