91视频

Owners, general contractors and trade contractors have different roles and responsibilities within a construction project, but everyone involved wants employees to go home at the end without injury. However, simply wanting a safe project does not make it so. Safe projects take commitment, education, planning, execution and monitoring.

Through collaboration, networking and sharing, SafeBuild Alliance works toward a construction industry with zero injuries. Last July, 10 SafeBuild contractors partnered with MWESB (minority/women/emerging small business) for a yearlong mentorship and prepared to learn from each other. As partners, they collaborated and shared information to improve safety performance on construction projects.

Executives and safety professionals from firms with mature safety programs volunteered as mentors.

The mentoring program is funded by a generous grant from the MDU Foundation. MDU Resources Group is the parent company of Oregon Electric Group and Knife River.

The 2014-15 mentoring program concluded June 4 with a celebration. The mentees in the program all believe safety performance on their projects has improved, but all of them had varied mentorship experiences.

Laurie Benjamin, owner of Inland Electric and participant in the mentoring program is confident that Inland Electric employees are more engaged in safety. It is important to her that all employees work safely so they can go home injury-free every day. She reminds them of that often and they know she cares. During her mentorship she worked on standardizing safety equipment, and learned about using vendors for training as well as the value of sharing information with a trusted mentor. As a result of the mentorship, EC Company and Inland Electric are now working together on a project.

Cochran Electric partnered with All-Pro Installs, a startup business. The mentorship provided an opportunity to help establish a safety culture for the company before any employees were hired.

鈥淟earning to integrate safety while keeping the business running is essential,鈥� said Neakontee Smith, owner of All-Pro Installs.

PMG is unique in that it often works for owners rather than general contractors, according to its owner, Rosa Martinez.

鈥淭his mentorship with Howard S. Wright helped us to learn what successful general contractors (who regularly work for owners) require of contractors to make sure everyone on the project is safe,鈥� she said.

Mortenson Construction was delighted with its partner, Pacificmark, and how proactive it is.

鈥淭he partnering and sharing information is awesome,鈥� said Mark Matthews, Pacificmark鈥檚 owner. 鈥淭his mentorship has helped set us up for future growth.鈥�

Mentees completed an online assessment of their safety written program and their injury and insurance experience. That assessment served as a baseline for improvement.

Gil Carreon, Liberty Steel owner, said the mentorship program helped it upgrade and refresh its safety program. Jean-wildy Malary, owner of Affordable Electric, noted that its mentor helped it put together a safety program they have been able to submit in the prequalification process.

In addition to the one-on-one mentoring meetings and the safety program assessment, an OSHA 10-hour class was also provided to employees from the mentee firms. The 10-hour class covered topics such as fall protection, confined space, electrical safety, personal protective equipment and health hazards in construction.

The participants found the mentoring partnerships valuable and several mentees have asked to continue the partnerships another year.

Contractors always have schedule and sequencing conflicts that can impact how safety performance is viewed. Safety is not effective if it is only practiced when it is convenient.

鈥淭he SafeBuild Alliance mentoring program is trying to elevate the level of the playing field so that our workers are getting injured less, and they are going home from work the same way they arrived,鈥� noted Malary.

Mentors in the program were Andersen Construction, EC Co., Hoffman Construction, McKinstry,聽Mortenson Construction, Oregon Electric Group, Skanska USA Building, Cochran Electric,聽TCM and Howard S. Wright, a Balfour Beatty Co.

Mentees participating were聽Affordable Electric, Art Cortez Construction, Crestview Construction,聽Inland Electric, Liberty Steel, NWR, Pacificmark Construction,聽Parrish Excavating, All-Pro Installs and Professional Minority Group.

SafeBuild Alliance has been awarded a second grant from the MDU Foundation and is currently recruiting partners for the next mentorship beginning in the fall.

Karen Blythe is the executive director of the SafeBuild Alliance. Contact her at 503-807-2908 or [email protected]. The SafeBuild Alliance is a nonprofit organization working to achieve incident-free construction projects through the transformation of workplace cultures. For more information or to join, visit www.safebuildalliance.com.