Editor's Note: There will be an awards ceremony for the 2022 class of America's Safest Companies at the Safety Leadership Conference in Cleveland on Oct. 18-20, where current and past winners will be sharing their blueprints for success. You can learn more about the conference and sign up to register at www.safetyleadershipconference.com.
Russell Marine
Construction
Channelview, TX
200 employees | 1 site | 6 EHS professionals
Training and technology are two of the essential keys to Russell Marine’s proficiency in safety. As a niche pile driving and marine construction company, Russell Marine regards safety as “an essential element to having and operating a successful business,” explains Russell Morris, vice president of risk management.
Each year, employees attend two to three days of training, at a cost of $1,000-$2,000 annually, Morris points out. The company also requires potential new hires to spend 8 to 12 hours in training before they start work, and they have to successfully the training as a requirement of employment. In addition, all supervisors and managers have completed OSHA 30-hour construction training.
The company owns 25 cranes, and has identified cranes and rigging as a hazard that needs to be controlled, since cranes are used on every project. “To control the hazard we send every field employee to a professional instructor-led course for two days. Superintendents complete a five-day rigging course, and the safety department provides refresher rigging training throughout the year,” Morris says.
In terms of technology, Russell Marine uses a cloud-based safety management system (SMS), which allows the company to analyze safety data and look for leading indicators. “For example,” Morris notes, “we can run reports to see if all the crews are submitting the required documents.” The SMS is modeled on the ANSI Z10 occupational health and safety standard, and requires the company to conduct the plan, do, check and act steps to improve continuously.
Indeed, continuous improvement is an essential process within Russell Marine’s safety initiatives. The SMS analyzes 33 leading and lagging indicators, and as Morris notes, the company is always looking for more ways to improve. Among the significant indicators the company analyzes are employee observations submitted, hazard hunts performed, days to close incident reports, equipment inspections completed, Management of Change procedures (MOCs) completed, and job safety analyses (JSAs) completed.
The adoption of the cloud-based SMS, which is accessible through a smartphone, tablet or computer, allows every employee to contribute to the company’s safety program. “The system multiplies the effectiveness of the safety program by allowing everyone to contribute in real time,” Morris points out.
Russell Marine is a prime example of a company that has leveraged safety excellence to gain a competitive advantage in its business. “Excellent safety and performance have created opportunities for us to work for more clients and clients that demand exceptional safety performance,” Morris says. “This has allowed us to recruit more highly skilled and talented employees that continue to instill a culture of excellence in everything we do.”