Features: Issues & Trends — January/February 2006

Incident and Injury-free:  Making it Personal

A new industry movement aims for zero jobsite accidents by putting the responsibility for safety on an individual level

By Tony Illia

The 615,000-sq-ft Merck & Co. Research Lab in Boston was the first Bovis Lend Lease project to use the Incident and Injury-free safety program.

Construction is a dangerous business, and despite the industry's best efforts, accidents and fatalities still occur nationwide at jobsites every year.

A new program now is aiming to change that. The Incident and Injury-Free movement is a 12-year-old idea developed by JMJ Associates, an Austin, Texas-based professional consulting firm. It seeks to create a zero-incident worksite through a shared sense of responsibility and caring between labor and management.

A New Mindset

Incident and Injury-Free is not so much about numbers as it is a new mindset about safety. It's a way of thinking that avoids incidents and injuries, making safety a high priority on both a personal and organizational level. The idea first came about when JMJ was working with client Monsanto Corp., St. Louis, to develop a new tactic for reducing worksite incidents.

"The program initially started as a concept that was more developmental in nature," says Steven Knisely, a principal at JMJ Associates. "It has since evolved into a commitment-based process that gives people an opportunity to examine their true feelings, beliefs and values in order to create an injury-free workplace."

IIF is designed to shift the focus of safety from a compliance requirement to a concern for workers' health and welfare. It's "mentality intolerant" of incidents or injuries of any kind, whatever the level, frequency or severity.
The idea has gained momentum in the Boston area, where local officials formed the New England Construction Safety Partnership in July 2005. The group consists of construction managers, contractors, union representatives, government agencies, insurers and other stakeholders all dedicated to championing IIF.

"Our mission is to create a future that at one time seemed impossible-an environment for working incident and injury-free in construction," says Mary Vogel, executive director of the Boston-based Labor-Management Construction Safety Alliance, and a founding member of the partnership. "Construction has historically been one of the most hazardous industries to work in, but we believe IIF can reverse that trend."

Collective Ownership

Bovis Lend Lease, New York, and Skanska USA Inc., Whitestone, N.Y., believe that as well. Both companies have adopted IIF at their jobsites. The program has dramatically reduced work-related incidents and injuries, participants say, while improving productivity and absenteeism. IIF establishes a culture of mutual concern and respect, giving project members a sense of collective ownership in the construction process. Those things cut lost-time hours and improve working relations for maximum jobsite efficiency.

"Nearly 90% of accidents occur in safe conditions," says Matthew Schroyer, environmental health and safety director for Bovis' New England region. "We are trying to get to the point where working safely is the only way to work. It's everyone's obligation to have the right mindset."

Bovis is using the IIF safety system on the 354,000-sq-ft Macallen Building in South Boston, a "green" residential project that will be completed in 2007.

IIF, however, should not be seen as a replacement for current safety procedures, Schroyer warns. It is simply another tool for contractors to use. And while the training varies slightly, depending on the project and company, it remains easy and straightforward to learn and follow.

Bovis, for instance, uses a modified safety orientation where workers discuss their backgrounds. Dialogue about spouses and children helps form mutual trust among workers, leading to friendships and relationships. It also underscores what's at risk where safety is concerned-wives, kids, relatives-while subtly asserting the need for a collective safety effort. The chat is often informal but intimate. The end result is a more personally connected jobsite, with workers, managers and superintendents watching out for one another.

Bovis additionally has its supervisors go through 2 four-hour training sessions on how to safely assign work, attaching a health and welfare component to each task. Work is delegated in the safest way possible as opposed to speedier short cuts that could endanger people.

"Creating a safety culture that values workers for who they are and not just what they do is the breakthrough we need to make our industry a safe place to work," says Eric Redding, director of the Painters & Allied Trades District Council No. 35's apprenticeship training program. "We have been a member of the partnership since its inception."

Removing Barriers

IIF also shuns traditional safety measurements such as lost work-time hours or experience modification factors, emphasizing the number of relationships forged instead. The philosophy removes the normal modes of enforcement, punishment and reprimand to enable the project to have a truly safe environment.

Workers in a conventional setting often only follow rules and procedures for fear of being written up or fined. Several small and minor incidents, as a result, may never get reported. IIF removes those barriers and replaces them with worker concern to create a transparent jobsite where incidents can be reported without fear of retribution.

An Integral Approach: The four domains of this matrix show how things work. The right-hand quadrants represent the "view from the outside"; the left-hand, the "view from the inside." The right side-an objective view-looks at surfaces through observation and measurement. The left side-a subjective view-looks at depths through reflection and interpretation. By moving from reactive toward creative action and embracing subjective as well as objective views, people can discover new approaches to old problems, like jobsite safety. Source: JMJ Associates

"This is something very different. It's more of a cultural movement in the industry than it is safety related," says Mike McNally, Skanska's co-chief operating officer, whose firm has been using IIF for two years. "The philosophy is a belief that we've covered the quantitative side of safety with rules and regulation but ignored the personal side of the equation needed to get us to zero. It's all about winning the hearts and minds of people exposed to these hazards. And the easiest way to get there is to show them you care."

The movement has experienced an unusually high level of support across all segments of the industry. Practitioners feel that IIF brings labor and management closer, resulting in more collaboration and a better understanding of work force needs. It also cultivates stronger leadership skills, since IIF requires people to change their attitudes, behavior and values.

And while construction sites can be fluid places, with people constantly coming and going, subcontractors, suppliers and part-time help are often quick to adopt the program's philosophy. They also inevitably bring it with them to the next project, says Knisely, although he has no idea exactly how many people have already been reached by the program.

"If everyone in the pool is a lifeguard, then no one gets hurt. They watch out for the other guy," McNally says. "We think it's the evolution of making the business safe. How often do we have a chance to change the industry we work in? It's exciting and I'm proud of it."