Safety Leadership Conference 2025 Preview: How Mentors Make Workplaces Safer (and Improve Employee Engagement)

We learn by doing, which is why having a mentor who can show you the ropes is so valuable. But what if, in addition to teaching a procedure or advising on your career, your mentor taught you how to be safe?

That’s what Garney Construction has started to do—to great success. The Safe Start to Ownership Program (SSTOP) offers a structured onboarding and training initiative that ensures the safe integration of new employee-owners (EOs) at the company.

Marinho Goncalves, a regional safety manager at Garney Construction, will share more about the company’s 180-day training and mentorship program that reduces risks and builds a strong safety culture at the Safety Leadership Conference, being held October 20-22 in Phoenix. More information, including registration, can be found at www.safetyleadershipconference.com. Below is a preview of what to expect from Goncalves’ presentation that he will be giving with Shane O’Brien, a regional operations manager at Garney Construction.

A lot of the components of your program are interconnected: training, retention, safety and competency. How did you go about establishing goals, scope and metrics that are both distinct and work in tandem with one another?

That is a great question. In short, Garney didn’t treat these as separate components; they are a layered system where each strengthens the others. The result is a structured, measurable, and culturally embedded program that improves both individual performance and organizational safety outcomes.

In looking into our scope, we focused on how competency builds from training, which improves safety and production. Safety confidence grows with time on the job and consistent safety mentorship improves morale, sense of belonging and increases retention. Retention is tracked and celebrated through visible helmet decal progression and formal recognition at quarterly shutdowns where all regional workforce comes together in recognizing a path to excellence in safety.

What has your company seen because of SSTOP?

Garney has implemented the SSTOP as a foundational value for new hires, not an afterthought. The required mentorship structured 180-day training timeline and visible helmet decal system—from yellow to orange to white—have reinforced safety accountability and visibility on jobsites. This not only reinforces expectations for new employee-owners but also raises awareness and models behavior among experienced workers.

The use of dedicated mentors, weekly check-ins and milestone recognition (at 90 days, 180 days and 1 year) has also improved employee engagement. New EOs report that they feel more supported, better prepared and more connected to their teams. That increased connection has a direct impact on retention, particularly among field staff.

Has anything surprised you, for better or for worse?

The most surprising outcomes have come from how deeply the program has resonated with people—not just as a safety initiative, but as a culture-building and leadership-development tool. Our new hires sometimes mention in informal conversations how at Garney everything is about safety, safety, safety or SSTOP training—and how different that is compared with previous experiences they had in construction.

This program is required for new hires. How did you get buy-in from experienced Garney employees? What feedback do they share about the training, their mentees, etc.?

Just like everything, in the beginning you have a skeptical reaction, but with time you get buy-in based on palpable impact. Experienced employees quickly saw that when new hires go through SSTOP, they arrive more prepared, safer and more competent at their jobsites. That reduces rework, improves productivity and lowers risk on the jobsite—all things that matter to veteran crews.

The weekly check-ins, task-specific training tracking and structured onboarding process help to ensure fewer surprises or unsafe moments in the field. Some feedback about SSTOP that we got from mentors and their direct supervisors is telling:

“It sets the tone. They know safety isn’t optional here.”

“I can tell when someone’s been through SSTOP. They ask better questions.”

“It’s helped me think more about how I teach and communicate.”

How has this program shaped or enriched Garney’s safety culture?

SSTOP has significantly shaped and enriched Garney’s safety culture by embedding safety, mentorship and accountability into every new employee’s experience—starting on Day 1. By assigning every new employee-owner a trained mentor, Garney moved beyond rules-based training toward relationship-driven safety.

Mentors help new hires navigate tasks, ask questions and apply safe practices in real-time. This trust-building structure reinforces that safety is not just a top-down directive—it’s peer-supported and values-based.  

You and your co-presenter, Shane O’Brien, came to Garney with different, yet complementary, skill sets and experiences. How has that shaped your approach toward workplace safety?

Shane and I both have an operations background, where safety is shaped by a practical, field-driven, and leadership-anchored culture that prioritizes both production and people. That is also the Garney approach. There is a big focus on safety built from the field up.

Within Garney’s deep roots of heavy civil general contractor with high ratio in self-performing construction, our teams understand the real conditions, pressures and tasks crews face daily. That experience has shaped a safety approach grounded in practical application, not just policy. Safety isn’t something imposed from the outside; it’s woven into how Garney plans, builds and executes every job.

How have you tried to encourage other employees who may or may not have a safety background to also make the job site safer?

Garney encourages all employee-owners—regardless of their background in safety—to play an active role in making the jobsite safer through a combination of empowerment, structure and shared responsibility. Every Garney employee is given clear permission and responsibility to stop any task they believe is unsafe through Stop Work Authority.

This authority isn’t limited to supervisors or safety personnel; it belongs to everyone on the jobsite. The message is simple: If you see something, you must say something. Garney leadership backs that up without exception.

What’s one thing you want attendees to take away from your presentation at Safety Leadership Conference 2025?

The one thing we want attendees to take away from our presentation at the Safety Leadership Conference 2025 is this: Safety culture doesn’t start with policy. It starts with people.

Garney’s Safe Start to Ownership Program is proof that when you invest in your people from Day 1 through mentorship, structured support, visible accountability, and leadership development, you don’t just reduce incidents; you build a workforce with increased belonging and better workforce retention. Whether you’re in operations, HR, or safety, you have the power to design a program that brings safety to life in the field. It’s not about creating more rules; it’s about creating more safety leaders.