June is National Safety Month! We chatted with Safety Coordinator, Joey Bolinger, about the ways that Rush helps our team members stay safe on and off the job site.
What kind of practices does Rush implement to keep employees safe?
We provide safety orientations for every new employee; this is one of the first steps in on-boarding and making sure that all team members understand our safety policies.
For the commercial side, we have specific orientations for everyone out in the field that goes out onto a Rush jobsite. We also do pre-qualifications for all of our subcontractors to verify that they have a record of working safely.
We’ve added an OHSA 30 training that we provide in-house for team members and we also make sure our team members in the field are certified in First Aid and CPR.
How are Rush’s safety protocols different from standard safety requirements?
We go above and beyond in several ways. We’re in the process of developing a safety advisory team. This team will be aiming for a more global approach to making our company safer and create consistency across the board. We also have weekly safety meetings and weekly safety site inspections on our projects.
We also follow all of the CDC guidelines so that we can mitigate the spread of COVID-19 the best that we can while keeping all of our projects running.
We care about raising the bar in all that we do.
What goes into verifying the safety rating of Rush subcontractors?
We pay close attention to their EMR or experience modification rate, as well as their OHSA 300 log. We also check to see if they have safety violations. Once this process is done, we do safety submittals from our sub-contractors and make sure all of their safety certifications are up to date before they start working with us. Once they start working us, we also do a pre-construction meeting to go over all of our safety protocols with them.
Why are safety ratings important?
Our first priority is always to keep everyone safe. EMRs are a good way of understanding a company’s past safety incidents and what they’re doing to improve their safety practices going forward. It’s an important tool in bidding projects as well. Companies that have high EMRs (or more workplace safety incidents) have higher costs associated with their projects. This affects the cost of insurance, etc., and raises the cost of the project for the client. This can have a negative impact not only for the safety of employees but is also a deterrent in the bidding process.
Rush’s current EMR rating is .7774, which is about 23% lower than the 1.0 base average that every company starts at. This means Rush has significantly fewer workplace injuries than the average contractor.
How does Rush stand out when it comes to safety?
We always lead by example. Our supervisors and project managers all set a good example and know that people are looking up to us. If people are out there doing the right thing, that sets the standard. We have high standards and empower everyone to hold each other accountable. Everyone has the authority to lead by example
Rush Safety Celebrations
“We care” is one of our core values. We care about our employees and doing the right thing is always important to us. Safety is such a huge part of that. We want people to go home to their families and have good well-being in mind and body—that’s why we do what we do.