“We reached this milestone only because of the outstanding attitudes, work efforts and individual dedication to safety by all of our associates,” said President Steve Humphrey, Sr. “We believe that our commitment to providing a safe work environment creates a culture for achieving this goal.”
The completion of one million consecutive hours without an OSHA Recordable Lost Time Injury or Illness is calculated by including those hours worked by direct employees of Humphrey & Associates. No subcontractor hours or temporary staffing hours are included in the calculation. The date summary of the calculation included more than 15 calendar months (starting in February of 2001) with an average of 397 direct personnel employed.
“We have an excellent loss prevention team that consists of three loss prevention safety coordinators and two loss prevention personnel Coordinators who are cross-trained to work with personnel and safety,” says Randy Humphrey, executive vice president of Loss Prevention Services. “Our loss prevention team is what I like to call the ‘company culture cheerleaders.’ They’re out in the field encouraging safety at all times. If they spot a guy at the very top of a ladder or not wearing protective glasses, they won’t berate him. Instead, they’ll talk to him about safety—about how it affects his job, his co-workers and his family.”
The safety coordinators perform safety audits, site inspections, accident investigations; and in the case of accidents, they facilitate medical treatment, working with the employee and the insurance company to expedite the process. Humphrey & Associates has a weekly corporate loss prevention committee meeting on Monday mornings. Representing nearly one-fourth of the area of Texas, branch managers meet to review all accidents and incidents that occurred the previous week, and they address new safety issues. The same safety meeting topic is carried out in the field.
Humphrey & Associates uses some basic incentive plans. For example, the corporate loss prevention team will pass on a “word-of-the-week” with the safety information from Monday morning meetings to the field crew for their Tuesday meetings. If a safety coordinator approaches a field employee later in the week to ask what the word-of-the-week is and the employee knows the word, he or she may receive a word-of-the-week giveaway.
In addition to these incentive plans, Humphrey & Associates trains all of its employees using basic safety training upon orientation. H&A provides craft training and apprenticeship programs on- and off-site through organizations like the Independent Electrical Contractors, the Associated Builders and Contractors, and the Construction Education Foundation. H&A also requires CPR/First Aid training, the OSHA 10-hour training course, accident investigation training and other in-house programs of all supervisors.