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A recap of the 2023 Safety Summit.
Every January our team at East & Westbrook holds a Safety Summit for all of our employees. What started as a small gathering back in 2014 has quickly grown to hundreds of team members setting down their tools and equipment and dedicating an entire day to safety, because there is nothing more important than our team and every individual on our jobsites going home safe. It’s a time to gather together to review and celebrate our performance from the previous year and set goals for the current year. We eat lots of great food, continue building strong relationships with each other, and have fun along the way.
Each year’s Safety Summit has a theme that we carry with us throughout the year… (drum roll please)... The 2023 East & Westbrook safety theme is: Start How You Want To Finish. This year’s Safety Summit was held at the Louisville Slugger Field Bats stadium, incorporating for the first time, eight outside safety vendors that provided our team with more hands on safety training. A huge thank you to, Kentucky 811, Bailey Safety, Baptist Health, Form Tech, Total Tool, Sunbelt Rentals, 3M, and Boyd Company.
One of the main topics covered at the Safety Summit is how our team performed against the industry average regarding Experienced Modification Rate (EMR), Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR), and Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR). EMR is a standardized statistic that is provided by the insurance industry. It is measured by calculating that quantity and severity of injuries over a three-year period at your company in comparison to other companies that perform similar work. Our clients value the safety performance of our teams, and many require that our EMR be below the average rate of 1 in order for us to be eligible to work at their facilities. In 2022, our EMR continued to trend downward and we are proud to report that our rate assigned for 2023 is a .70.
The TRIR is a rate that identifies how many employees out of 100 in your company received an injury in a calendar year that requires medical care beyond first aid. What qualifies an incident? As we mentioned, these rates are recorded against the industry average. The industry rate is a 3.7 for the type of work that our team performs. In other words, based on the most recent statistics provided by the Bureau of Labor, 3.7 people out of every 100 within our industry would be expected to sustain an injury beyond first aid each year. Out of our 300 team members, the industry average would expect our team to record 11 recordables in 2022. We are thrilled to report that our total recordable injury rate was a 0.39, meaning we only had one recordable! The injury sustained while defined as beyond first aid was swiftly handled and the employee was able to continue working with no restrictions or lost work time. East and Westbrook is a firm believer that all incidents are preventable, and we strive to start each day with the finish in mind. We plan to make continuous improvements and work together as a team to meet our goal of zero injuries!
One of the more serious injuries that an employee could sustain is a lost time injury. If a team member sustains a Lost Time Injury, this would mean that their injury was so severe that he or she is unable to work the following day or days following the injury. The goal each year is for our team to sustain zero lost time work injuries. East and Westbrook has met this goal for 2 years in a row, both in 2021 and 2022, and our team has worked over 1 million hours without sustaining a Lost Time Injury. We are proud to meet this goal, but mostly we are grateful that everyone on our team went home in the same condition they arrived to work. We attribute this success to every team member's due diligence and the serious approach they take toward our Good Catch Program and Safety Initiatives.
Our Good Catch Program is a way to serve each other, our clients, and our community. We began this program in 2018 with a goal of 500 Good Catches. At that time, we received 600 in total! We knew that this could only grow bigger and better. In 2022, our team submitted 4,359 Good Catches through our Red-E-App system. This was a 134% increase from the number of Good Catches that we received in 2021! One of our top 5 Good Catch submitters, Edner, turned in 97 catches alone… Way to go, Edner!
The Good Catch program is a way to serve and support each other, serve our clients, and serve our community. In 2022, we had 13 Good Catch winners who, upon winning, were able to choose a non-profit organization of their choice for East & Westbrook to donate $1,000 toward in the winner’s name. Not only is the Good Catch program a measurable engagement to show that our team members truly care, retain their training, and use their knowledge every day, but it is a way for us to live out our core value of safety and give back to a community that we all care so deeply about.
Our president, Jonathan Westbrook, said, “Construction safety isn’t about being lucky or catching a break; it’s about catching potential hazards to keep yourself and your team safe.” As our Good Catches go up, incidents will continue to go down. We had a 90% rate of participation from team members’ Good Catch submissions in 2022. This could have been because 10% of new hires did not submit in their first month, or perhaps 10% of our team members would benefit from a refresh on how to submit their catch so that they feel confident in the process! While at our Summit, we took the time to prepare and empower every team member on the submission process with a goal of 100% participation in 2023.
This year, it is our hope that you will Start How You Want To Finish. Every day on the job site, we will begin with the end goal in mind of finishing each day and going home safely. We will continue to keep safety at the forefront of our minds and a goal of lowering our EMR, achieving a TRIR of zero, and having another year of ZERO Lost Time Injuries! If you are looking for a safe construction team, you just found them. Reach out to our team to discuss your upcoming project or check out our careers page to carve our your place on our team.
East & Westbrook Construction Co. Inc. has worked with commercial and industrial clients since 1977 to solve their most challenging construction problems. Through strategic partnership and calculated growth, we now offer our clients a wide variety of construction services regionally and nationally. Today, 80% of our projects come from repeat customers. Our foundation is built on safety, quality, and performance. Lastly, East & Westbrook was awarded by Louisville Business First the Best Place to Work Award. For more information about starting your next project or joining our team, call 502-222-0303.
