Editor's Note: The 2024 class of America's Safety Companies will be recognized Tuesday, August 27 during the Safety Leadership Conference. More information about the conference, including registration, can be found at www.safetyleadershipconference.com.
Burns & McDonnell
Engineering, Construction, Architecture
Kansas City, MO
11,450 employees | 430 sites | 128 EHS professionals
Subtly is not how this company operates.
“There is no chance to miss the memo,” explains Mary Young, marketing and PR manager for Burns & McDonnell, a construction, architecture and engineering firm. “A team member encounters a safety message a minimum of five times in an average workday.”
The consistency of safety messages is the result of a culture that engrains safety in every action taken. “Safety relies on daily mitigation and constant awareness, so our people train for tens of thousands of hours every year,” says Young.
The platform upon which the company’s safety culture rests is the ability to build relationships. “An at-risk observation is not a confrontation to avoid but an opportunity to engage and demonstrate how we care for and value one another,” she points out. “The transparency we embrace creates a culture where coaching and being coached is welcomed. Our personal stand for a live safer mindset requires courage and trust.”
This caring philosophy is clearly demonstrated in the company’s most recent addition to its Employee Resource Group (ERG). The new group, ADAPT (which stands for Abled and Disabled Allies Partnering Together), was created to provide a safe and empowering community for individuals living with or affected by disabilities and those who support them.
ADAPT adds to the company’s other ERGs: &PROUD, Asian and Pacific Islanders, Black Professionals Network, LATINX, Network of Women, New Blue and Veterans Empowered to Serve. One-third of the company’s workforce—5,000—are engaged in at least one of the ERGs.
As these groups continue to evolve, so too does the company’s safety culture. “We are at a moment of extreme opportunity at Burns & McDonnell, and that is a moment for us to redefine our safety culture,” says Young. We have a high level of caring and comfort for each other. We have the ingredients to take a strongly performing organization and make it even better.”
And as most companies know safety starts at the top. “If we look at what threads run through organizations doing [safety] the best, all roads lead to leadership,” explains Young. “The group that will be asked to change the most are the leaders, really leading safety and supporting the organization’s workforce in a new and different way, one with empowerment and engagement.”
An integral part of the new program is a series of leadership commitment workshops for all leaders at the principal level and above. “These sessions are a breakthrough event for us and our relationship to safety, health and well-being and the elimination of workplace injury and illness,” says Young. “After the commitment workshops, we will be training all employees in living safely. We are also forming new safety committees across all of our businesses and locations. The committees will be our conduits for knowledge sharing across the organization.”
