America's Safest Companies 2023: Performance Contractors

Performance Contractors

Industrial contractors

Baton Rouge, LA

5,760 employees | 90 sites | 140 EHS professionals

It’s not often you hear of a construction company that takes a page from NASA in its safety training, but that’s exactly what Performance Contractors has done. The concept—a mental checklist that each worker is prompted to perform prior to a task—is called “Go/No-Go Decision.”

“Far too often, workers fail to evaluate the hazard, downplay the risk, or simply make a poor choice to proceed without the safeguards to protect them,” explains Kelvin Gray, the company’s corporate EHS director-compliance.

Workers are trained that before starting any task, they must ask themselves these simple questions:

• Am I properly trained to perform the task?
• Do I have the correct tools and PPE to safely perform the task?
• Is this the safest method of performing the task?
• Is there ample time to complete the task?
• Does this task match what’s on the job safety analysis?
• Have there been any changes or conditions that were not identified?
• Have I identified all of the risks?
• Can anything go wrong and if so, do I have a plan?

If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, then it’s considered a no-go situation. Employees are instructed to contact their supervisor to correct the no answers and are encouraged to use their Stop Work Authority. “Pushing through a no-go will most likely result in an incident,” Gray says.

Planning for safety is also a key value at the company. It uses “Flawless Execution Plan,” a document that drives safety by assigning accountability to field construction leaders and safety professionals. Its goal is zero injuries while also increasing quality and being on time.

“The objective of this plan is for the field leader and safety representative to pre-plan the work task ensuring that all necessary policies and procedures required are in place before the work begins,” explains Gray. “This is only realistically accomplished if both the safety representative and field leader work together to use the resources required for each task at hand.”

Recognizing employees is part of the company’s culture as well. “Our Safety Coin Recognition Program rewards employees for going above and beyond,” says Gray.

Some recognition examples include:

• An employee saved a co-worker’s life by administering the Heimlich maneuver on an employee who was choking during lunch.
• Actions were taken to prevent a fire after discovering wiring arcing that was smoldering.
• An employee used their Stop Work Authority on personnel that were about to disturb insulation containing asbestos.