SAFETY

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OUR APPROACH TO SAFETY

Safety Belongs to Everyone.

TDSC is extremely dedicated to safety on our job sites and the culture of safety within the company as a whole. Our philosophy is, “Safety Belongs to Everyone.”  What that means is, everyone on our job sites is empowered to stop work if they see a potential hazard.  This approach allows everyone to look at the problem and come up with a workable solution.

TDSC has a dedicated Corporate Safety Director whose sole focus is on Safety Management. Our safety director has 25+ years of experience in commercial and Federal construction and brings a proactive approach to our safety program. Her certifications include Certified Safety and Health Manager, CSHM, OSHA 500, Asbestos Supervisor, OSHA Master Trainer, OSHA Outreach Trainer, OSHA 301 Trenching and Soil Mechanics, Competent-Person Fall Protection Instructor, ECATTS, CSST, CSSS, Army Corp of Engineers 40-Hour Safety, Contractor Quality Control, Emergency Medical Technician, OSH Program Management, Occupational Safety Stds, Principles of OSH Health.

Knowing safety is not enough. You have to practice it.

While TDSC implements a holistic and whole company approach to safety, it all starts with the example and direction set by the management team. Our President, Vice Presidents, and Division Managers review daily reports from every job site on a nightly basis to review safety inspections and enforce corrective actions when necessary. Management organizes and implements monthly safety stand-downs and companywide mandatory training sessions. Additionally, an annual Safety Training Day is held for the whole company with vendors and trainers from across the region, including local and regional OSHA officials.

Due to our policy that safety is everyone’s responsibility, all employees receive the same training, regardless of job position. Everyone participates in weekly toolbox talks, monthly safety training events, and the annual safety standdown day. We enforce protection from retribution for reporting unsafe conditions and protect anonymity if necessary. We want employees to feel comfortable identifying, reporting, and correcting unsafe actions and conditions. In our monthly employee newsletter, we offer an anonymous link for reporting anything to upper management, including safety concerns.

New employees start with the company and are given a lengthy safety indoctrination directly from our Corporate Safety Director. They are also required to receive instruction on and sign off on the activity hazard analysis worksheets prior to stepping on any job site or performing any task. Every employee receives a hard hat safety training sticker so that they are easily identified as “trained” and anyone without one can be identified and trained immediately. Field employees are rewarded with individual hard hat stickers for stellar safety on the job site, and every 25 “good job” stickers can be turned in to collect a reward.

We Plan > We Communicate > We Monitor > We Prepare

PLAN:
Our corporate safety plan meets industry standards and our own company-specific requirements — which often exceeds OSHA regulations. Because each project poses different safety challenges, we also develop site-specific safety plans for each project.

COMMUNICATE:
We start and end each week with discussions about workplace safety. All on-site workers, including subcontractors and vendors, also are required to complete an orientation informing them about known site hazards and empowering them to take steps aimed at mitigating the impact of unforeseen hazards.

MONITOR:
Job-site hazards and safety concerns identified and not previously addressed in our site-specific safety plan require written Job Hazard Analysis planning. We complete these reports to ensure every work item has been planned and evaluated through the lens of safety. We open our operations to outside monitors. On-site safety audits are conducted internally or by third-party consultants each week.

PREPARE:
All field supervisors are required to maintain OSHA’s 30-hour certificates and to be certified in CPR and First Aid response.

A safety record we are proud of.

Our company has won numerous national and regional safety awards, including the ABC National Safety Excellence Award, ABC Paragon Safety Award, and the Platinum STEP Safety Award. We work extremely hard to keep our documented Experience Modification Rate (EMR) and Incident Rate (IR) ratios below industry standards. We are very proud of our company’s safety efforts and recognitions.

ABC National Safety Excellence
ABC Step
ABC Paragon