America’s Safest Companies 2016: Hunter Site Services

The 40 employees working at Hunter Site Services have no doubt that safety is important to the company.

“Safety excellence reduces risk and cost and is part of Hunter's safety culture. With our 5+ years injury-free, we have been able to attract and retain high-potential employees as well as enhance the company reputation," said JoAnn DelaO, EHS specialist.

DelaO said the company recognizes that in most industries, new employees often are the ones experiencing injuries. To combat that trend, Hunter Site Services instituted the Short Service Employee (SSE) Program, which applies to employees who have less than 90 days with the company and/or within his or her craft.

The purpose of the program is to ensure that these new employees have an initial orientation of safety requirements prior to performing work under direct supervision of a designated employee who serves as a mentor and trainer for that new employee. The new employees also wear a visual designation that identifies them as new employees, so that they easily can be identified on a job site.

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“Our safety commitment begins at the highest level in the company," she said. “The owners of our company require that safety must be the foundation of the operations chain of command."

In addition to the SSE program, the company also offers:

• A behavior-based observation program, in which employees are selected at random to be the safety observer for a week, noting both good and bad safety habits.
• An Employee Times newsletter that is distributed monthly to all employees. It includes company news, a safety corner, reasons to work safely and a section for employee input and suggestions.
• Job Safety Analysis that includes input from all employees about hazard recognition, evaluation and control; correct tools for the job, proper PPE,  housekeeping, hazard communication, specialized operations and crew suggestions.
• A Stop Work program that allows employees to stop work, report issues to supervisors and wait until the issue is resolved to start work.
• Hazard Hunts, in which employees visit other work areas and “hunt for any hazard" that may cause injuries.

“Sometimes employees can get complacent in their work areas and may not recognize hazards," said DelaO. “This is a proactive effort to prevent any injuries in our company. Our goal is to eliminate all accidents, incidents or injuries by having team members looking out for one another."