Masonry Magazine May 2004 Page. 16
MCAA-2004 Masonry
Convention
Retiring Regional Vice Presidents
C. DeWitt Brown Lead Man Award
(I to r) Rob Greer, Bill McConnell, and John Spencer
Also after years of loyal service, three Regional Vice Presidents have retired. Rob Greer (Region A), John Spencer (Region E) and Robert Barkshire (Region I) were honored at the Annual Meeting for their dedication and assistance to the masonry industry.
The new Regional Vice Presidents are now Ron Clough, John Smith, Jr., and Tim Spilker, respectively.
Bill McConnell, at left, presents Dick Lauber the C. DeWitt Brown Award.
Every year, one distinguished member of MCAA is applauded for his or her commitment and long-time service to the Association and the industry. This year, the C. DeWitt Brown Lead Man Award was presented to MCA-Chicago President and Owner of J&E Duff, Inc., Dick Lauber.
Safety is an Asset to
Improve your Bottom Line
Masonry News Contractor Tip
How much are you spending annually on OSHA fines, lost-time workdays, and Workers Compensation? Would implementing a company wide safety program & giving your employees an additional incentive check actually save you money? Take a look at what it has done for my business, Lang Masonry Contractors.
Lang Masonry's safety program was implemented in 1995 after the company's Worker's Compensation rate climbed to an all time high. Our rate soared as the result of two workers falling off scaffolding. Both men were foremen and are still with the company today. One fell from a height of fifteen feet & broke both his heels. To recuperate, he laid six weeks in bed with his heels straight up in the air. He was & still is a good friend of mine. The other foreman, also a friend, fell twenty-two feet off a chimney. Both of these accidents happened before we had our safety program in place. In the early 1990s, these incidents almost put Lang Masonry Contractors out of business.
After these two accidents, I thought long and hard about our safety record. I wondered why the employees didn't follow our safety procedures. Then, I figured out that I was the problem. Take for example, the time I acted like I didn't see the guardrails down because I was too busy to stop and say anything. The men knew that I had seen the Infraction but had said nothing. Naturally, they believed that I wasn't serious about safety. I told the men that we had safety programs, but I didn't enforce them adequately. When we as leaders say one thing and do another, our workers believe that we really care about what we do-not what we say. The saying "Do as I say and not as I do" never worked with our employees.
By the mid 1990s, our worker's compensation rate had risen to 18% of payroll. When your payroll is nearly $250,000 a month, that's $45,000 a month just for workers comp. Yikes! I had to do something so I came up with a safety program backed with an incentive check for every field employee. As a result of our safety program, our rate is presently at .86%. That's less than 1%! We estimate that this lower rate is saving us approximately $300,000 per year in Workers Compensation rates alone. We haven't had a serious accident in six years, no broken legs or arms. Nothing. We have not had an OSHA fine in five years. The last six times OSHA inspectors have been on our jobsites, they haven't cited Lang Masonry for any violations. They focus on other contractors on the site instead.
If you don't have a safety program in place, I encourage you to start one. The safety policies you implement, will meet some resistance. There will be some employees, often your very best ones, who will be reluctant to follow the new policies. Address and redirect those employees immediately. If they still refuse to follow the new policies, they must be let go even if they are top production workers. Let me tell you, that's not an easy situation. But, once people realize that the rules apply to everyone, the morale of your whole company will improve. We even provide a quarterly incentive to our employees for upholding safety standards. And, even with the cost of this incentive, our bottom line is still healthier. Safety has gone from a liability to an asset for Lang Masonry.
Provided by Damian Lang, President of Lang Masonry Contractors, Inc. and EZ Great Corp.