Work Safe, Live Safe, Stay Safe: ‘Struck By’

Work Safe, Live Safe, Stay Safe: ‘Struck By’

In the construction industry, falls, followed by ‘struck by’ are two of the leading incidents. Most of the time, when discussing ‘struck by’ incidents, we automatically think about someone getting hit by a piece of equipment such as a forklift, excavator or other equipment. However, that is not always the case. Most ‘struck by’ incidents are caused by something falling from heights and striking an employee below.

LPR’s practice is that that any tools, equipment or materials are required to be secured with lanyards or rope to prevent the items from falling. Materials stored on upper levels should be stored at a minimum of 6’ back from the edge.

In addition, inspection of tool lanyards should be performed each day, just as we would do with fall protection. If a tool lanyard is found to be damaged, remove it from service.

Did you know…?

  • In .5 seconds, an object will fall 4’ with a fall velocity of 16.08 feet per second and reach a speed of 10.9 MPH
  • In 1 second an object will fall 16’ with a fall velocity of 32.17 feet per second and reach a speed of 21.9 MPH
  • In 2 second an object will fall 32.45’ with a fall velocity of 64.35 feet per second and reach a speed of 43.87 MPH
  • What is the speed of terminal velocity? That depends on several factors, however, here we will use a typical .30-06 bullet dropping downwards. Wither the round is fired straight up into the air or dropped from a tower, the bullet will reach terminal velocity at almost 200 MPH traveling at 300 feet per second.

If a bolt is dropped from an elevated level of 30 feet, it will hit the ground in approximately 1 second and reach a speed of approximately 21 MPH. If this bolt were to hit a person on the way down, it would cause serious injury or potentially death.  Of course, the farther it falls the more serious the injury as the speed increases with distance. In the construction industry, most items that are dropped from heights do not always fall directly to the ground. They tend to ricochet down through the steel frame works of the structure ending up 20, 30 even 50’ away from where it would have landed coming straight down.

Imagine this Scenario:

A welder at elevation 310’ pulled some welding rod out of a rod caddie, dropping one rod through the grating. On elevation 242’ an employee was starting up the stairwell, the next thing he knew, he had a welding rod sticking through the bill of his hard hat 3”. He was lucky that it went through the bill and not the top of his hard hat.

It is up to all employees to help “STOP THE DROP” on our construction projects. The next item dropped from heights may just find you or your fellow employee when it reaches the bottom of its fall.

Let’s continue to strive towards a Safety culture where no one gets injured and everyone go home at the end of the day.

 

Blog entry submitted by:

David Terry – Safety Manager

Safety and Wellness “Accelerated Schedules”

Construction: Safety and Wellness “Accelerated Schedules”

At a recent frontline supervisor training specifically dedicated to leading ‘safety’ as a foreman or leadman, we discussed the relationship between an accelerated schedule and site safety.  No matter how great the site leadership, how knowledgeable the site safety managers or how engaged the craft worker, there can’t help but be some level of impact when the message is “we are going to work longer hours and we need to get this done…and safely!”.  It is a given that workers will get tired, there is a higher potential for near hits and incidents, and even the most engaged employees can experience lower morale.

What does this have to do with Wellness?  Accelerated schedules, as well as all construction projects, require that our skilled apprentices, journeymen and front line supervisors are feeling their best and making decisions with a clear head. OSHA would tell us that all incidents are preventable, but we know that there are sometimes those that are out of our control.  However, to avoid those that we can control, site leaders might want to consider the following:

  • Communicate clearly and often about Safety and Wellness: Awareness is the key to avoiding any near hit or incident. Starting the day out with a Safety Talk that speaks to the specific job, referring often to JHAs, JSAs, STAs and other job/task hazard and mitigation documents, and ensuring employees are working safely by walking the jobsite and engaging with workers will raise awareness exponentially.
  • Acknowledge that there is a potential for higher incidents during aggressive schedules…and why: We often think that our employees are only motivated by money, which may accompany an accelerated schedule as overtime. However, acknowledging an aggressive schedule and sharing the impacts on employees, can be motivating as well.  We can’t change what needs to be done but acknowledging it and thanking the crew for their hard work will go a long way.
  • Encourage and empower all employees to report ‘near hits’: Recently a safety consultant shared that an organization with a high percentage of reported ‘near hits’ demonstrates a strong safety culture. Encouraging workers to report their near hits is an opportunity for growth and learning during any construction project.  For those that are working ‘longer, harder, faster’ truthful reporting allows the site management to see and address early any trends that may be showing up on the site.  An early ‘root cause analysis’, with appropriate redirection, can mean the difference between safety and a near hit. Or worse, an incident or fatality!
  • Address employee ‘wellness’ directly: A safety talk doesn’t have to be about the job. It can be a talk on heat exhaustion/stroke or frost bite.  It can also be on topics such as ‘fatigue’ and dehydration, both symptoms that can show up as your workers are maxed out.  Asking crew members to watch out for each other facilitates a strong team environment. If a worker is working ‘fatigued’, he/she can be as impaired as if taking drugs or coming to work drunk or hungover.  Ensuring that all crews are physically and emotionally ‘well’ during times when projects are accelerated is key to both safety and production.

Safety and employee wellness are partners in strong and successful safety cultures.  EAPs (Employee Assistance Plans), programs for addictions and smoking cessation, and ‘Health Awareness’ programs are all tools to support and ensure that workers have access to being safe and well every day.

Technology and Social Media: Powerful Tools for LPR

The construction industry has the reputation of being a hard hat, hands-on, trade specific and ‘blue collar’ business.  Many ironworkers, when asked why they do the work they do, will talk about a time when they started as a laborer, got up on some steel, and they were hooked.  One of our apprentices who just completed his NCCER apprentice training, becoming a full journeyman, shared his thoughts:

“Oh boy!!! The feeling you get watching pieces fly into your position to connect.  The feet, the miles of weld you lay.  The feeling of being the baddest trade ever to step onto any construction site.  The feeling of other trades watching you as you’re 10 feet or 400 feet off the ground.  That is the feeling like no other.  Being an Ironworker is not for everybody.  But those who are, are incredible human beings.”

But even though construction continues to be the choice of hard working people, interested in building with their hands and being proud of a finished product that they can point to, they are finding a place and purpose for tablets and software, as well as for Facebook and Yammer.

Many companies have issued iPads and tablets to their foremen and other field leaders in an effort to bring technology into the business.  Some have done it better than others.  The organizations that have provided the hardware but have had little to no training on the software and its purpose, have found that the devices ride around in the back of the truck, while notebooks, spreadsheets and plans sit on the front seat, dusty and stained with dirt, signs that they are highly utilized by the company.  Other companies are purposeful about the software that they choose and use.  They provide comprehensive training and there is an expectation that the field will shift to the new programs.  These are the companies that no longer have offices full of rolled up plans or paper timecards.

At LPR our foremen are issued tablets with software such as PlanGrid and Mobile Field Manager.  These programs are just a few of the applications that allow foremen to instantly access plans while out on the site and allow real time input of employee hours.  We also issue these devices to our craft mentors, who provide on-site guidance and training for our field apprentices. Our craft training model relies on access to NCCER ‘book-skill work’ on our LMS (learning management system) and mentors can utilize the tablets to support apprentices in access to their e-learning, as well as reinforce concepts and skills that are more knowledge than performance based.  In addition the mentor can review his/her mentee’s OJT hours to ensure they are having the opportunity to get the work that will move them along in their programs.  Laptops, tablets and access to smart phones allow all employees in the company to hear a quarterly ‘State of the Company’ update from our company president.

Although social media is not new, identifying a productive application of these ‘open’ communication tools has been challenging in all businesses but especially for the construction industry.  Posting updates on Facebook and LinkedIn may seem without purpose but the feedback and exposure gained from sharing our projects and the great things about our employees has been validating. LPR is also using ‘texts’ as a way to immediately communicate with the whole company, as well as individual groups such as our craft tradesmen.  Consistent and informative updates through texting helps to bridge what can be a communication chasm between corporate and the project sites.  Employees at every level can be better informed and hear a consistent message or update, improving the level of employee engagement and the feeling of being bigger than the whole.

Next steps for LPR involve the ‘Yammer’ technology platform, with the hopes of providing an open communication forum for anyone working with LPR.  Every employee will have the opportunity to provide company feedback, comment on questions posted and have the opportunity to create groups or ‘small communities’ where the sharing of ideas can be done in real time.  Implementing a system where there is open conversation relinquishes a level of company control over information and messaging, but allows for open and candid conversation within the company.  As a result, we hope to be able to communicate better within all divisions and provide updates and new initiatives to all employees.

 

 

 

 

Using an LMS as a Tool in your Construction Training Belt

A Google search for Learning Management Systems (LMS) best practices can best be described as a vendor list of sales pitches describing technology tools that will revolutionize any training program. Use ‘our’ system and “…build your workforce’s skills, strengthen your core competencies and gain new ones…”  Sounds good.  Where do we sign up?  Who are the top systems and vendors?

For those leading training initiatives in the Construction Industry, there are many compelling reasons to adopt and utilize an LMS.  Most large construction companies have projects in many states, with a corporate office hundreds of miles away.  The idea that training can be offered via t

 

he internet, watching a video, reading a document and taking a test, provides the scalability necessary to reach all employees.  In addition, the cost of pulling necessary craft and their leadership off of a job for training is rarely built into a bid that wins the contract, although training and well trained craft/staff is often required by clients.  Meeting OSHA and Department of Labor compliance expectations can easily be completed and documented in an LMS system.

However, many construction companies struggle with the reality and costs of choosing and implementing a Learning Management System.  Often purchased to meet a singular need, an LMS can be likened to buying a smart phone and using it to make nothing but phone calls.  The capabilities are endless but many are often never utilized.  And if an LMS is purchased to just avoid providing training that pulls needed site staff off a job to train, the problems that arise as a result are numerous and often without solutions.

What then should be considered in choosing and implementing an LMS that makes sense to support the varied needs of a construction company and the needs of the industry?

  1. An LMS is a tool in the construction training plan, not ‘the plan’. Although a good LMS can provide several options in training design, storage and delivery, it is only ‘one tool’ in the training tool belt. Abandoning live training, one-on-one training, workshops, mentorships, site craft group training and other training strategies that meet the needs of all learners only replaces the challenges of funding these initiatives with what becomes the ‘limited’ capabilities of a comprehensive LMS.
  2. Understand the needs of the organization before looking for/choosing an LMS. Learning Management vendors impress us with all the ‘bells and whistles’ that their tools can provide, with promises to meet the needs of our specific companies.  Before looking at any tool, including an LMS, identify the training objectives, gaps, current and future delivery options and the budget available for training. Create questions for the vendor on how an LMS will support the specific needs identified.
  3. Realize that an LMS implementation is a marathon not a sprint AND plan for it! The best implementations require socializing new ideas, soft and hard launches for the multiple training initiatives, pilots under review and room to change directions when necessary. Building training plans in terms of immediate initiatives (year 1) and future initiatives (year 3 and 5) prevent us from doing too much at once and not doing it well.  All organizations have people who will easily accept change and adopt new ideas, people that will comply because they believe in the company and their work, and those that will most likely never do what is asked of them.  Planning for and addressing each of those groups ensures a smooth and productive implementation, especially for an industry that prides itself in doing things the way they have always been done…because it has worked before.
  4. Identify the learning audiences, their available tools and interest/abilities to utilize an LMS. The construction industry employs a variety of people and sends them to sites that can be remote and with limited access to wi-fi. Craft laborers, apprentices and journeymen are rarely provided laptops needed for training and attempt doing hours of LMS work on smart phones and ill-equipped pads.  Many times course materials are only offered in English when many of our site employees are non-English speakers, with more of them unable to read materials created in English.  For those of them that have access to proper hardware and internet, the school-based training design of an LMS is often not how construction workers learn best.  The very fact that ironworkers and pipefitters become tradesmen is because they prefer to work and learn through experience and not out of a book.  When training teams and organizations understand this, they can choose, create and implement LMS designs that meet these needs and provide support when needed.

LPR has successfully utilized an LMS for a number of years to provide content to our apprentices as they learn the trades in both our steel and industrial divisions.  Recently we added new members to our training team which required us to step back and review how we utilize our tool for its current purpose and how we might move beyond what we do today.  In addition to committing to a full time administrator of the LMS, we are currently looking at growth in one, three and five year plans.  We also brought in a training consultant from our vendor who provided a ‘level-set’ for the team on the back-end design, how we are currently using the tool from the vendor’s perspective and what we can do in the future to engage our ‘site to corporate’ employees in both training and the LMS.  This has been a great experience, allowing us as a training community to better utilize a tool we have committed to using with a workforce we are committed to serving.

I have often said that recruiting, interviewing and hiring employees is much like dating a few times and getting married. This is often necessary due to the pressures of staffing our jobs, meeting project start dates and contract requirements, and pressures to not lose great candidates to competitors.  Purchasing an LMS can also be like ‘dating’, but without time pressures to make a decision.  Talking to several vendors, companies that use those vendors and reviewing the LMS capabilities that meet the very specific needs of construction workers will ultimately result in a good relationship and a strong LMS for your organization.

What I Learned During our VPP Audit

What I Learned During our VPP Audit

The word ‘audit’ sparks fear or at least gets our attention.  The very definition, “an official inspection of an individual’s or organization’s accounts, typically by an independent body” causes us to reflect on our practices, review our belief systems and evaluate our commitment to a particular value or idea. An audit forces an organization to take a deep dive into what they are doing, measuring it against criteria and ideals developed by the auditing organization.

LPR Construction has boasted the VPP designation for the last eighteen years, the longest any company has held the title in its division.  Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) is an OSHA initiative that encourages private industry and federal agencies to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses through hazard prevention and control, worksite analysis, training; and cooperation between management and workers.

Organizations that are recognized as VPP are audited on the following four elements:

  • Management Leadership, and Employee Involvement.
  • Worksite Analysis.
  • Hazard Prevention and Control.
  • Safety & Health Training.

Statistical evidence for VPP’s success is impressive. The average VPP worksite has a Days Away Restricted or Transferred (DART) case rate of 52% below the average for its industry(1). These sites often do not start with exceptionally low rates. Reductions in injuries and illnesses begin when the site commits to the VPP approach to safety and health management and the challenging VPP application process. Participating in VPP benefits employers as we know fewer injuries and illnesses mean greater profits as workers’ compensation premiums and other costs plummet. Entire industries benefit as VPP sites evolve into models of excellence and influence practices industry-wide.

The VPP logo hangs in the offices of LPR and is displayed on the outside of mobile trailers used for training. Even with its long VPP tenure, practices that have been implemented and credited to participating with VPP can be easily identified and articulated.  The programs developed are part of the culture and LPR’s first core value ‘Commited to Safety’ further demonstrates LPR’s commitment to ensuring everyone goes home in the same shape they showed up to work in.

I learned of the VPP audit several weeks ago.  As Director of People Development, our training team already collaborates closely with Safety Leadership.  However, preparing for the VPP audit caused us to not only collaborate but evaluate our current practices. Meeting in preparation for the audit, LPR’s People Services Team (Recruiting, HR, Training and Safety directed by LPR’s CPO (Chief People Officer), spent valuable time talking about our safety training, the quality of our safety personnel, how we are currently impactful on site safety culture and the process facilitated a deep discussion on who is ultimately responsible for safety at LPR.  Agreeing that we are all responsible is why LPR integrates safety into all areas of the organization.  It is not only part of our culture, it represents an element our core.  We talk it, we walk it and we expect it.

What did I learn during our VPP audit?

  1. The depth of LPR’s commitment to being a safe organization, beginning with the CEO and President, the executive management team and reaching all the way to the foremen and craft employees.
  2. The depth of pride we have in our safety culture, the VPP designation and the measurable results of being a safe organization.
  3. Safety goes way beyond making sure that we avoid falls and recognize hazards before they happen. Although physical safety is paramount, there is also a strong focus on providing a safe emotional environment for our employees. Exceptional health benefits that we can count on, short and long term disability, a strong and highly utilized Employee Assistance Program and a commitment to send our site based employees home to their families for extended weekends are integral components of our program.
  4. We all know and can talk safety. Preparation for the audit was easy and LPR employee were candid and able to talk to our safety practices.
  5. The VPP Audit Team wants us to be successful. Although challenging and communicating high expectations, they are here to review our best practices and provide valuable feedback on where we are strong and where we need to think about further development.
  6. The auditing process was a learning activity. During the presentations and individual interviews, the rich discussion allowed us to reflect on where our practices were exceptionally strong and where we can improve.
  7. A commitment and vision for safety at the corporate level means nothing if practices aren’t applied and valued at the site level. Although we know that intuitively, the audit required us to evaluate how we message and communicate our practices and expectations.
  8. An even clearer understanding of my role as part of our commitment to safety. Developing our employees as skilled craft workers, ensuring they are engaged in their work and LPR as a company, and focusing on developing leaders across the organization is fundamental to a great safety culture.

I encourage any OSHA affiliated company or organization to engage in the application process for VPP.  The benefits of partnering with VPP in fully implementing best practices and being accountable for them have been numerous for LPR, including being able to display the VPP logo, establishing us as a safety leader to our current and potential customers.  There is nothing more important than safety, and unfortunately often we don’t realize that until we have an accident or fatality.  I am going to promote that all accidents are avoidable, and I feel fully equipped and supported to support that at LPR.

 

 

 

An Innovative Approach to Craft Training

LPR’s Craft Training Mentors 7/2017

“Each dollar invested in craft training can yield $1.30 to $3.00 in benefits through increased productivity and reductions in turnover, absenteeism and rework.”

This quote from an article in The Cornerstone: A Construction Publication for Workforce Development Professionals challenges all of us as we work to create training, and provide training opportunities, for our Craft Workforce.  It’s not only a money issue.  Well trained and tooled craft employees work more safely, yield a better quality product, and projects with a well-trained craft workforce require less rework.

 LPR has always been known for quality craft training.  Utilizing a well-equipped training room, a state of the art welding shop, a training tower and a mobile training facility, craft employees have learned how to properly tie off, read prints, read iron and use craft tools safety.  Craft employees traditionally would begin their employment with two weeks at the Loveland corporate office, heading to a Colorado jobsite to begin a career as an ironworker.

But as LPR has grown beyond the Colorado borders, with steel projects for organizations such as the Atlanta Braves and large industrial ACC projects also located on the east coast, providing training at the corporate office for all craft employees quickly became no longer scalable.  Projects began hiring locally, and the time and cost to send new craft hires to Colorado for training impacted already tight project schedules.  In addition, although LPR trainers conducted a comprehensive craft training program, supported by the NCCER curriculum, there continued to be ‘lost training opportunities’ where learning really happens – at the project site.

In response to the needs of both our apprentices and journeymen, the LPR Craft Training team is taking a more innovative approach to training craft employees and implementing a Mentor Training Model. All craft employees will continue to access the NCCER curriculum either in book form or as an interactive learning opportunity on the LMS, as well as do both test and performance assessments supported by NCCER trained assessment administrators and proctors.

What is different is that each apprentice and developing journeymen will be assigned a mentor to support the learning process and to help navigate the needs of LPR’s newest and developing craft employees. Mentors are LPR established journeymen, leadmen, foremen, general foreman. Tasked with creating strong and supportive relationships with their assigned apprentices, mentors encourage mentees to pace and complete their craft curriculum, provide leaning opportunities to meet required job hours and review and evaluate their progress as learners and employees.  With an established minimum number of hours for one-to-one weekly interaction, our mentor team members easily meet that criteria, often exceeding the expectations set by the LPR Training team.

We know that employees that feel engaged with a company are more willing to stay with a company, even if a competing organization promises a higher pay scale.  We also know that creating or accessing training opportunities on site encourages ongoing professional growth and allows for ongoing evaluation and direct feedback for our craft employees.

 

 Forbes talks about the value of formal mentoring…, If You Consider Mentoring A “Soft” Function That Is Best Left To Informal Relationships at Work, Reconsider

The problem with unstructured, disorganized mentoring is that only certain people get mentored: we’re a tribal species. That leads to unfortunate gaps, overlooking possible gems, potential diversity and inclusion issues. We’re now a social sharing culture, always on social media and free with our IMOs and candid reviews. You can’t afford a scarred employer brand in this extremely competitive talent market. It’s just bad business.

LPR trained mentors will tell you that they are already informally mentoring apprentices at the job sites.  The mentor model formalizes those activities and provides a structure that supports success for LPR Craft Apprentices.

If you have questions about LPR’s Craft Training Mentor Program, or are interested in implementing a mentoring model in your construction organization, please contact us at training@lprconstruction.com.

Welcome to the LPR Construction Blog!

Welcome to the LPR Construction Blog!

At LPR, we are committed to not only providing the best steel erection and industrial services to our customers, but we also believe that sharing best practices, providing thought leadership and understanding industry and employment trends will benefit us all.  With the national unemployment rate for the construction industry at 4.5% according to the Board of Labor Statistics  and Colorado’s unemployment rate dipping to 2.3%, competing for current trade and craft resources will not be enough.  We need to be looking at engaging our high school students that are better suited for the “hands on” and exciting career that can only be experienced as part of a construction by becoming an ironworker, pipefitter, millright journeymen.  This allows us to attract new talent into the crafts, but requires us to provide training opportunities from core to journeyman.

Finding strong project leadership in this market is also challenging and requires finding the best people and being committed to ongoing training and coaching for those leaders.  Above it all is a commitment to Safety and Health as we train and employ a workforce that looks different than even just 10 years ago.

Our goal with this blog is to share our experiences at LPR, highlight exceptional employees, research and communicate latest industry trends, share industry best practices, explore the value and need to focus on diversity to broaden our potential candidate base and to highlight the importance of safety and the ability to enjoy high productivity without sacrificing the safety and health of our employees.

In addition to this blog, we invite you to visit our LinkedIn page and to follow our Facebook posts.  Your feedback and comments are always welcome and will help us provide current and useful information in our weekly posts.

 

LPR is an organization that embraces its Core Values:

Committed to Safety: Never walk by a hazard.  Everyone gets home safe.

We over ME: Always making decisions that are good for the company.  Believe in the vision of the company.

Competitive Spirit: Make no excuses.  Find a way to win.

Do What You Say: Be ethical, open and honest even when no one is looking.  Make commitments and stick to them.

Be Part of the Solution: Make suggestions not complaints. Encourage innovation.

Driven to Learn and Share Knowledge: If you are not growing, you are dying.  Develop and build your team.