In the construction industry, risks come with the territory. A corporate culture of safety can protect both employees and insurance costs.

In the construction industry, risks come with the territory. You can't do all the digging, filling, pouring, lifting, framing and wiring we do without incurring a certain level of physical risk, and that risk can translate into eye-opening insurance premiums.

In the past five years, I have been involved in a companywide attempt to better control those risks, and the results have been impressive. Employee injuries were significantly reduced, and the company's bottom line benefited from increased productivity, lower workmen's compensation rates, reduced liability insurance and increased attractiveness to potential clients.

Our company has not had a single OSHA recordable incident (an injury requiring treatment beyond first aid) or a single workers' compensation claim between Jan. 1, 2003, and the date of this writing. As a result, we reduced our worker's compensation experience modification rate (EMR) to an estimated 0.74 for 2007 from more than 1.0 in 2004. We also reduced our annual liability insurance premium by 5 percent.

The genesis of that effort goes back to 2001, a year in which our company experienced an unusually high number of work-related claims that pushed our EMR above the 1.0 industry standard for the first time. When that trend combined with the jump in liability insurance rates that came in the wake of 9/11, getting a better handle on safety became a real priority.

Our new general superintendent became our in-house safety champion. He was well-positioned to enforce stricter safety rules in the field and already had completed a 30-hour OSHA workplace safety program.

The next step in our effort was to make sure our safety program had the enthusiastic support of our top management, starting with CEO Joseph R. Krusinski and President Jerry R. Krusinski. Top management decided not to view improved safety as a project or even as a corporate priority, but rather to create within our company a safety culture. The distinction may be subtle, but we think it is vital. As you know, corporate priorities evolve through time - top priorities for 2006 won't be identical to those for 2007.

Our goal was to make safety a core value of our company, much as our commitment to delivering quality work and providing outstanding customer service are our core values. Therefore, we had to implement something more than a safety program that might wither away over time as other priorities were identified. Instead, we wanted to create, from top to bottom, a corporate culture of safety.

Placing A Big Bet
Our focus was not only on employees working in the field, but also on office staff. This was because a case of carpal tunnel or a slip and fall in the restroom can have as much impact on an employee, our overall productivity and our insurance rates as construction site incidents.

The first step to achieving our goal was to have our general superintendent become qualified as an OSHA outreach trainer certified to present the 10-hour and 30-hour OSHA safety classes. With that in-house capability in place by early 2003, we introduced a requirement that all employees, including everyone in the corporate office, must take at least the 10-hour class.

By the end of 2003, our work force had met that training requirement, and on that basis we were ready to take a risk of our own. One insurer was offering us a policy under which we would be rewarded for a clean safety record during the year. We could self-insure the first $100,000 in losses, so if we had no incidents, the $100,000 would be returned to us in the form of a rebate on our premium. In contrast, another insurer offered a lower initial rate with no potential for a rebate based on safety.

We chose the policy with the potential rebate and wanted everyone to know that we were making a big bet on safety. At our annual employee meeting, held prior to our holiday party, we explained to the company what was at stake.

One new initiative that came out of the meeting was a decision to open up our safety program to employee input, and the results were exceptional. We received many suggestions, some specific to certain situations and others with application to the entire company. Several suggestions concerned various aspects of fall protection for workers in the field, and when we reviewed the situation, we realized there was room for improvement. Here's what we did:

• Purchased custom-fitted fall protection equipment - harnesses, lanyards, etc. - for all field personnel, from laborers to superintendents
• Provided training in the use of that equipment and how to erect fall protection on each work site
• Implemented a rule that no work was to be done on a site until appropriate fall protection was in place

Another suggestion that had broad implications was to give employees greater responsibility to ensure unsafe activities were stopped before they resulted in an accident. After a careful study of the implications, we put in place a companywide policy that allowed any employee to stop operations at a construction site for safety reasons, even if the safety problem involved a subcontractor rather than a Krusinski employee. No longer does the superintendent of the project need to be consulted first, but once the project is stopped, the superintendent is immediately involved to resolve the safety issue.

Because of the commitment demonstrated by the two policies, it became clear to employees at all levels of our organization that we were serious about safety, not just giving it lip service. Best of all, that message penetrated beyond our company to our subcontractors. We offered them appropriate safety training and urged them to invest in needed equipment, and we soon saw a noticeable improvement in their safety records.

We also insisted that each subcontractor have a safety program in place that must be approved by our corporate safety director before that subcontractor can bid our work. In addition, we look at each subcontractor's safety record, and if it fails to meet our standards we will not consider bids from that company. We communicated that safety on our job sites would be strictly enforced.

It is our belief, based on experience, that safety on a job site must be approached comprehensively. If one subcontractor is following unsafe practices, it can create risks for everyone on-site as well as undermine the commitment of others to maintain high safety standards. Of course, establishing a safety culture is in many ways only a first step. The continuing challenge is to maintain that culture over time. To accomplish that goal, we are zealous about providing training to new hires.

For example, a new superintendent is immediately enrolled in the 30-hour OSHA course, plus a 10-hour, in-house safety course that is quite specific to the type of work we do and the policies we have in place. We have a safety incentive program for our field employees that includes giving a savings bond to each one who remains accident-free during the year.

We also have made safety an integral topic in our post-construction reviews. As part of that process, which looks at all aspects of a completed project, we review our safety record, any issues that arose and analyze how cost-effectively we are implementing our safety procedures.

In one sense, it would be fair to say we have become a bit obsessive about safety, but we are not alone. Our customers have continually raised their expectations in terms of the safety performance of the contractors they hire, and it is our goal to exceed even those rising expectations.