Editor's Note: Each year,National Underwriter's Excellence in Workers' Compensation RiskManagement Award honors organizations with outstanding losscontrol, safety and return-to-work programs. This year's winnerswill be honored on Aug. 19 during the 68th annual Workers'Compensation Educational Conference (WCEC), set forAug. 18-21 at the Orlando World Center Marriott.

When it comes to managing worker safety in the constructionbusiness, there's compliance, and then there's genuinely caringabout your people.

American Infrastructure is focused on the latter.

With more than 1,800 employees in six states, AI operates in theheavy civil construction industry and boasts $500 million incompanywide revenue. Bridges, roads, treatment plants and pipelinesspan the spectrum of its projects, most of them large and eachposing unique challenges and potential safety hazards.

For Risk Manager Bryan Schwartz, fostering a culture ofsafety—exemplified by its “Home Safe Tonight” initiative—isn'tfueled by a desire to simply comply with safety regulations andhopefully contain Workers' Comp costs in the process: It's woveninto the very fabric of the company. It's a philosophy that startsat the top and filters down to the boots on the ground.

“It is inconceivable for any of us to believe that a commitmentto any other standard of operation is acceptable,” says Schwartz.AI's intolerance for incidents or injuries and a basic caring forevery employee, he adds, “bleeds through in everything we do.”

On its job sites, safety professionals are aligned with projectteams, notes Bob Herbein, senior VP of corporate services. At thestart of each shift there's a huddle among workers during whichdaily “safety flash” messages are provided to the entire crew,including information about “near misses” and other priorincidents—including, for example, attention to sunscreen use andhydration.

Yet to separate the “safety professionals” from those whooperate a crane or a concrete mixer would mischaracterize thecommitment of AI's entire workforce to a safe work environment. Itsworkers are entirely safety-focused, constantly looking out for oneanother; that sensibility is core to the company's aesthetic. Atall of its project sites, “Home Safe Tonight” posters serve toremind employees, sub-contractors and customers of the company'scommitment.

“Becoming incident- and injury-free begins with a culture ofgenuine care, concern and respect for our workers so that they allgo home safely to their families each night,” says Schwartz. “Webelieve that all injuries and occupational injuries are entirelypreventable.”

The proof is in the results: A reduction in the injury rate byover 50 percent in just four years, and a drastic reduction inWorkers' Comp loss rate per $100 of payroll in the past sixyears.

A Safety-Focused Commitment

While it has engendered a culture of respect for its employeessince it was founded in 1939, AI made a conscious effort to movetoward a behavior-based safety program in 2005. Its seniormanagement team implemented a root-cause analysis review of allon-the-job injuries or incidents; it focused on management-level ofaccountability for losses; and action plans were developed to shiftmanagement and employee behaviors to even greater safety-focusedapproach. AI's new-hire orientation program was revamped to providebetter guidance and establish from day one an ingrained sense ofresponsibility for worker safety and the well-being ofco-workers.

A “green hard hat” policy was put in place for all new hires forthe first 90 days of their employment so those employees could bereadily identified in the field. That easy identification providedgreater opportunity for better coaching in new policies, proceduresand work practices. AI also increased the ratio of safetyprofessionals to field employees to 76:1 (considered a bestpractice by the Construction Industry Institute) and assignedsafety managers directly to project teams to act as consultants andprovide coaching and guidance to assist in planning safe work.

In 2008 AI enlisted the services of consultancy JMJ Associates,which helped to establish further protocols designed to keep safetytop-of-mind. All company leaders, including foremen,superintendents, project managers, construction managers and vicepresidents were provided a two-day commitment workshop designed tostrengthen their personal commitment to safety and better definewhat an incident- and injury-free (IIF) culture at AI could looklike. Focused action plans were developed for the leadership teams.Major focus was put on how leaders and management communicate withthe workforce; they were trained on how to properly address andshow care and concern for employees engaged in at-riskbehavior.

“JMJ brought to us the approach of caring and relationships.It's about policies and training, but comes from a place of caringand concern,” says Schwartz. “That's the essence of it.”

Several changes were adopted. A “STOP WORK” card was given toemployees to be used if they ever observe a work operation theybelieve can lead to a serious incident or injury. A continuouslyupdated safe-production playbook of illustrated diagrams, sharedwith employees at every level on the site, would now be used forplanning the day's work. The practice of providing the daily“safety flash” message was instilled. Safety leadership teams wereformed in each business unit led by the vice president, andmeetings would now be held with sub-contractors to communicate theIIF expectation on all projects.

AI CEO Ross Myers (whom Schwartz calls the company's “chief riskofficer”) began extending communications related to work-safetymatters to employees' family members via e-mail and in itsquarterly mailed newsletter. The extension of such practices toemployees' personal lives is not surprising, given that one of thecompany's key points in its corporate vision of “leaving footprintsin the industry.” This guiding value is evident in CEO Myers'participation with 17 other CEOs of world-class companies to drivethe IIF culture throughout the construction business.

As sprain/strain type injuries are the leading loss leader,since 2010 AI has employed a program that engages all employees,from job sites to its offices, in a morning stretchingroutine.

“Our philosophy is that our employees are industrial athletes.If sports teams who play for fewer hours than we do at the workfacestretch before a game, then it would make even more sense for ouremployees to do the same,” says Schwartz. “Not only are our workersphysically ready for work, it is their first touch with safety inthe morning every day, and during the stretching, discussions aboutthe work plan build relationships within the team. People aretalking about the day's activities, and it gives you more time toengage in conversation about the hazards out there while we'restretching.”

During the stretch, Herbein adds, an employee might noticeatypical behavior or mood in a co-worker, who might be distractedby personal issues that might cause him or her to be distracted onthe job—and distractions lead to accidents. If such behavior isobserved, that worker might be assigned to a different task, or atthe very least advised by a supervisor to be mindful.

High Risk, Great Reward

Using AI's homegrown, internal risk-management informationsystem (a proprietary tool that was built in 2003), whensupervisors report the incidents they provide detailed data—day ofthe week, time of day, age, hire dates, etc.—that is input into theRMIS system on all injuries and the continued progress of theaffected employee (closely monitored by the company's medicaldirector). The RMIS is integrated into the company's CMiC (aconstruction enterprise system), and reports can thereby begenerated incorporating cross-sections of data includingfinancials, OSHA incident rates, number of lost-work days, medicalcosts and other pertinent information, which can be comparedagainst project goals and shared across business units.

This practice allows for precise calculations when building thecosts of injuries or incidents into a particular project arises.“As insurance companies set up reserves, so do we, internally,”says Herbein. “Bryan then becomes a business partner in limitingthat cost of risk. An underlying critical component of our programis this type of information-sharing.”

AI maintains a high deductible with its WC insurer, LibertyMutual, which keeps the company highly cognizant of itscost-containment efforts on the workers' comp side.

“Over time we've increased our Workers' Comp deductible as wecontinue to use these best practices and honor the JMJ commitmentswe've made,” Schwartz says. “We've been able to raise our stake inthe game and reap the benefits of lower premiums.”

“We've built up our confidence that we can control the risk overtime, and put our money where our mouth is,” adds Herbein. “Itcreates a financial repercussion that keeps us on our toes.”

When incidents do occur, the employee mustinform the foreman immediately; the medical director can thendetermine whether the condition can be managed on site or if theemployee needs offsite care. Medical providers in AI's network areadvised and sometimes utilized, in which case the medical directorfollows up, serving as the quarterback through the entireprocess—coordinating MRIs, for example, working with the adjuster,talking through different potential alternative treatments, workingwith doctors to get old records, and other tasks that will help theemployee get back on the job.

“It's about taking care of that person, making sure they haveeverything they need to work toward recovery,” Schwartz says. Thatextends to the company's return-to-work programs, through whichemployees are encouraged to return via light-duty work; some areput to use in job trailers at work sites, others in site-securitypositions in areas where equipment is at risk of theft. Regardlessof the task, however, they are paid full wages. “We want ouremployees to feel productive and get back to work as soon aspossible, with zero wage loss,” says Herbein.

For AI, the biggest surprise since implementing a culture ofextreme care at multiple levels has been how well it has beenreceived and put in practice by its people. Safety protocols arefine, says Herbein, but once you get employees to realize that youcare about their well-being, they begin to embrace wholeheartedlythe idea of constantly looking out for each other.

“I didn't start out in early 2008 believing that would be assuccessful as it has,” says Herbein. “When I hear storiesfrom our employees that their family doesn't want them to get hurt,that that message has gotten through and their family is in thegame—that gives me a lot of satisfaction.

“It's not about compliance,” he adds. “It's about a genuineconcern for each other personally. That's huge.”