Construction site safety is one of the most important issues facing our industry. It’s easy to see why—nothing matters more than making it through the workday safely. PARIC employees celebrated this month as the company earned the Workforce Star designation, the highest possible safety certification in OSHA.
At an event for employees from all departments, Safety Director Niles Shannon accepted the flag from OSHA representative Maryanne Martin. This achievement required intense effort from people across the company. OSHA conducted site inspections as well as interviewed employees.
THE FATAL FOUR – LEADING SAFETY ISSUES ON CONSTRUCTION SITES
Danger is inherent to the work on every construction site. Safety involves remaining vigilant and having a deep understanding of the risks, as well as how to help everyone on the team prevent issues. The four most common issues, known as “the fatal four,” are falls, electrocutions, falling objects and being caught between large objects.
PARIC has an unusually solid record on safety, with an Experience Modification Rate (EMR) record of .49. This rate is well below the industry average of 1.0. Part of the reason for this success boils down to prioritizing safety. Another reason is that the PARIC staff knows that safety depends on input from everybody, not just the safety team. Each of our job sites includes a family board, that prominently displays workers’ friends, hobbies and families—all the reasons that drive us to focus on safety at all times.
In addition, PARIC requires vigorous construction site safety training of all employees, including OSHA courses, first aid and CPR, fall prevention, emergency action and response planning and much more. The company has also won numerous awards for safety
A PEOPLE-ORIENTED FRAMEWORK FOR SAFE CONSTRUCTION
PARIC Safety Director Shannon Niles says, “PARIC’s success has always been about our people. Our employees, partners and sub-contractors are all teams made up of people, with families and friends who are counting on them to return home from work safe and whole. We’re proud that we have continued to go above and beyond to protect everyone working on our sites.”