Fisher Contracting Co.
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America's Safest Companies: Fisher Contracting Co.


April 8, 2016
The 16 companies on the 2015 list of America's Safest Companies represent a broad array of industries: construction, manufacturing, utilities, oil and gas and more.

At Fisher Contracting, safety is always evolving and changing. That's because the company understands the moving dangers in its industry and tries to keep its employees equally as vigilant.

"Our line of work makes our safety performance particularly noteworthy," says Erick Forshee, EH&S director. "This is because approximately 80 percent of all work we perform is in a hazardous environment."

As such, the civil contracting company uses a SiteDocs Safety iPad app to provide employees with up-to-date safety information.

Each of the company's safety representatives and supervisors have an iPad for their project teams to give each team instant access to the app, which updates safety data, SOPs, MSDS/SDS and employee training information in real time.

Beyond that, Fisher Contracting welcomes each construction season in with spring kick-off safety meetings. All employees complete new hire or refresher training and attend a series of lectures and hands-on training. And the management team is involved in the same training as other employees.

Fisher Contracting also sets the same high safety standards for its subcontractors. As part of the company's pre-startup initiatives, it holds mitigation meetings with contractors that don't have a safety program in place that meets Fisher Contracting's standards to set up its expectations for safety on the job site.

"By coordinating safety efforts amongst ourselves and our subcontractor partners, we are making a statement on the importance of safety to our business," Forshee says. "By setting a high safety standard, it shows the construction community that we take safety in the workplace very seriously."

Fisher Contracting also sends out a Safety Flash to contractors summarizing the information covered during its safety tailgates.

Fisher Contracting Co.

Midland, Mich.
115 employees/
6 EHS professionals
Heavy/highway civil contractor

About the Author

Sandy Smith

Sandy Smith is the former content director of EHS Today, and is currently the EHSQ content & community lead at Intelex Technologies Inc. She has written about occupational safety and health and environmental issues since 1990.

About the Author

Ginger Christ | Associate Editor

Ginger Christ is an associate editor for EHS Today, a Penton publication.

She has covered business news for the past seven years, working at daily and weekly newspapers and magazines in Ohio, including the Dayton Business Journal and Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Most recently, she covered transportation and leadership for IndustryWeek, a sister publication to EHS Today.

She holds a bachelor of arts in English and in Film Studies from the University of Pittsburgh.

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