Price Electric
Electrical construction
Robins, IA
191 employees | 50 sites | 2 EHS professionals
Start with an electrical construction company with a solid reputation for safety (among numerous other awards, Price Electric won the America’s Safest Companies award in 2014). Add the latest in safety technology, including the use of artificial intelligence. And then tap into the resources of some very intelligent interns. The result, according to Dan Weekly, the company’s safety officer, is a custom smartphone app that provides employees with information regarding emergency action plans, high-risk work permits, and the ability to perform Job Hazard Analyses. The safety app also can link to all other company apps.
“This app has made it easier for employees to document information and respond to incidents on their sites, as well as provide a practical guide for these processes, as no one knows how they're going to react in an emergency until they are actually experiencing it.” Weekly explains.
Both Weekly and the other member of Price Electric’s safety department are Class A journeyman electricians. “This ensures that we are approaching safety issues knowing full well the challenges our field employees are facing, as we have both faced the same challenges ourselves as electricians. This perspective ensures that realistic expectations are maintained for all involved parties when relaying safety plans to employees, general contractors and customers on projects.”
As Weekly explains, safety is a factor in every bid the company submits. “For each project we are awarded, the project team utilizes the ‘3 meetings’ process to ensure safety measures built into the project bid are fleshed out, and responsible, competent persons are identified for each project.” During that process, safety elements of the project, as well as the local area, possible weather and site conditions, and high risk work are identified. “Once this process has been completed, Price employees are armed with information necessary to not only run day-to-day safety on their projects, but to ensure employees are not put into a situation where they have to improvise to ensure the safety and health of our employees on site.”
Once a project is in progress, Weekly will walk the job with the foremen and site employees to find areas to create a safer work environment for all site employees.
All Price employees have “Stop Work” authority. If an unsafe condition presents itself on site, every Price employee knows that they have the right (and the responsibility) to refuse unsafe work, Weekly points out. “The real key to these elements being integral to our installation processes is confidence on all sides. Our employees are confident that they are armed with the necessary information to do the job safely and efficiently.”