Recently I had the pleasure of attending the annual Amicus Solar Principals Retreat in Phoenix, Arizona. Amicus Solar is a national cooperative of 80 independently owned, mission-driven solar companies (www.AmicusSolar.com ). In addition to cooperative purchasing, we collaborate, partner, share best practices, and learn from each other in many ways.
During the retreat, I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with our COO, Leslie Howard-Goddard, where we presented to the members on the evolution of our safety program at SES. We certainly don’t have all the answers on construction safety or specifically solar construction safety, but we sure have learned a lot and are always learning more.
In preparation for the presentation, Leslie and I revisited the history of the company and how we have approached safety over the years. We’ve come a long way and we’re proud of our progress and the safety culture we’ve established.
There were many details to the presentation, but once we had all of our notes, ideas, and history laid out, we looked for patterns to possibly qualify and better understand our successes. We found that just about all of the anecdotal safety information fell into one of three buckets:
- Leadership Buy-in
- The Business of Safety
- Safety Culture
Leadership Buy-in
Without buy-in from those in leadership positions, a safety culture can never really take hold. This is so much easier said than done if people come from different industries, different generations, and different experience, but we’ve found that having company leaders walk the walk is indispensable when implementing safety goals and assigning resources to safety. Some of the ways this is manifested at SES include executive and senior management attending the regular crew safety meetings – at 6AM –, actively participating on the Safety Committee, starting meetings with the topic of safety, asking about and listening to feedback about safety, and so forth.
The Business of Safety
The business of safety speaks to the economics of safety and conveying that with applicable transparency to our people. Safe organizations have happier employees and lower turnover, and that leads to higher productivity in the long run. Safe organizations have lower insurance costs, lower absenteeism, committed employees, higher commitment from employees’ families, and happier customers. Safe organizations also get more business opportunities. This may be more subjective with residential work, but it is very objective with commercial work. Most general contractors require safety metrics within certain ranges for their subcontractor partners to even bid on their projects. Safe businesses are healthier, economically speaking.
Safety Culture
This is the endgame. If our leaders are effective and our communication is meaningful and transparent, we’ve got the foundation in place. We found that ramping up training and accountability are the final key steps in establishing a good safety culture. People cannot be held accountable if management is not providing the necessary training, enforcement, and PPE. And if employees are not held accountable, then safety becomes optional when it is deemed impractical. In a safety culture, we are always challenging each other out of care and respect for the safety of self and others.
Safety is a journey and a process. It isn’t something that can ever be checked off as complete, but rather it must be continuously maintained and improved upon. There is no finish line; we must start each day and each task with safety in mind.