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Safety

Priority #1

We emphasize positive safety behaviors and acknowledge those employees who go above and beyond. Safety all day, every day – whether at home or at work. It’s what our families, friends and customers expect. Creating a safe workplace is a personal issue as well as a corporate one and we all must make it a habit.

In his forward to the book, Safety 24/7 – Building an Incident-Free Culture by Greg Anderson and Robert Lorber, Ken Blanchard states, “The reality is, every organization has a ‘safety culture’ – whether good or bad. What all organizations need is a culture of safety, where everyone takes personal responsibility for their own safety as well as those around them.” That’s the journey where safety doesn’t stop at work – it becomes part of your daily routine even outside of the workplace 24/7.

Listen to what our President & CEO, Jim McCarthy, has to say about our safety culture.

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Safety Six

The following safety tenets are an essential part of each day and non-negotiable on every job site. And we go well beyond these Safety Six life-saving rules depending on project-specific exposures. Our primary goal is to continually build an incident-free culture.

P3 - Daily Safety Plan

Our pre-planning process (P3) in safety mandates that we will never start the shift without a proper safety plan.

Personal Protective Equipment

We will never conduct work without proper PPE for the task at hand.

Safe Driving

Whether in a dump truck, a crew cab, forklift or any other company vehicle we will never drive without a seatbelt, recklessly or while using hand-held devices.

Rigging

We will never walk or work under a suspended load. We will never rig a suspended load without proper rigging equipment and procedures.

Fall Protection

We will never walk or work at heights of six feet (6′) or greater without proper fall protection. Ladders – Ladders will always be secured and used properly. Additionally, they will never be used as a work platform at heights more than six feet without fall protection. Work Platforms – Work platforms above six feet (6′) will always be properly tagged and signed pre-shift by a competent person.

Excavation Safety

We will never access an excavation deeper than four feet, six inches (4′ 6″) without proper sloping or shoring. Dig Safe® Tolerance Zone – We will never use mechanized equipment in the tolerance zone of an unexposed utility. Shoring – We will never be in a trench greater than four feet (4′) deep without a ladder.

Safety Programs and Training

Annual Safety Summit
R.H. White holds an Annual Safety Summit where R.H. White and WhiteWater leaders hear from a featured speaker to spark meaningful dialogue while also participating in team exercises. Just one way to underscore our commitment to exploring the many factors that contribute to our journey to an incident-free culture. In 2018, more than 200 company leaders participated in the Safety Summit where Gregory M. Anderson co-author of the book Safety 24/7 – Building an Incident-Free Culture was the guest speaker. The company also invites several representatives from key customers and business partners to take part in the summit.
Safety Days
An annual event focused on workplace and jobsite safety, Safety Days are held during daily team huddles across more than 10 sites in three states with members of the senior leadership team as well as division and department managers facilitating the sessions. The topics vary, but the goal is the same every year – underscore safety as our number one core value.
Safety Visits
Beyond the visits that are part of the daily standard work of our Safety Manager and his team of Safety Officers, all department and division managers must conduct a minimum of four Safety Visits per year at various job sites. This past year had a record 4,025 visits by company personnel from executive-level to middle management where we provide a “fresh eyes” audit of sites: asking questions and providing input or ideas on how we can continuously improve.
Safety Incentive Program
Introduced in 2018 to directly involve our field crews in the identification of safety exposures and hazards, the Safety Incentive Program encourages individuals and teams to offer potential solutions to mitigate hazards. The program is made up of two key components—a Group Program and an Individual Program—to encourage all to keep an eye out for the safety of ourselves and others.
Lone Worker Safety
Our water utility management subsidiary, WhiteWater, uses the lone worker safety program, SoloProtect®. Its operators visit facilities in urban, residential and rural communities, frequently alone. While WhiteWater takes extra care to reduce hazards on the job by regularly inspecting water and wastewater plants for risks, some facilities are off the beaten path in areas with low- to no-traffic. This can mean that an operator answers an emergency call in the middle of the night and makes the trek to a facility in the middle of woods—exposing them to several hazards. SoloProtect ID provides an instant connection to a dedicated Monitoring Center at the push of a button, Global Navigation Satellite System, incapacitation detection, as well as reporting through the customer portal Insights.
Training

For a sneak peek at some of our Safety Training Programs click here.

Awards

“We have embraced the philosophy of Safety 24/7 and encourage all our employees to take responsibility for their safety, as well as all those around them, both at home and on the job. We invest heavily in resources and training to meet our goal of providing an injury-free work environment and sending our employees home safely every evening.”
Rick Denham
Safety Manager

Associated Builders and Contractors of Massachusetts (ABC), the state’s largest commercial construction association, and the Gould Construction Institute (GCI), ABC’s training affiliate, award Safety, Training, and Evaluation Process (STEP) awards annually.

STEP, a national ABC program, provides safety benchmarking and improvement tools that dramatically improve safety performance among participating companies. Companies measure their safety performance and policies through a review of 20 key components and are evaluated on statistical factors such as incident rates, lost time and OSHA recordables – all with the goal of enhancing safety programs and reducing jobsite incident rates.

R.H. White started participating in the STEP program 10 years ago and has received 10 awards in 10 years – three Platinum Achievement, four Gold Achievement and three Silver Achievement. We’re not perfect, but our journey toward zero incidents continues to drive us every day!

Safety Team Members
4
Safety Visits
4025
Safety Visits
96 +
Safety Goal
/7

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