JIM KUHN: Hi. Thank you for having us. I'm Jim Kuhn with Atlantic testing laboratories. I'm the president of the company.
DAN MASTROCOLA: Hi. I'm Dan Mastrocola, corporate health and safety manager.
TONY MILITELLO: Gentlemen, thanks. In the broadest terms, how important is safety to your organization?
DAN MASTROCOLA: Safety is a cornerstone to what we do, is paramount. That's what we start with every day. And it got to be that way because we want everybody to go home the way that they came to work that day.
TONY MILITELLO: Jim, how do technology and innovation contribute to your safety and risk management work?
JIM KUHN: We're continuing to embrace that and find different ways to use it. We started using a laboratory information management system that includes a dispatch feature that you can assign safety items in the dispatch to the employees. So they get it right on their phone. We use a program that we made up it's hazard hunts.
So on the project sites, they have a form to fill out electronically and the software to identify hazards when they get on site so that they're looking around to see in the areas that they're going to be working, what are the potential hazards that they could be exposed to.
TONY MILITELLO: Great. How important is leadership support to safety programs and the safety mindset of your organization?
DAN MASTROCOLA: It's very important. And at ATL, support from the top is always there. It trickles down through the whole company and it's great to see that. It's great to have the backup and support when you need it for a safety program.
JIM KUHN: It's just become part of what we do that it's just everybody from the managers to the field staff, everybody just expects what it is. And I think when we were announced with being a finalist for this, everybody was excited and happy, but they weren't surprised. It's because we pride ourselves on what we do with our safety program, and that's what they just come to expect it.
TONY MILITELLO: Great. Jim, can you tell us a little bit about the origin story for your safety program and how your insurance carrier and broker may have played a part in developing that program.
JIM KUHN: Yeah. About 20 years ago, between the growth of our offices and working for larger clients, we recognized the need to have a formal, dedicated safety department. So at that time, we started off with one individual. I actually changed insurance brokers and carriers at that same time.
We got to learn some of the resources that they had available for us to use, and we capitalized on that and we became very good business partners with them. They're very integral to what we do. We're very transparent with them. There's a lot of what if questions. We run past them just to say, what do you think? And they give us really good advice and insight and like I said, they're part of the team.
TONY MILITELLO: So from 20 years till today, can you tell us a little bit about how you are using your insurance carrier and broker today to help again, continue to be a resource and augment your safety team.
DAN MASTROCOLA: Sure. It's a relationship for sure. There's a partnering so we can reach out to them and get support with whatever we need. They're always there for us. They respond quickly. As I said, the relationship is pretty tight knit.
JIM KUHN: The other item that they offer their resources and those can be their experience, their personal experience, but also what technology they have available. And with our current insurance carrier, we use their library of resources quite often.
It's very functional for us because it allows us to go in and assign individual training programs to our employees that then we can monitor when they completed it and that it's done. So using their resources like that allows us to do more than we could do on our own.
TONY MILITELLO: That's great to hear. It's great to hear that you're using your insurance carrier and broker to expand available resources, your breadth of knowledge. And again, that's ultimately turns into risk reduction for your organization.
JIM KUHN: They have an LLMs that we utilize that's offered to us and we use it quite a bit. It even has an electronic SDS that we're switching everything over to digital library, and they're helping us along with that, even to put QR codes on things so we can have our employees access SDS electronically.
TONY MILITELLO: That's great. In terms of safety, what do you think makes your organization stand out?
JIM KUHN: It's just so integral to what we do. And I think because we're on job sites typically by ourselves, we're not the contractor. We don't control the job site either. So we have to play along with how the contractors administering safety on site.
What they know when each of our employees come on site, that they're going to get the same performance from a safety standpoint from each of our employees, they're going to have the same level of understanding. And with that, I think that along with our safety record, has allowed us to work on some of these large projects over the years that other people may not have the opportunity to work on.
TONY MILITELLO: Excellent. In terms of safety and overall risk reduction, what lies ahead for your organization?
JIM KUHN: I think we're just going to get bigger and better. I think we need to embrace the use of technology, vehicle safety being a big one there. There's a lot of advancements in vehicles nowadays. And I think using what's available there to make our daily travel when we travel millions of miles a year to do that safely.
DAN MASTROCOLA: We're working on hard hats, two helmets right now. So that's something that we're transitioning over to. And following the lead of the AGC, we're following the lead of some of the bigger contractors.
TONY MILITELLO: Yeah, that's great to hear as well. If you had to name the single most important element of a successful safety program, what do you think that would be?
JIM KUHN: Employee engagement.
DAN MASTROCOLA: Absolutely.
JIM KUHN: If the employees don't buy in and they don't feel that they're part of it, then they just aren't going to do it. So if they don't see the benefit of having a robust safety program, it's not going anywhere.
Last year or so, we hired and offered a employee safety survey to be done, and so we sent that out across the company. We had 75% participation rate in that which blew their mind. They're like, we don't see 75% voluntary participation in that.
But the results of it were, it wasn't a lot of complaining, it wasn't all those things. They came back and they said, there's a couple of things we want you guys to continue being a broken record. Keep saying what you're saying, say it over and over again because we'll listen and we'll remember it.
DAN MASTROCOLA: They wanted to see the managers and the safety professionals out in the field to interface with them. And they wanted more of it. And more reminders of how things need to be.
TONY MILITELLO: That's good. I mean, it's good that they felt comfortable saying that to you, and it gives you some guidance as to where you can put your resources into helping them engage in the way that they feel is most helpful and most appropriate. I appreciate your time today. Anything that you had or any final comments that either of you would like to make.
JIM KUHN: I think safety is personal. And I think the employees at ATL feel that it's personal as well. And like I said, it's a part of everything that we do in the organization.
DAN MASTROCOLA: I think it's not just top down, it's just not bottom up. It's everyone. And without that, we can't do what we're doing.
TONY MILITELLO: Well, appreciate your time today and thank you for all that you do to demonstrate your leadership and commitment to the construction industry.
MAX NELSON: Thank you for listening to another episode of the podcast series dedicated to winners of the 2024 AGC Construction Safety Excellence Awards. We hope you are taking away insights that can be applied to your own programs and processes. For more information on the CSEA, visit www.agc.org/csea. If you found value in today's episode, don't forget to and follow the show.
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