Safety is a core value at Colvos Construction. Our culture of safety is built upon the idea that everyone who steps foot on one of our job sites should return to their families each night in the same condition they left that morning. To do this, we make safety a priority from day one. We build a solid foundation, and then implement and follow protocol that keep our job sites safe and incident free.
A Solid Foundation
To build safety into the foundation of our work culture it’s one of the first things we talk about with our internal team, subcontractors, and Owners. Safety is a primary topic of discussion during a potential employee’s interview, at our company staff meetings, and at the start of each work day. From day one we emphasize that, no matter the scale of the project, everyone understands the safety policies that apply.
As the largest group of personnel on our job sites, we make it a point to select subcontractor partners with a solid approach to safety. To ensure they can safely perform the work, we require they share their safety rating, also known as their Experience Modification Rates (EMR), which is a good indication of their commitment to safety.
Our clients are also involved and informed. From the onset of a project, whether it’s a proposal or pre-construction meeting, we let our clients know there will be someone on site who is trained and responsible for implementation of safety standards and explain how the job site will be managed. Even if they aren’t familiar with construction or safety protocols, Owners are more comfortable when they understand how we operate, and clients quickly get behind our “safety first” philosophy.
Get to Work
Safety is also a crucial conversation with our project Superintendents. At Colvos they serve as the day-to-day on-site safety manager and are the ambassadors of our safety culture.
We also use a safety consultant, Darin Parker with Signature Safety, who visits all our job sites once a month. Darin’s presence on site is seen as a resource, rather than disciplinarian, and he is known for his ability to help plan for upcoming critical activities such as complex demolitions.
Accountability and Incentives
We use a software program called Procore help manage our projects and track safety risks. This mobile-ready construction management software is accessible by our Superintendents, Project Managers and Project Engineers in the field, and allows our team to quickly to track, report, and resolve any potential issues. To document and track an issue, Superintendents use their phone to upload a picture of a safety issue, define the issue with details and notes, and go on to document the issue from observation through resolution.
We also use traditional, tried-and-true incentive programs encourage safety. Those who have completed our on-site safety orientation receive hard hat stickers, but more importantly we celebrate. It’s a tradition in the construction industry to celebrate every 100 days a project is incident free. We bring in pizza for lunch, and give all personnel working on the project a chance to relax and take pride in their accomplishment. To-date Colvos is incident free, so needless to say, we’ve eaten a lot of pizza.
Final Product
Our continuous focus on safety has created an open and honest environment where Colvos leadership has set an expectation of zero incidents and is seen as a resource for field staff. In turn, our field staff follows this example, and is proactive about addressing potential issues.
This is how Colvos ensures excellence is delivered, safely.