Improving Jobsite Safety with Planning

One of my favorite parts about being a safety professional at Mortenson is working with Craft team members. We are always striving to influence the safety culture and ensure everyone on our projects go home the same way they came to work. We help trade partners build their program and integrate safety into everything they do. I also love the diverse, fast-paced construction environment. The people are incredible and it gives me the opportunity to not only be a mentor, but also learn from others — it is truly a constant learning environment.

In addition to working with trade partners, how are you leading safety and interacting with Craft team members on project sites?

Kendra: First and foremost, I focus on building rapport with the Craft. I don't want them to work safe because there's a policy or regulation that says they have to. I want to instill the foundations of our safety culture so they want to work safely and watch out for those around them, to ensure everyone can go home to their families at the end of every day. Through meaningful conversations, we can understand the challenges and constraints that are impacting their ability to work safely and provide solutions for a safe plan to conduct the work.  

One of the ways we do that is through pre-task planning. We're identifying potential hazards, ensuring the right tools and equipment are available, and that we have the right safeguards in place. We want to make sure the teams are set up for success by being proactive so everyone understands the risks they could be exposed to and how they're going to control them.

The Crew Sponsorship Program is another part of our approach to safety that positively impacts Craft engagement. A Mortenson supervisor is assigned to a crew and provides an additional level of support while building meaningful connections. We discuss the plan of the day and what may be going on on-site that could be impactful. By being that go-to person if the crew has questions or concerns, they have that additional person they feel comfortable with and will bring up any issues they might have. 

We also have culture type audits based on a foundation of listening to those performing the work and learning how we can support them to make their job better. It is an opportunity for engagement on safety related issues, but also how we can make their day more productive and efficient.

Mortenson has a culture and commitment to the men and women working on our project sites that we will never put their safety or well-being at risk to complete a project. We create a sense of ownership of the safety program, and everyone has a part in making it successful.

Is all of the planning before starting work common or is that something unique to Mortenson?

Kendra: Every company does something different. We focus heavily on pre-project and pre-task planning so the teams are set up for success with the right training and knowledge to perform the work safely. By putting in the effort up front to think through potential issues, we can achieve our desired outcomes. We conduct pre-task planning each day in the work area and review the hazards that could affect their work. Ultimately, that pre-planning is thinking through what could happen and ensuring we have controls in place for those hazards, while also getting input from everyone involved to make the plan better.

What was the origin of Bend and Stretch as part of starting each workday at Mortenson?

Kendra: So many of the large GC's do Bend and Stretch now but Mortenson was one of the first companies to ever do it back in the 90s. We were on a project in California and we had a large group of Mortenson concrete Craft workers. There was a fair amount of muscular skeletal injuries that resulted in sending multiple people to the doctor and physical therapists.

To help address the problem, we consulted with a PT and asked for advice on what we could do to prevent these types of injuries. Ultimately, we learned how important is it to get team members warmed up by stretching in the morning before they start work. This consistent activity also reinforces the caring, family-oriented aspect of our culture with everybody looking out for one another. Fast forward 30+ years and that activity is now standard on every project before the start of work —extending across the entire organization. Following Bend and Stretch, we provide daily safety messaging to everyone on site.

What are other examples of that caring and concern approach to safety in the field?

Kendra: Mortenson is a company that approaches all behaviors with caring and concern. If we see someone performing work at-risk, we're not going to punish them for doing something wrong. We're going to dig in to see why that behavior is occurring. If there's an unsafe behavior, we want to figure out the root cause. Some of the questions we may ask are:

• Are they performing that way because they don't have the right equipment to do it safely?
• Is their foreman pushing them to do something because they're behind schedule?
• Do they have the right training to know how to do it correctly?

One of the best things that Mortenson does is really focusing on the people while looking for opportunities to self-correct and grow, instead of placing blame on them for doing something wrong. For example, there was a situation where a crew was working above six feet in a very tight mechanical room so they tied off to a joist. While this seemed like the right thing to do, they didn't realize the joist didn't support the 5000 LB anchor point requirement so it wouldn’t support them if they were to fall. They also didn't have the right type of lanyard that would actually protect them from a fall.

It was an opportunity to do some training on the spot to make sure they understood all the hazards and risks they created by tying off that way. Those types of situations can occur regularly so it’s critical to learn from that so they can better understand how to keep themselves safe in the future.

That’s also part of why team members feel comfortable coming to Mortenson. Instances like that where we are working as a team and being part of a collaborative effort to figure out how to do that work safely and come to a solution.  We know there is variability in the work and how we respond matters.

How do you navigate that aspect of building our Zero Injuries culture to get Craft and trade partners on board and understand the why behind it?

Kendra: We have a culture of care and we approach everyone with respect. It is important to explain the ‘why’ behind our requirements and continuously promote our program and safety culture. We also have a managing obligations accountability program that we implemented a few years ago.

With our approach and action evaluation model, we're really trying to get to the root cause of why it happened, and the contributing constraints — maybe they're getting pressure from their foreman or Superintendent to get something done because they're behind schedule. Ultimately, we're going to hold the right person accountable if they're the person making that decision. It’s about making sure that we’re doing the right thing and that it is okay to stop if you're unsure how to perform the task safely.

Safety is in every person’s job description within Mortenson. It is not the safety professional’s sole responsibility to ensure that the Craft and trade partners are working safely on site. It's everyone’s obligation to participate in our safety program. This is something that has been instilled in me since I started my career with Mortenson. 

In addition to the collaborative aspects with things like crew sponsorship, how would you describe your typical day?

Kendra: Safety professionals start the day onboarding new workers to the project, assist in planning the work, and spend time in the field. Not only is that where the physical work is happening, but most importantly, that is how you build a culture of safety. It’s important to be out in the field creating a rapport with the Craft.

The best way to do that is to create meaningful relationships. This helps us understand their challenges firsthand by asking them about their work and what they're doing. Letting the Craft teach us about what they do and what their challenges are provides the opportunity to build camaraderie as one team and that we're all successful together.

When I started my career, I was focused on becoming the best safety professional that I could be. I knew the standards, but I also knew I wasn’t going to be successful until I really understood construction and how the work comes together. So, I would spend most of my time following around the Foreman or the Superintendents asking them questions about their work. At different stages in my career, I had the opportunity to lay brick, install outlets, and finish concrete while learning from the experts.

I push a lot of younger safety engineers to do the same thing because everybody loves teaching people their skills. If you’re genuinely interested in them and their task at hand, they're going to teach you how to do it the right way and why it’s important. They need to know that I'm not looking for how they did it wrong, but I truly want to learn why they did it a certain way so that we can get better together. That is a big differentiator in building the “why” behind feedback before you make it. Everybody wants to transfer their knowledge and that's a great way to build rapport.