OSHA regulations require that “employers instruct their employees in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and the regulations applicable to their work environment to control or eliminate any hazards or other exposure to illness or injury”.  

At Ecker, we asked ourselves, “How do we satisfy this training requirement for nearly 1000 English and Spanish-speaking construction employees in three primary trades at over 100 jobsites scattered across the Chicagoland area?”  Bring them periodically to the Central Office at tremendous inconvenience and expense?  Or, can we bring the training to the workforce at the jobsite?  At Ecker, we have chosen the latter:  We have chosen to bring safety training out to the jobsite with our brand-new Safety Trailer!

So how does this work?  Before we explain how, let us first explain why.  As a growing multi-trade subcontractor with hundreds of employees scattered about EIGHT counties, we have been finding it more and more challenging to consistently bring our employees in to a central location to give them quality formal safety training.  We wanted to devise a method that might be more efficient and effective: to bring the safety training directly to our employees at their Commercial or Residential jobsites.  We wanted to take advantage of real-world conditions, with the employees being in familiar surroundings with familiar co-workers, and familiar tools, materials and equipment.  Our goal was to have our employees be comfortable and attentive.  Our goal was to have them participate and contribute.

To satisfy our fundamental safety training requirements, we explored the method of providing shorter, focused, and more frequent training rather than conducting centralized, long, drawn-out safety training in the traditional classroom setting.  Don’t get us wrong.  We will still provide periodic, professional, formal safety classes for our employees in a variety of topics.  It’s just that we think it will be more meaningful to bring primary safety training to the jobsite in a more informal and relaxed setting, away from ‘the office’.

To give our new safety trailer a clear mission, we decided on the following acronym to define and focus our efforts:  S.A.F.E.S.T. – Scaffold Awareness, Fallprotection Education and Safety Training.  Think about it…with two of our primary exposures to serious injury on the jobsite being scaffolding and working at heights, what better way to define the purpose of our safety trailer than by using the acronym S.A.F.E.S.T.?

Why S.A.F.E.S.T.?  During the 80’s and 90’s, despite having a safety program in place, we were not seeing a significant decrease in our injury frequency and severity rates like we wanted.  Too many employees were getting injured largely from preventable causes.  Insurance premiums and injury costs were escalating.  We had to do something different. 

A few years ago at Ecker we decided to change the way we view safety.  Instead of saying that we have a Safety Program, we began saying that we have a Safety CULTURE.  We made safety our number one corporate Core Value.  We began weaving safety-related activities and conversations in with our normal day-to-day operations, both in the office and out on the jobsite.  We set safety goals for our managers and supervisors.  We held everyone accountable.  At first we met with skepticism and resistance, but gradually the concept took hold.  Injury rates began declining, as did their related costs.  Acceptance of the concept of a Safety Culture continued to increase.  Everyone has become more involved in the overall safety process.  Scaffold-related injuries are down.  Fall related injuries are down.  Overall occupational injuries are down.  Our recently completed insurance policy year showed the sharpest decrease in our injury rates/costs over the last several years.  To continue this trend over the long haul, we must continue to do more…and we must do it differently from the rest of our competition.

Back to the Safety Trailer…so how does it work?  The Safety Trailer is a mobile classroom that contains chairs, tables, a TV/VCR, portable shelter canopies, PPE, and other safety-related equipment.   A particular topic is selected in advance (Electrical Safety for example) and announced to a specific jobsite well in advance.  Written Spanish and English safety materials are prepared and loaded into the trailer.  The instructor (sometimes the Safety Director; sometimes one of our many qualified Superintendents; sometimes a qualified General Superintendent; and sometimes the Operations Manager) double-checks to make sure the electrical training aides are in the trailer as they are supposed to be.  After securing the electrical safety video from the office, the instructor would check for the GFCI; the extension cord; the electric screw gun; the multi-tester; the continuity tester; the box of accumulated damaged equipment; etc…all which should be permanently loaded in the trailer.

On the day of the actual training, the trailer is inspected and hooked-up to one of our many capable pick-up trucks.  The large cooler is loaded with ice, pop, and water.  Our customer (the Builder or the G.C.) is notified and enthusiastically invited to attend the training session.  Lunch is sometimes ordered because we like to occasionally conduct safety training as a lunch-and-learn session.  The trailer arrives on-site and is parked, secured, and the doors are opened up.  During the warmer months we like to conduct the training outdoors.  The tent-like canopies are set up, then the chairs and tables.  The portable dry-erase board is hung on the side of the trailer.  The TV/VCR is swung out of the trailer on a special swivel bracket, and positioned for viewing.  The written materials are laid out on the tables along with pens or pencils.  The electrical training aides are laid out in front on the instructor’s table.  If applicable, additional equipment from the jobsite is collected and set-up in front next to the instructor (i.e. for a scaffold class, a rolling scaffold; or for a ladder class a step ladder and an extension ladder).  For lunch-and-learn sessions, the employees arrive and are asked to quickly get their lunch and then sit down at the table and eat quietly.  Otherwise, they just arrive, grab a cold beverage, and then sit down.  When everyone is seated, the instructor begins conducting the safety training.  Upon completion of the training, the employees take a short quiz, the answers are reviewed, and the newly educated employees are sent back to work with a minimum inconvenience and expense.

At Ecker, we have taken safety training to a new level.  At Ecker, we have given new meaning to being the S.A.F.E.S.T. subcontractor that we possibly can be.