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Safety projects safe, and the workers in the field are the most important
part of that effort. Communication from contractor’s supervisors
and field-level foremen is an additional and important part of this
campaign. They must communicate when conducting morning
with Jim Grant huddle meetings, shift hand-off meetings and in daily interactions
Vice President, Safety & Field with workers. These team members provide the conduit that again
Operations reinforces the expectation by “talking the talk” and “walking-the-
walk.” Management that does not practice what they teach will
certainly negate all of the hard work that has been put into any
Engaging the Workforce in Safety safety program. We have to make our contractors partners in what
When we look at our incidents stats, there is always a high we are trying to achieve. We have to make our safety expectations
percentage of incidents that fall into the unsafe decision category. clear during Pre-Award and Pre-Construction meetings.
These decisions get influenced by a lot of things: training, life It's also ideal to provide consistent reinforcement of good and
experiences, supervision, and more importantly, the culture the bad behaviors, plus constructive feedback when improvement is
worker has been exposed to. One impact Gray can have on our needed. There is also the issue of non-verbal communication; if you
projects comes from setting a great culture. We can influence this by ignore or walk past safety issues, that sends a message without
communicating and transferring our safety culture, and by planning using words. As Bob Moore, President of Gray West says, “If you
our work and engaging our subcontractors and their workforce. see you own it; if you pass by you condone it.” It’s important that
These steps can make an impact on reducing incidents on our feedback be delivered in a positive way, not as a punishment.
projects. To improve our safety program in this area we must start Recognizing those that are applying what they have been taught is
communicating our culture to the workforce. Simply put, our safety as important as providing correction for those that have regressed
culture is how we do things. It's influenced by your walk, your talk, into bad habits. Praise or correction must call out the behavior and
2 your actions, and your beliefs. It is what you do without even thinking. explain the positive or negative consequence.
Coaching team members by using observations and constructive
Understanding how to successfully engage and empower your
workforce on your project quickly in safety is one key element to feedback is key, as well as recognizing and praising good behaviors.
ensuring a safe project. Helping the workforce feel good about the work they perform each
Providing orientation to workers on the how and the why is critical day through knowledge and application will payback handsomely in
to driving knowledge, safe behaviors and employee engagement. engaging the workforce, increasing productivity, decreasing quality
However, providing information in and of itself is not the only driver issues, reducing turnover and creating a safe working environment
of organizational culture. Our orientation must include additional for everyone.
elements to encourage safe behavior and to empower our workforce It’s our job to set the atmosphere for a safe and productive
to perform every task safely; we must also let them know we want project, and this can be done with clear positive communication
them to STOP when it isn’t safe. that will help us achieve the goal of sending each team member
During our weekly jobsite-wide safety meetings, it's important for home at the end of the day in the same way they showed up. Every
us to send the message that we are partners in the effort to make our one of us plays a role in our safety success.

Safety Personal Commitment

Statistics to Safety

All statistics reported for Gray are cumulative for Calendar Year 2020

0 Fatality Chad Jamison
Project Manager
Majors
0 (Disabling Accidents)

Recordable Accident
7 (Off Work, Limited Work,
and No Lost Time)

53 15 "I commit to making safety

Near Miss / Property Damage First Aid / Injury but not recordable #1 on my priority list each

A goal of zero lost time incidents means there is a level of acceptance of and every day. I also commit
other types of incidents that do not lead to lost time. When other incidents are
accepted, then we increase the chance that lost time, and more severe incidents
will occur. The triangle graphic above is an illustration of this. Gray’s focus is to to doing my best to watch
stop all incidents, by starting at the very bottom of the triangle. If we eliminate
all incidents, then we eliminate the possibility of the catastrophic incident. By over those around me in the
definition, a lost time incident is an injury event that causes a worker to miss at
least one day of work. A safety incident is any event that needs to be tracked and field and office alike."
recorded regardless of whether medical attention was required or not.