America's Safest Companies: Fisher Contracting Co.


At Fisher Contracting, safety is always evolving and changing. That's because the company understands the moving dangers in its industry and tries to keep its employees equally as vigilant.

"Our line of work makes our safety performance particularly noteworthy," says Erick Forshee, EH&S director. "This is because approximately 80 percent of all work we perform is in a hazardous environment."

As such, the civil contracting company uses a SiteDocs Safety iPad app to provide employees with up-to-date safety information.

Each of the company's safety representatives and supervisors have an iPad for their project teams to give each team instant access to the app, which updates safety data, SOPs, MSDS/SDS and employee training information in real time.

Beyond that, Fisher Contracting welcomes each construction season in with spring kick-off safety meetings. All employees complete new hire or refresher training and attend a series of lectures and hands-on training. And the management team is involved in the same training as other employees.

Fisher Contracting also sets the same high safety standards for its subcontractors. As part of the company's pre-startup initiatives, it holds mitigation meetings with contractors that don't have a safety program in place that meets Fisher Contracting's standards to set up its expectations for safety on the job site.

"By coordinating safety efforts amongst ourselves and our subcontractor partners, we are making a statement on the importance of safety to our business," Forshee says. "By setting a high safety standard, it shows the construction community that we take safety in the workplace very seriously."

Fisher Contracting also sends out a Safety Flash to contractors summarizing the information covered during its safety tailgates.

Fisher Contracting Co.

Midland, Mich.
115 employees/
6 EHS professionals
Heavy/highway civil contractor