America's Safest Companies 2018: Graycor Industrial Constructors

At construction firm Graycor Industrial Constructors Inc., "nothing is more important than safety. Not production, not sales, not profits," notes Randy Hynek, the company's safety director. "The individual and collective safety of all employees is Graycor's core value," he explains, adding that zero injuries is the company's goal. "We have both a moral and legal responsibility to provide every Graycor employee a safe place to work."

All Graycor supervisors -- from general foreman up to the president -- are trained according to the supervisor training matrix, which includes the OSHA 30-hour course, incident investigation, safety & health program, task safety planning and hazard recognition, inspections and audits, behavior observation techniques, workplace violence and zero injury concepts. "Foreman meetings are also held every week to discuss relevant safety concerns and mitigation plans for future work tasks," Hynek says.

Driving the company's safety culture is the Graycor Safety and Health Management System, which Hynek says is at the core of the company's business philosophy. "It is not an add-on program, but is an integral part of how we do business. Anchored by our Safety and Health Manual, and implemented by our construction professionals, this system is designed to engage every employee, from executive management to the newest craft apprentice working on our project sites."

One of the ways the company encourages employees to participate in the safety process is the Good Catch program, which is set up to motivate field craftsmen as well as management in proactively sharing lessons learned that would prevent an incident from occurring. A "Good Catch" would be any favorable idea that is captured to prevent an event that could have resulted in an incident but did not, through timely intervention. These "Good Catches" are recognized and rewarded.

"By achieving an exemplary safety performance," Hynek explains, "we can increase profitability, improve quality and control our insurance costs, thereby enhancing our competitive position within our industry."