America's Safest Companies: Alberici Constructors Inc.

At Alberici Constructors, safety is a shared responsibility. 

Foremen conduct daily safety audits of their work areas. Managers discuss incidents, near-misses and other safety issues during weekly conference calls. And before any new project, field leaders commit – in writing – that they will ensure that all workers are empowered to stop work if they see unsafe conditions.

"We believe in the value of responsibility, and acknowledging that everyone's role is to ensure that that they are responsible for working safely as well as ensuring that their co-workers do the same," explains Safety Director Kathleen Dobson. 

The construction firm has put a number of systems in place to ensure that workers have the proper tools to do their jobs safely. 

For example, new hires are paired with an experienced mentor, as are other "at-risk" workers – including those who are new to a project, new to a trade or new to a tool. 

At each work site, Alberici posts the phone number of its anonymous hotline, which enables employees to report unsafe conditions as well as situations such as workplace bullying, violence and harassment.

Alberici requires all employees to wear high-visibility retro-reflective clothing for all tasks other than hot work (which necessitates high-visibility welding jackets). And workers who drive company-owned vehicles must take part in defensive-driving training. 

Alberici bases its EHS efforts on what it calls the four "SafeRing" principles – plan, communicate, observe and improve – which emphasize the importance of pre-work safety analysis as well as observations by workers at all levels.

"Safety is the first thing we talk about in every meeting, the first thing we concentrate on with every project start and the last thing that we send people home with every day," Dobson says. "We understand that if we do not conduct business safely, we will not do business."