Stories

Making Safety Personal

When it comes to safety, good or even great is never enough. DPR projects across the country continually look for safety ideas that encourage teams to change behaviors and achieve DPR’s zero incidents goal.

At the Arizona State University (ASU) Arizona Center for Law and Society (ACLS) in Phoenix, the team is going above and beyond to optimize jobsite safety by implementing creative new practices. For example:

  • Plus/delta sessions: Lunch-time brainstorming sessions where safety ideas are discussed, such as making filtered water more readily available to workers for hydration in the hot Arizona weather to procuring a specific knuckle boom lift that helped the plumbers do their job more safely.
  • Safety recognition stickers: On regular safety job walks, the ACLS leadership hands out stickers to those who demonstrate exemplary safety practices in the field.
  • Acting on leading indicators: Before performing work, the crews fill out a pre-task plan that outlines how they will execute their assigned task in the safest manner possible. At the end of each week, these plans are reviewed and the three that demonstrate the most thorough safety action plans are awarded with free lunches. Those winning pre-task plans are then shared with the rest of the project team as an opportunity for learning.

Safety results on the project speak volumes for the success of the team, as they make safety a value on site. In October, the team held a safety milestone barbeque for 270 people, celebrating 300,000 hours worked with a zero lost-time incident rate.

Read more about safety on the ACLS site here.