Establishing a Personal Commitment to Work Safe
After 70 years, Mortenson is one of the top builders in the U.S. and still a family owned and operated business.
However, just like any other family, without structure there's going to be chaos. As the company’s projects and teams have grown, it's important to have an organizational structure in place to support all of the different jobsite functions – especially safety.
Yet, safety professionals didn't establish Mortenson’s industry leading Zero Injuries safety program. Mort Mortenson took it upon himself in 1995 to create the pillars of our safety culture and establish safety as a company value. Fundamentally, Mort believed that zero is more than a number. It's not just a data point. Zero stands for a personal commitment to achieve safety excellence for all team members. We believe it's an obligation to work safe.
For Mortenson safety professionals, there’s more to the role than simply knowing the regulation and understanding the safety program:
- What makes them good at their job?
- What makes them an excellent resource for their fellow team members?
- How do they drive results to achieve Zero Injury performance on our project sites?
Projects Often Combine Traveling and Local Workforces
With 13 regional offices across the country and many different operating groups, every Mortenson project demands a unique approach to staffing. For many Solar Energy projects, Mortenson is hired by utility companies as the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) general contractor. As a result, multiple dedicated Mortenson teams execute the large amount of self-perform mechanical and electrical work and there are very few subcontractors on site.
Team members walking through solar and energy storage project site in California Comprehensive Safety and Culture Training
“The workforce on these projects can consist of around 50% career travelers who are willing to relocate to travel to various projects and live their lives on the road,” said Cammy Gidio, Operating Group Safety Director for the Solar Energy group at Mortenson. “We also hire many team members from the local workforce – many with little or no construction experience. So, it is necessary to train these new team members from the ground up.”
At peak hiring, there could be upwards of 800 to 900 new team members so training requires a team effort. While safety professionals cover a lot of that structured training, Superintendents and General Foreman also come in to provide their unique perspective and additional guidance for new team members. A large percentage of the upfront training focuses on construction safety, building culture, understanding the company and aligning with the company values.
Mortenson solar team members participating in a group training session Every Mortenson Team Member is a Safety Leader
As a Mortenson construction safety professional, building an effective culture of safety on a project site requires a completely different approach than simply observing the work from the comfort of a truck. And for good reason.
In order to effectively drive safety engagement and keep safety top of mind, everyone on the project has to think of themselves as a safety leader. This expectation is set from the very beginning – not only does everybody have the ability to be a leader, they also have the obligation to stop work if they see a potential safety issue.
Mortenson establishes and maintains this safety mindset by focusing initial trainings on the obligation to align the morals, values and commitments between team members and those core principles of the company. The consistency with that approach keeps safety at the forefront of our communication and planning efforts throughout our different scopes of work.
Having a Voice Makes a Difference
Since the renewable energy industry is pretty small, it's fairly common to see a lot of people rotate through companies over the years. Yet, Mortenson team members stay with the company longer because they know their voice matters here. They also know the company will continue to reinvest its resources in their team members. And it isn't just lip service.
Mortenson leaders make safety a priority by talking about safety and by putting their money behind it. Team members understand that it really matters when they work for more than themselves and they are truly part of a team and have a voice. That understanding and commitment are some of the main differences that separate Mortenson from other companies.
David Mortenson and other leaders at a project for Milwaukee Tool Providing Resources to Support Safety Leadership and Engagement
Mortenson is looking for safety professionals who are proactive and are striving to be leaders in the industry. They want to be a part of influencing behavioral change and impacting the workforce to drive down safety metrics in a very strategic way to measure deliverables and outcomes.
“A key aspect of safety roles at Mortenson is to be a resource for engaging and empowering people to make safe choices, not just complying. There's a big difference,” said Mel Langlais, Senior Safety Director at Mortenson. “Instead of trying to force compliance to the regulation or threatening disciplinary action, they’re going to provide the tools, guidance and support necessary to make safe choices. If you've had an internship or worked at other companies, you probably understand the difference and how big of an impact that shift in mindset can give to an organization.”
Success With a Servant Leadership Mentality
Mortenson provides structured tools and programs to set team members up for success and empower all team members. The safety team embraces the resources the company provides to facilitate growth and development so safety becomes second nature for everyone on the project site. Underneath every tool or program is the concept of a servant leadership mentality.
Mortenson team member with pieces of required Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) One of those programs is called Crew Sponsorship – also known as the empty desk program. Every Monday, the project management team makes it a priority to leave the office and engage with their assigned crew to better understand where those crew members need support. It might be better tools or a red line for their standard work instructions.
“We’re taking the initiative to let our crew members know they have a friend in the office and we're there to support them,” said Gidio. “We give our supervisory staff – Engineers, Project Managers, Superintendents, Safety Engineers, etc. – a list of questions so they can ask the crew members and ensure that we're setting them up for success by giving them an opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns in a safe way. It’s a really different approach compared to some other companies and that is just one example of the programs Mortenson provides to increase team member engagement.”
Integrating Behavioral and Psychological Approaches to Safety Management
There's always going to be the potential for some level of human error associated with incidents. Outside factors or complacency can distract team members so they may not be as focused on safety or following safety processes on a certain day.
Changing Behavior with Personable Approach
As safety professionals, it’s important to remember that we're not working with robots so it’s critical to approach working with people from a humanistic perspective. Plus, most people don't recognize our inability as humans to objectively rate ourselves in many instances.
In order to change behavior, it’s important to have some psychological or behavioral based approaches built into a safety program. When you're approaching conflict or an issue that needs to be corrected, it’s important to approach it as a collaborator, not an adversary. Ultimately, you're looking for a win-win outcome.
Achieving Win-Win Conversations
There should never be a conversation where one person feels bad and the other person feels good as the result of a mentality of being right or wrong. For both parties to “win”, there must be a clear understanding around why that issue had to be corrected and to learn from it so the behavior isn’t repeated moving forward. It’s important to approach it personably, have mutual respect for each other and understand that people have deeper needs.
Onsite safety meeting of Mortenson team members “I always encourage safety professionals to ask somebody how they're doing today or ask how their family is or how their kids are if you know them,” said Gidio. “Things like that make a big difference in setting up a positive connection and interaction. Don't just come up and say, ‘Hey, put your safety glasses on.’ Be a person when you start that conversation.”
Avoiding the Blame Game
Another great approach to promote a learning or growth mindset is to replace blame with curiosity. It's not always somebody's fault so approaching every problem with a mindset of having the best solution stifles the opportunity for team member growth. Ultimately, driving safety engagement can hinge on truly embodying those empathetic and psychological basics.
The Impact of Effective Communication and Engagement on Safety Outcomes
Basic communication and building culture sounds simple at a high level. It’s easy to assume everyone knows how to communicate effectively but that isn’t always the case – especially when multiple people are involved.
Poor Communication Leads to Big Problems
After working on projects with multiple teams and subcontractors, it can be easy to spot if a team is not communicating effectively. In addition to creating potential safety hazards, poor communication can lead to bigger issues over the long term, such as quality issues, rework schedule delays and cost delays.
“Communication and relationship skills are probably the most impactful assets our safety professionals possess,” said Mel Langlais, Senior Safety Director at Mortenson. “If you can't talk to people and facilitate a win-win conversation with them, it’s going to be very difficult to be good at your job. So, we have a lot of strong programs in place that focus on building leadership and relationship skills.”
A Culture of Collaboration and Intellectual Curiosity
The Mortenson core values of doing the right thing, putting we before me and inspiring what's possible are also foundational to the Mortenson Zero Injuries safety program.
Those simple yet powerful concepts have helped so many team members grow and develop to become the best version of themselves. Ultimately, the commitment and consistency Mortenson has with investing in team members and valuing their opinions and their voices makes the entire company better.
Collaboration, asking questions, wanting to grow and develop – the people that have been at Mortenson for years and continue to stay all have that same mentality and approach to life. In addition to fostering a collective intellectual curiosity, that approach manifests to create an exceptional work environment.
“It feels supportive and you feel like you matter – you have a purpose,” said Cammy Gidio. “When you combine the majority of your time spent at work with knowing you're contributing to something that's bigger than you, that's really impactful. For all those reasons, Mortenson is the best place to work, especially as a safety professional.”