Using Computer-Based Technology to Help Facilitate Safety Performance

Hello, everyone. Companies today use a variety of computer based technology plug platforms such as Smartsheet, Hammertek, iAuditor, Origami, and the list goes on for measuring the performance of safety tasks that help prevent incidents and claims. For the most part, these platforms are blank canvases from which creative safety professionals are developing leading indicator masterpieces of safety responsibilities.

On behalf of McGriff, I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for joining us today as we discuss using computer based technology to help facilitate safety performance.

My name is Lasonya Wilder, and I will be your host for the call today. There are just a couple of housekeeping points that I would like to share with you before we get started. This is a live session, and you are in listen mode only. If you have any questions at any time during the presentation, feel free to utilize the chat box or the q and a box to type in your questions, and we will address them during our q and a segment. If time doesn't permit us to answer the questions after the presentation, we will be sure to capture them and provide the responses afterwards.

Now it brings me great pleasure to introduce to you our speaker for the hour.

John Moore, vice president and risk control consultant with McGriff as a risk control professional. He's been in the industry since nineteen ninety three. John has experience in evaluating risk exposures and developing strategies, processes, and risk management programs to successfully control the total cost of risk. He has consultant experience with a wide variety of industries including construction, retail, logistics, manufacturing, technology, hospitality, restaurants, staffing agencies, national defense maintenance, and senior assisted living. John earned a master's degree in organizational leadership from Gonzaga University and a bachelor's degree in construction management from the University of Florida. He holds the following professional certifications.

He's certified safety professional, associate in risk management, certified safety and health manager, as well as construction risk insurance specialist. So without further ado, I would turn it over to John to kick off the presentation.

Alright. Thank you, Lasonya.

And many thanks to everybody for joining us today for this webinar. As Lasonya said, it's using computer based technology to help facilitate safety performance.

And John, can you make sure you share? Cause we don't see the presentation yet.

Okay. My apologies, everyone.

Need a file.

Get this up and running.

That computer based technology.

Just exit out of that, John. There you go. And go under presentation. There we go. Thank you.

Sorry about that.

Okay.

I developed this webinar because technologies and safety are mind blowing, especially to an old man like me.

But I'm fortunate in that I work with numerous clients that know much more about this technology, their experience, and their knowledgeable.

So I get to observe and learn from people that are making it happen in their companies.

And that's what got me excited about this topic.

Okay.

Today we're going to discuss the importance of safety measurement.

We're going to discuss the technology advancements in workplace safety.

And for the first time for McGriff webinars, we're gonna have a client panel discussion where some of my clients talk about their real world application of the technology and helping keep their workplaces safe.

And then if we have time, we'll have, a few key takeaways just to recap, and you'll have a, an opportunity to ask questions, not only from myself, but also from our panelists if you like.

Just a few important notes before we begin.

McGriff is not promoting specific technologies through this webinar.

The intent of the presentation is to show how various computer based technologies work together to allow for precise real time measurement of safety performance.

We're also gonna show how various companies are applying these technologies to keep their work workplace safe.

First, let's discuss the importance of safety performance measurement.

Worker performance measurement serves to evaluate and quantify an employee's attention to safety and the effectiveness of their efforts.

Remember, safety performance measurements applicable to all industries.

I say this because there are four members of our panel. Three of those four work in some fashion in the construction industry.

It's not to say this only applies to construction. It applies to to to all industries.

So just wanna say that for the record.

Performance measurement can and should be applied to all safety measures taken to prevent property casualty insurance claims, whether it be workers' compensation, general liability, auto liability, or property liability.

Performance measurement helps companies move from being reactive with safety, where you're just dealing with accidents and injuries all the time, to being proactive real time with safety, where your employees are celebrating another day of injury free and productive work.

Okay.

In workplace safety, performance measurement helps to improve hazard detection and prevention, enhance training and awareness.

It makes monitoring of real time.

I'm sorry. It makes monitoring and response more efficient.

It allows for better record keeping and accountability.

It increases efficiency and productivity, evaluates individual's contributions in the workplace, and it highlights areas for improvement and supportive organizational goals for safety.

Have you ever heard the phrase, what gets measured gets done?

It's a phrase that I found early in my career and I've found to be very valuable across the span of the career.

It was pinned by famous author and business consultant, Peter Drucker.

What gets measured gets done means that when a specific activity, goal, or performance metric is tracked and monitored, there's a higher likelihood that it'll be prioritized and successfully accomplished.

Essentially, measurement acts as a form of accountability and focus.

By quantifying progress, individuals and organizations are more motivated to take action and ensure that they're ensured that the target outcomes are achieved.

I don't know if it's grammatically correct, but it's thoughtful tip to anybody that leads others.

For many safety in current times has shifted from a reactive burden, as I mentioned earlier, from putting out fires to a proactive, measured, and managed opportunity to shine both in the eyes of your employees and risk averse clients for some industries.

Much of that shift has occurred because to the event because of the advancements in technologies.

Computer based technologies encompass tools and methods for monitoring and evaluating safety within an organization or a system.

These technologies include data collection, analysis, and and reporting systems designed to track safety metrics, identify trends, and ultimately improve safety outcomes.

And here's a list of the various technologies we're gonna discuss today.

Excuse me.

Okay.

One element that is often forgotten when quantifying safety performance is successful completion of training.

A knowledgeable workforce is the foundation of safe work.

Learning management systems or LMS are software platforms designed to facilitate the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses.

Key elements of LMS include course creation and content management, which is where instructors and administrators can create courses, upload multimedia content, content like video or quizzes, and organize organized lessons.

User enrollment management is when learners are enrolled based on predefined criteria established by the employer. In other words, if you have different classifications of employees with different training requirements, you're you can set that up at an administrative level.

Delivery delivery of content is achieved when learners can access self paced or live courses from web interface or mobile apps.

Assessment and evaluation occurs because LMS supports quizzes and assignments to evaluate training comprehension of information addressed.

So it allows you verification that the message got across.

Tracking and reporting are achieved by LMS by monitoring and recording learner activity, such as course completion, time spent on training, participation in learning activities, or completion of quizzes.

Communication and collaboration are facilitated because features like messaging and discussion forums facilitate interaction between learners and instructors.

And that's a that's a very valuable interaction. It helps ensure that the message is getting crossed clearly.

Certification and compliance are achieved because upon completing the courses, training certificates can be generated.

That gives the employee proof that they've completed the training, but it also gives the employer documentation they need to prove that they're meeting regulatory requirements.

And integration and automation.

This happens when LMS integrates with other systems like HR software, content repositories, or other systems.

These help streamline learning management administrative tasks like reminders, certifications, reporting, or even recertification needs.

LMS is a safety technology that McGriff deeply believes in. So much so that we offer access to such to our clients at no additional cost to you.

If you're interested in learning more about this educational resource, contact myself or your McGriff risk control professional for more information.

Okay. Safety management systems or SMS. These are platforms that facilitate structured proactive management of safety performance within the organization.

They provide a formal framework for evaluating safety data, identifying hazards, analyzing risk, implementing controls, and continuously improving safety.

SMS helps to drive proactive risk identification, such as regular hazard assessments or reporting systems, which help detect potential safety issues that lead to incidents.

You ultimately decide what's important in managing the risk and prioritizing accordingly.

Consistent safety practices.

Because standardized procedures and policies ensure safety measures are applied uniformly across the organization, SMS gives you the freedom to set the bar as high as you want as to what's acceptable.

Remember, the most you can expect is the least you'll accept.

Continuous improvement.

This is achieved through ongoing consistent monitoring, audits, and feedback loops that engage various employees, which enables organizations to capitalize on their varied perspectives in learning from incidents and ultimately improving safety.

Enhanced compliance.

This is where SMS helps organizations set the bar for safety.

Whether that's meeting regulatory compliance, industry standards, or achieving best safety practices, it reduces the legal, financial, and reputational risk for companies.

Employee engagement is achieved by promoting safety culture, which encourages all workers to participate actively in safety initiatives, whether it's reporting hazards or just following safety procedures consistently.

And data driven decision making. By collecting all the safety data available, it enables the management to make informed decisions to prevent injuries and improve safety performance.

So SMS performs the various useful functions that make up the framework for successful safety programs.

Okay. Mobile applications or mobile apps. These are software applications designed to run on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets.

They help to bring a mobility to safety performance measurement that was previously difficult to facilitate.

They're helping employees and employers monitor, manage, and improve safety performance, ensuring regulatory compliance, and responding quickly to unsafe conditions.

Some common mobile app types used for workplace safety include training and communication apps, which we've already talked about LMS.

But there are also virtual libraries of various safety training that can be viewed on mobile devices, including full length courses or short segments, which are called microlearning.

Communication and collaboration apps, which are beneficial to remote teams and in industries like health care and construction.

These apps feature real time incident reporting and communication tools.

These help ensure workplace safety and regulatory compliance for those industries.

Hazard identification and risk assessment apps give employees the means and methods for identifying potential hazards, evaluating the associated risk, and implementing control measures as needed.

Personal safety and emergency apps, which provide an extra layer of security to isolated workers, offering features like emergency alerts, location sharing, and access to emergency services.

These are common in industries such as hotels, where housekeepers are are equipped with pan up buttons.

Sadly, in education where teachers are equipped and other industries with isolated workers.

Equipment and asset management apps help organizations track, monitor, and manage and optimize the assets throughout their entire life cycle. The from procurement to disposal.

These apps are used to manage the inspections and maintenance of a wide range of physical assets, such as vehicles, equipment, or tools And safety reporting and incident management apps.

These help employees to quickly and easily report incidents, track their status, and manage the entire incident response workflow.

They also facilitate proactive risk management or risk mitigation by enabling the reporting of hazards or near misses, which is getting ahead of the accident or injury.

There are many useful safety apps out there. If, and if, if you have a need of any type in your safety program, do a little research. Chances are there's an app that can help you.

Okay. The next section is IOT sensors or the internet of thing, internet of things.

This refers to a network of interconnected devices, objects, and systems that can collect exchange pertinent data about the work environment.

In short, IoT sensors are the eyes and ears of mobile devices to receive and respond to the physical world.

They improve safety efficiencies and effectiveness by helping employees and employers safely respond to environmental hazards, which drives better decision making.

IOT sensors measure temperature, which gives the criteria to determine the safe length of exposure for employees.

Motion, which detects movement of persons or objects that might cause harm.

Pressure, which measures a force building in a system which should prompt remedial action if it's getting too high.

Humidity, which detects the amount of moisture in the air, which could exacerbate heat related illness in hot conditions, which is more of an immediate hazard.

And humidity promotes mold growth indoors.

So that would be more of a long term hazard.

Light sensors detect the intensity of light, which can be used for general workplace illumination, you know, to make sure there's enough light to to be able to see that see safely.

And extreme industrial exposures, which measure too much light.

Sound sensors are also used for general workplace and extreme exposures, but of course, they're related to noise instead of light.

And chemical sensors detect the presence and concentration of various substances or elements that could cause harm.

So it's amazing these IOT sensors, they've turned our mobile devices into the Swiss army knife of modern times.

Okay. Wearable technologies are increasingly being applied to workplace safety to enhance monitoring, communication and incident prevention.

These devices help protect workers, especially in high risk environments by providing real time data in a works that can prevent accidents and improve response times.

It helps get the, the, it brings the employee into the measurement and, and, and notifies them accordingly and prompts the action on their side.

Common uses include ergonomics through exoskeletons, which reinforce the body's physical capabilities, as well as recording and analyzing the body's movements.

Real time location tracking, which can be used for monitoring workers in dangerous environments, allowing for prompt retrieval, or rescue.

These devices leverage GPS technology to pinpoint locations.

Health monitoring.

These devices such as smartwatches or specialized sensors, they track vital signs, which include heart rate, body temperature, organ, or oxygen levels to detect signs of fatigue, heat stress, medical emergencies, and to allow for timely intervention.

Fall detection and injury prevention use accelerometers or gyroscopes embedded in the wearables to detect falls or sudden impacts, which automatically notifies a supervisor or emergency services as needed.

Environmental monitoring accelerates exposure to hazardous substances. I'm sorry, evaluates exposure to hazardous substances, noise, including noise levels, temperature extremes, and other harmful environmental conditions.

And it also alerts workers when the thresholds are exceeded.

Personal safety alerts, alerts, or panic buttons enable immediate activation of alerts from anywhere in the workplace.

Notifications are instantly sent to nine one one and or designated staff through text, phone, email, desktop alerts, or push notifications, ensuring rapid communication during emergencies and improving response times. And wearables can significantly enhance compliance and training by providing real time performance monitoring, data collection, and interactive work learning experiences.

So many companies have found wearable technologies to be worth the investment to help monitor and control the risk associated with their employees work.

Drones are increasingly being utilized to enhance workplace safety across various industries by providing safe aerial surveillance, inspection, and monitoring capabilities.

Their ability to access hard to reach and hazardous areas safely makes them valuable tools for preventing accidents and assuring compliance with regulatory standards.

Common uses include site inspection and monitoring because drones can quickly survey large and complex worksites identifying potential hazards, such as unstable structures, equipment, malfunctions, and unsafe conditions without exposing employees directly to the risk.

Structural inspections because because drones can inspect bridges, towers, cranes, and buildings for damage, corrosion, or wear reducing again, reducing the need for workers to perform risky manual inspections at Heights or dangerous environments.

Emergency response and search and rescue.

When accidents occur, drones can locate injured workers, scan the scene, and provide real time visuals to emergency responders, which ultimately helps, speed up their rescue efforts.

Monitoring environmental conditions because drones equipped with sensors can detect hazardous gases, smoke, and other environmental risk. And it allows them to alert the safety teams so preventative action can be taken.

Training and simulation.

Because drones can be used to create realistic training scenarios or to demonstrate safety procedures from a aerial perspective and enforcing safety protocols because drones can help monitor compliance with safety processes and procedures pertinent to your specific business.

So ultimately drones are useful because they help employees maintain a safe distance from real or potential hazards.

Artificial intelligence or AI.

For the record, this is a really big topic, which could be a webinar of its own. It likely will be someday.

Today, we're going to be discussing a AI at a high level.

Artificial intelligence can significantly enhance workplace safety by providing advanced tools for hazard detection and control, risk management and incident prevention.

AI's ability to analyze large vol, large volumes of data, recognize patterns and automate responses makes it a valuable asset to creating a safe work environment.

Ways AI can benefit workplace safety include through training and simulation because AI driven virtual reality and augmented reality simulations provide immersive safety training tailored to specific risk, improving worker prepare preparedness.

But it makes it safe for the worker to or it makes it safe for your employee to learn and safe to fill as related to hazards.

Enhanced communication and reporting.

These are achieved through chatbots and AI assistance when they facilitate quick reporting of hazards or incidents, ensuring timely response and thorough documentation.

Resource optimization because AI helps to prioritize safety efforts by maximizing or I'm sorry, by analyzing risk levels and allocating resources effectively.

Predictive analytics, which this is what I think is the potential sweet spot of AI because AI algorithms analyze historical data and identify patterns and predict potential risk before it occurs, enabling proactive safety measures.

Real time monitoring Because AI powered sensors and cameras continuously monitor environmental conditions, equipment status and worker behavior.

They can alert safety teams to anomalies when they occur and they can be addressed immediately.

Automated hazard detect excuse me. Automated hazard detection.

Because computer systems can automatically identify safety hazards such as workers not wearing protective gear or operating, machinery improperly.

And it issues alerts accordingly.

So it's not just gonna observe it. It's gonna prompt action to get it addressed immediately.

And incident analysis and root cause identification because AI tools, analyze incident reports and, and, and sensor data to determine underlying roots.

Excuse me. To to to determine underlying root causes.

Helping organizations implement targeted safety improvements focused on those core causal factors.

It takes the data generated by the computer based technologies that we've discussed today and it helps us make sense of it all.

We're in the early stages of realizing the benefits of AI, but the sky's the limit on what we can gain from it.

Okay.

As we mentioned earlier, we're going to do something unique from McGriff webinars.

We're going to allow a select panel of McGriff clients to discuss how they use computer based technology to help facilitate safety performance in their companies.

The panel we've assembled, they are all clients of mine.

Panelist number one is mister Dean Carmichael. He works with United Forming, which is a concrete formwork specialty contractor.

Panelist two is mister Paul Duke with Holder Construction, which is a prime contractor or construction manager.

Panelist three is mister David Gamache.

He works with JR Hobbs company, which is an HVAC specialty contractor.

And panelist four, mister David Finn works with Sierra Nevada company, an aerospace and national defense contractor.

Thank you all for agreeing to present participate in our our presentation today.

Here are the issues our panel is going to discuss. I'll be asking questions about each of these particular topics to our panelists, and then they'll give their responses.

Okay. The first is regarding safety performance measured.

Okay. Mister Carmichael, what types of safety performance do you measure using computer based technology?

Thanks, John. We use, mobile app, by the name of Food Safety Culture. IAuditor through Spy Safety Culture.

It's a nice app that you can customize. We use it for analytics and so forth.

We also, it's nice that you can weight the questions as far as if there's a, for lack of better term, a negative response or or an issue found. More serious exposures have more weight to them in inspections and all inspections then are scored, automatically. And we use that as part of performance reviews as well as bonuses and so forth.

We also do a lot of industrial hygiene monitoring for especially in the concrete industry.

Our primary health exposure would be for silica.

Being concrete contractors, so we do a lot of monitoring for silica.

We use apps, our apps too for IR. You can set up many kinds of forms and so forth. Pre trash planning, hazard permitting in some cases, and just various, like, equipment inspections.

We use outriggers a lot on for multi story buildings. So daily outrigger inspections, fall protection equipment inspections, so forth.

And driver safety, we use Geotab, for it's in all of our vehicles with, ELD devices. We use it also for ELD compliance for logbooks for DOT, but also for driving behaviors too. You set up alerts, you set up rules for, you know, things like hard braking, hard acceleration, hard stopping, you have the braking.

Jeep measures g forces for harsh cornering and of course speeding, seat belts, and all that. And then we also have the web cameras with the two so you can see in real time. It's it's very important nowadays because as most of you see on billboards, commercials, vehicular liability is probably becoming one of the personal injury attorneys favorite exposures things because they know commercial companies, commercial drivers, their companies, they have large insurance policies.

So it's very important.

Okay. Thank you, Dean.

Sure.

Mister Duke.

I appreciate it, John. Thanks for having having me on, this afternoon.

We have, you know, several, you know, computer based technologies that we use. I would say our main program is a, I'll put it called HammerTech.

We started piloting them, I don't know, six, seven years ago. We've adopted them across our entire fleet at this point. It's really a great platform for us as a drone contractor because we're able to customize it, really in an infinite amount of ways. It's pretty cool.

We do things from onboarding our trade partners, collecting, you know, and managing high risk activities, observations, inspection, site specific safety plans, pretest plans. Really, we're able to, you know, automate and digitize a lot of the the documentation, using that. And then they've introduced some inline reporting. They've got a product called HammerTech Insights, which is basically like their version of Power BI.

We create a lot of our own dashboards and metrics through the API where we bring data in. We mix and match that with other data sources that we have, and create some some, a lot of certainly a lot of lagging indicators, but also some predictive, you know, more forward looking, data points. But their inline reporting is pretty awesome because we can go in and customize, very quickly dashboards for a specific project or a specific client. We're able to give, all of our trade partners access to this platform at no cost. We we we pay for the service and allows everybody to use it. So it's got a lot of benefits.

Certainly some, learning curves over the years in terms of how people get engaged and make sure their leadership is using it. We're we're going through a pretty hefty revamp. We've actually brought on a full time resource to focus on managing Hammer Tech as big as we've gotten, as big of a tools that is. We're going through and and revamping a lot of the observations and checklists inspections that we're using as well as our incident module, which allows us when we have something that happens in our jobs, our teams can, immediately send out what we call a one hour report and notifies all of the appropriate leaders and stakeholders.

And then from there, it allows us to start managing that incident, report from start to finish and uploads and and all that fun stuff. So it's been great for us, over the last several years as we've rolled it out. A lot of other great tech. You know, it seems like every day, more and more options are are out there in the industry.

Great. Thank you, Paul. Mr. Gamache. David Gamache with J. R. Hobbs.

Yes. Good afternoon, everyone. Hope you're having a safe day. So you're you're probably seeing a theme here with, a lot of the topics that we use for, my my position.

I use it, for a lot of leading indicators, like near miss reporting, the number of safety kits, which has, a lot of safety items in it delivered, to construction sites, our move and telehandler inspections, training percentages for different safety topics, but both by roles depending on their titles and also by each region for the company. So it's nice to be able to see both local and as a as a whole how, you know, they connect together. And, I also track our safety incentive program, our monthly site safety audits. We also do daily safety pretest checklist, like a JHA in the morning.

That is, submitted through Smartsheet, and, weekly toolbox talks is also tracked. And there's a number of other things that I use it for for tracking, people's training, enrollment start date, and then completion as well. So it's, it's pretty versatile in that, and you can use it for a lot of number of things. If just your imagination and what technology will allow you to do is, is pretty amazing.

Great. Thank you, David. And now mister David Fenn.

Thanks, John. Pleasure to be here. So, what we're using is, our for our primary tool is origami. And due to the sensitivity of some of our operations, it's very difficult to vet various, technologies that would be able to fit for us in a DOD, arena. So origami is our been our primary go to, and we we use that to track our toolbox talks, all of our facility inspections, pre use inspections, and, also our incident cause rates. We look at, when we when we drill down for injuries, we're looking at the cause of the injury, the body part that was affected. And when we look at that data over time, we can filter and drill down to our specific business areas and even at our facility level to pinpoint where we might have an existing problem.

So origami has been our go to. We track everything in there. Like I said, all of our inspections and, our incident rates go through there. It's been a very, very helpful tool for us.

Great. Thanks, David.

Okay.

The next question is related to technology platforms and what, what different types are being used.

What computer based technologies in your company are, are using to measure safety performance?

Mr. Carmichael.

Yes. As I said earlier, I kind of got ahead of our questions here. You know, we're using, I order by safety culture.

As Paul talked about, we do work with holder construction a lot. So when we go on their projects, we will have used their hammer tech system as well as other many general contractors build or construction management firms. They use a handful of different softwares that programs that and they kind of like as Paul said we get access to it and we submit reports and so forth.

Geo tab obviously as I mentioned for the driving behaviors and so forth is it's come a long ways. I just recently switched over to Geotab because I had used the previous company and I was amazed at how far they had come in six years since I last used it. But and then also, you know, we have our own internal, like our database software that for our training for tracking of training and so forth that we set up alerts, we set up auto reports that gives you a expired training report like nine days out for any employees that they're training. That's mandatory in our system that, they need to have renewed. So it gives us some time to schedule that training.

And that's really the main things we look at the reports and so forth to go out that we sell the safety inspection reports.

Begin trying to look at leading indicators, instead of obviously in safety we're never gonna get rid of lagging indicators completely but trying to look at more leading indicators and do use a lot of analytics on that to determine where we get the biggest bang for our effort of reducing our exposures.

Thanks, Dean.

Paul?

So, you know, I mentioned HammerTech in-depth, and that's that's really where a lot of our data comes from. But we also use, Power BI. We're starting to mess around with Copilot. We actually just rolled out, I think, it was a thousand license.

So we're talking about AI earlier, proving to be very cool, very powerful, pretty pretty awesome, in terms of the capabilities. Not sure what all it can do yet, but I think it's it's really pretty impressive. So looking forward to getting that rolled out in the hands of a lot of our safety professional. Smartsheet is another interesting one that we use.

We do a lot of data center work, so really large, complicated, and complex lockout tagout programs.

A lot of our teams are using Smartsheets to automate the lockouttagout request process. So working with our ECs and MCs and and anybody who needs to be involved with the the lockouttagout process. And if you need to go isolate a piece of equipment, you could actually submit via a QR code, and then they use Smartsheets to aggregate that request and work through the approval process for mops and and things of that nature. So as those jobs have gotten more complicated and bigger, that has been really helpful. We also use to collect a lot of reliable data, we use, it's like simple Microsoft forms that feed into some, some Smartsheet, Power BI, and then we're able to manipulate that along with Hammer Tech to create some dashboards that are really leadership focused. We use a lot of twelve month rolling averages to smooth out our datasets.

And then a lot of that is done in Power BI when they're looking at our severity baseline indicators, our TRIR, things of that nature.

We also use site metrics, and there's probably three or four other platforms that we use in terms of access control. We found that that is incredibly important to set the jobs up the right way to be able to collect the hours worked and accurate true hours worked on a project site, because that feeds all of our lagging indicators.

Okay. Thanks, Paul. David?

Yeah, sure. So yes, Smartsheet is definitely, probably the major, software that we use to, to track all those things we were talking about before. We also, also starting to utilize the McGriff, training platform as well, which is gonna we're gonna be expanding on that. And then we also use Paycom.

It's it's just as an internal type of, platform where, there is some training, that is drawn out from there. And then for the, the geo tab, yeah, we our, our fleet department, uses that, and it's, it's it's pretty dynamic.

Really is, gives real time information, for our drivers. We we definitely measure, like, for that for, you know, depth speed. You know, we have a certain amount of speed that we we allow on the road, seat belts if they're clicked when the car is in movement, things like that, hard stops, you know, fast starts, if you will. So all those things are also used on that. So it's a variety, of of tools. You know, as, as technology advances, we'd really like to have more and more just like one platform for everything, but we're not quite there yet.

Okay. Thanks, David. And mister Finn.

Sure. As I previously stated, Origami is our our chief product for entering in all of our data, whether it's it's incident reporting or it's inspections and things like that. But we also use Power BI to work hand in hand with Origami and Workday. And what that's that allows us to do is we can take a look at the total human effort in a specific business area or state or even just in a facility and cross reference that with, an incident rate that's, that's associated with that facility or business area.

So they work hand in hand, and it allows us, like I said, to drill down a little bit further to find out, what the trends are in a certain facility. And if we're seeing, say, a lot of slip trips and falls in that facility, then we can go back into origami, and we can pull up and see what kind of preventative measures we've taken to address that that specific topic. So Power BI has been really helpful for us to get our total case incident rate, our dart rates, our total recordable incident rates, really easily fast, efficient, and it's Power BI and Origami have worked hand in hand. And it's those two have been tremendous tools for us.

Okay. Thank you, David.

Okay. The next question is, what are some effective ways you found to manage safety based on the, safety performance you've measured?

Dean?

As as I mentioned earlier, we, you know, we we wait the inspection and inspections items and so forth. We use that, for when it comes for performance reviews, I generate reports that get sent out to business unit leaders, on for their people that gets used to, for their year end reviews and and periodic reviews, how their jobs have performed and so forth.

And, and then we also unit use it for end of job and end of year safety bonus programs to your accountability.

And it also, you know, just the in betweens and stuff too as far as the you start seeing concerns for red flags that, maybe there's some more intervention needs to be done maybe at this particular project with this particular group of management people that are running these these projects.

Okay. Alright. Thank you, Dean. Paul?

I think one of the most powerful things that we've done is be able to quickly share data with our leadership, everything.

We meet, you know, multiple times throughout the month, but at least on monthly cadence where we really dig in deep with the c suite to look at data, how our teams are performing, are we engaged. But we've created some easy dashboards that allow project directors, VPs, general superintendents to just go look and see, are the teams engaged with observations?

Are they doing enough inspections? And you can quickly see, you know, whether or not teams are engaged. That's been super helpful with, with empowering our people, but also creating some accountability and working out some other, dashboards and and metrics to better engage with our people. But, you know, using these tools and making the information available quickly, has been really powerful for our leadership.

Great. Thank you, Paul. David?

Sure. Yeah. We, we I use it very much for looking at some type of performance measurements.

For example, what we can do is I can look at, let's say, a project in Tennessee and I see that their reporting metrics, which would be their daily pretax safety checklist and their toolbox talks, I can see where where they're, with the percentages of completion for that. And if I see that, you know, for right now, our company, you know, right now, ninety five percent is our goal, in this quarter. And, you know, whatever, sites are not meeting that, I can easily see that. And what I do is I send out a weekly report to all the leadership, with safety summary using all all the data that I gather for, that type of information, including the monthly site audits that the area managers do. We also use, use this for some some, like, positive reinforcement.

The, you know, we're talking about leading indicators, so we try to really push for the near miss reporting. We have a a a stake giveaway that, that we a raffle that we give every quarter for that. And it also helps to encourage safe behaviors. If you you know anything about safety, it's most of it is psychology. It's just just changing people's behaviors. And then we can accountability is big factor. We can use it, the the data to provide opportunities for improvement.

And, sometimes it even goes into people's, bonuses and, performance reviews as well too. So there's a lot of, a lot of areas that can use our information to, to gather pretty quickly.

Great. Great. Thank you, David. And David Fenn.

Thank you, sir. So, one of the things or actually two of the things that we've been focusing on at the corporate level is, increasing accountability and positive enforcement or positive reinforcement for that matter.

We recently just launched what's called a safety champion program, and that has that has demonstrated that individuals with the boots on the ground, they're being more cognizant of their work area and, the people that are working around them. And I can say that because I get to see every single safety concern, near miss, or incident that happens across the enterprise. And it's it's a lot. And, just this morning, I received a a safety concern and then an email that followed up from the individual that submitted the safety concern.

And make a long story short, the individual was wondering where his safety champion patch was because he, he reported the safety concern. And I found that pretty quite telling because, if individuals are that invested in wearing a patch that says, hey. I'm a safety champion, that's something that they're proud of. And that's something that we didn't have happen in the past.

We do receive safety concerns and near miss reports all the time. But now it seems, since we've launched this program, that people are taking pride that they're able to recognize potential hazards and report them, and they wanna be recognized for that. So that's part of the positive reinforcement that, we have going on over at S and C, and I'm really proud of that program.

Fantastic. Thank you, David.

Okay. The next question is, what are some of the challenges you've experienced with the performance measurement process?

Dean?

Yeah.

As the bullet point ends in there, as as all this data that you're looking at to try to track and measure is inputted by a human being.

And, so you might get some people that would, prefer to pencil whip things to, you know, get make it fast, quick, and easy.

It's kinda like the old computer saying your data saying is garbage in, garbage out. So it's always good the information you're trending and looking at and measuring is always good as the data. So there a lot of training is involved in, monitoring that stuff and looking at it from a standpoint of, you know, is this data you're putting in here, is it valid? Is it accurate?

Good, bad, or I always tell train people good, bad, or otherwise. I just want it to be what it is. So if we don't know that we got an issue in an area, it's not getting inputted, in the system, then we don't know it and it's hurting us instead of helping us.

Okay. Thanks, Dean. Paul?

I think, challenges over the year trying to figure out what really works, where do we need to focus, and what's moving the needle, in terms of data and and KPIs. You can collect all sorts of stuff, but if it's not really, moving the needle, then it's it's kind of pointless. I would say right now, one of our big challenges is just data literacy. We've got a lot of people that don't understand how safety data works.

There's a lot of confusion about the metrics, what we're what we're trying to convey and show. So we've got a big I think we've got an uphill battle, certainly a holder valve would say as an industry trying to educate people on how to use a lot of these tools now that they're available. And there's always just kind of a general hesitancy to adopt any new technology, it seems like, in construction. So that is, figuring out ways to make it really simple, easy, and accept feedback has been important for us, over the last few years as we as we roll out Hammer Tech specifically.

Great. Thanks, Paul. Mister Gamache.

Yes. Thank you. Sure.

I'll tell you what.

Right now, at this time, if I were to maybe get on Smartsheet, it it would I'd see that little thing circle circle circle circle for a while. For some reason, Smartsheet does have a a stroke or something around the same time every day. I'm not sure if if it's just the server bandwidth or whatever what's going on. A lot of people are utilizing at that time of the day. I'm not sure. So there is some glitches with waiting for that to get in. Then sometimes what happens is the, like, when I'm looking at the percentages for each of the regions for their their inspections, sometimes what happens is I'll look at a number and I'll say, well, that's kinda low.

And then I have to scroll down and realize that in one of the entries, there's a it says, like, invalid or something. So I have to go into the form and then back back out. And once I do, it refreshes itself, and then the numbers change. So you have to, I guess, get a feel for that and and know when, you know, you can what do you have to do to fix those glitches?

Sometimes I, I have to wait. You know? I try not to get on the support sheets late in the afternoon because I know it's it's gonna be a problem. But but other than that, it's it's, it it's it's it's not that bad overall.

I find it pretty diverse for, the things that we are, are using it for, And we're looking more ways to expand it, as well. We do track our TRIR, on that, our dart rates on our safety dashboard. And by the way, Paul, we we actually do have, safety champions. It's, it's like our safety committee that we have.

We meet once a month and they represent from each other different areas of the, of the company. But, but yeah. So I would say, you know, just no no technology is perfect, but, you just gotta find a a workaround, but it is worth it if if you've got the patience.

Okay. Thanks, David. And mister Finn.

Yeah. Sure. So, my situation is a little different than, the other gentleman on the panel.

When you're dealing with defense contracts, budgetary constraints are very, very real problem that we face. And a lot of times when we designate a fixer, we come up with a corrective action that might have some, monetary issues with it, it's it's not so much as just, implementing the, the fix or, engineering something engineering a hazard out of a piece of machinery or something. You need to go through, jump through various hoops to get approval on something like that. And if the program is not budgeted to, for that kind of expenditure, then typically it doesn't happen.

And that's kind of frustrating in the fact that we we identify what the corrective action could be, whether it's, you know, engineering substitution or what have you. But if the dollars aren't there, then it stops in its tracks and then we need to go a separate route. So identifying the hazards are great, but if you can't fix them, that's a totally different animal altogether. So that's one of that's one of my frustrations that we're trying to work on with our programs and having some kind of safety budget written into the bid when we go after these, these specific contracts.

So budgetary constraints are definitely a huge problem for us.

Absolutely. Thanks, David.

And now our final question, which is what are some of the successes you guys have experienced with performance measurement process?

Dean?

I think the ultimate goal too is to for reducing accidents and so forth. But, since we've implemented this, I came on board the company about six years ago and everything at that time was paper based and so forth.

Wasn't getting measured and so forth.

Really having accountability, you can use a lot of this data for, like you said, for rewards as well as accountability.

And we've seen a significant reduction, not only in the accidents, but also the severity of accidents.

So that is and it's really, you know, it to change things, it takes a while. And after doing this now, we're we've been working on it for, except really six years with implementing the technologies into our systems, safety management systems.

This year, the sixth year, it got it was much better last year in the fifth year, but this year we're really seeing dividends with it.

Okay. Thank you, Dean. Paul?

Yeah. From a success I mean, we we're safer than we ever have been on paper. You look at our lagging indicators, our metrics, all that stuff. It's great.

There's a lot that goes into that. There's a lot of context. There's a lot of effort, I think, first and foremost with our people. But having the tools to help gain efficiencies and, and and leverage technology has certainly helped with that over our, I would say, our journey over the last five to seven years, specifically in mission critical, world has changed a lot.

And technology has allowed our teams to be more efficient, have have better access to resources, but it starts with effort. And, but we're we're certainly seeing the benefits of that, from a lagging lagging perspective.

Okay. Thanks, Paul. David?

Yeah. Sure. We do sell very similar stuff, what you just what you spoke, was talking about.

What I find is really helpful is being able to provide, the folks in the field, you know, real time quick information of the whatever particular, safety measure that we we we're watching and and tracking. Also, what's really, really good too is it helps with understanding, trying to, you know, a lot of people in the field, sometimes in construction, they're really not always that tech savvy sometimes where they don't feel really comfortable with accessing, you know, websites and things like that. So what I've really tried to do is streamline the process so that, they're glaming on to something they're already comfortable or used to in the field. And and so it's not a whole new thing that they're being trained on or something when it comes to, like, that Smartsheet.

So for instance, we have a a on their field dashboard, each each project has a field dashboard. And on that field dashboard, there is a number of resources that are there for them, a very simple because that field dashboard, they use that, you know, constantly. So it's something they're familiar with. So I all I did is I I I put some links on there to make it very simple for them to report an injury, to do an inspection for their heavy equipment, things like that.

Everything that they do through that system gets tracked. And it's it again, it's it's just nice to be able to provide leadership, a weekly basis. And I also do a one one on one, once a month with each of our regional directors and managers to and we go into deep more deeper, detail with that. But, again, it's really great to be able to show people who aren't.

They don't have the time to dig in there and get all this information right away. So to be able to present it in a digestible, easy to understand way I found has been a very good success for us.

Great. Thank you, David. And mister Finn.

Yes. So I'll kinda make this short for the sake of time here. One of the successes that we're we've, really looked at and we take, we take seriously is the amount of safety concerns and near misses that have been reported in our origami system. From twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four, we saw a little bit over a two hundred and fifty percent increase in our safety concern reporting, and that was by giving the employees direct access to that system where they didn't have it before. Usually, it was just word-of-mouth that was reported to the supervisor that probably never made it up the chain to the safety team. So having that ability and giving them that access to report those safety concerns and near misses, have really helped us in hazard mitigation. So, that's, that's one of the successes that I can point to.

Fantastic. Thank you, David.

So with that, I'd like to thank every member of the panel, for sharing your time, your experience and your knowledge with us. It's definitely exciting what you guys are able to accomplish and what your companies are accomplished, accomplishing through safety.

Okay.

Few key takeaways.

Modern technologies allow us to to creatively measure safety performance in ways beneficial to employees, employers, and stakeholders.

Our panel's proving it's more than just a theory. It's a business strategy that's helping to make companies successful.

And with that, welcome any questions either for myself or our illustrious panel.

Feel free to ask anything you like.

Thank you so much, John, and to all of our panelists for sharing your insights and experiences, with utilizing computer based technology.

Unfortunately, we're out of time. However, I do not see, any questions that have popped up. However, if you do, at a later time have a question, John's information is here. And if there's additional questions for some of the panelists, he can get those questions to you. But, again, on behalf of McGriff, thank you again for your participation, and please stay tuned for future webinars hosted by our group. Have a wonderful rest of your day.