To kick off the new decade, we at East & Westbrook Construction were happy to host the East & Westbrook 2020 Safety Summit. Held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Summit encapsulated the company’s 2020 theme of We Care. The entire East & Westbrook Construction team gathered to celebrate its outstanding safety record—including the company’s recent recognition by EHS Magazine as one of America’s safest companies—and establish detailed safety strategies that can improve the company’s already-terrific track record.

Our 2020 Safety Summit was a great representation of what makes East & Westbrook Construction special. While many other construction companies would rest on their laurels with such a stellar safety record, we want to get even better. Working together, we are confident that we will deliver.

 Celebrating Safest Companies in America

If you don’t yet know, East & Westbrook Construction’s Safety Summit is an annual celebration of the company’s past, present, and future. It is a terrific opportunity to not only celebrate all of the company’s accomplishments, but to ensure that future construction projects are held to the highest standards so that we can all Go Home Safe.

At East & Westbrook Construction, we take safety extremely seriously. It is one of our core values and is central to our company’s culture. It was a high honor for East & Westbrook to be recognized nationally for embracing this value.  At our 2020 Safety Summit, we celebrated being named one of only 13 America’s Safest Company award recipients by EHS Magazine Along with this, we received the Kentucky Governor’s Workplace Safety & Health Award for the second consecutive year. While we graciously accept these rewards, we use them as motivation to improve our safety processes even further.

We have an elaborate safety process that substantially minimizes the chances of an accident occurring on a construction site (read more about it here). We are always studying and modifying our safety program (called the Safety Hexagon) and ensuring that our team is on top of the latest safety procedures when on the job. The annual Safety Summit is a fantastic opportunity to review our safety track record in the prior year and plan our safety strategy for the coming year.

Moreover, as a close-knit business in the construction industry, the annual Summit is a great opportunity to rekindle ties among our colleagues. It is a way to celebrate everything that makes East & Westbrook great. As the company continues to grow, the Safety Summit will become ever important in order to maintain the company’s culture and its commitment to safety.

The 2020 East & Westbrook Construction Safety Summit

With this background in mind, the 2020 East & Westbrook Construction Safety Summit was a fantastic representation of our We Care annual theme. According to Jason Burroughs CSP, the Vice President of Safety, Health and Quality (“SHQ”) of East & Westbrook, the company specifically chose Martin Luther King Jr. weekend because “we stand on the backs of greats who ventured down paths of difficult change in American history. We Care is significant in our company because safety to us is beyond general compliance. We focus our message on our most valuable resource in the world, our people, and how important it is to keep them safe. It is about the human element at E&W and it allows us to remind everyone why we choose to be safe; quite simply it’s about everyone we come into contact with.”

It is this laser-focus on safety that has made East & Westbrook one of the safest companies in America today. This year’s Safety Summit included a wide variety of presenters, including East & Westbrook Construction’s Regional SHQ Managers, the VP of SHQ, and a concluding speech by the company’s President. Along with these presentations and speeches, there were plenty of opportunities for attendees to catch-up, talk about their daily work and safety strategies that they can incorporate in their daily tasks.

“We used this day to focus on our key points and 2020 safety challenges to get us all motivated in regards to safety in 2020,” said Burroughs. “Safety is a core value at East & Westbrook and bringing those values to the forefront at the beginning of the year is critical. East & Westbrook chooses safety because we care.”

Key Takeaways From the 2020 Summit

After sharing about our past safety record and future safety plans, the East & Westbrook Construction team came away with two different takeaways regarding safety. With these takeaways in hand, company members are well-prepared to continue doing their work in the safest and most efficient way possible.

The first takeaway is that there is a new Good Catch driven incentive program and charitable contributions, along with 2020 Good Catch goals. The objective here is to reward East & Westbrook Construction team members who identify safety vulnerabilities before they occur. This is a key initiative that can help the company maintain its already excellent safety record. By aligning team member incentives with safety prevention, this well-designed program will lead to extremely satisfying results.

The second takeaway is that there is a 20/20 in 20 task-between-the-task focus. This is yet another way that we are prioritizing safety in the new year. As we are between tasks, we are focused on combating complacency and remaining vigilant. It is all too easy to get too confident and assume that safety is just something that happens. However, by maintaining this task-between-the-task focus, we significantly mitigate safety risk for us and our clients.

 Embracing the New Decade

Our 2020 Safety Summit was the perfect mix of thoughtful reflection, strategic planning, and enthusiastic celebration for our safety accomplishments. As we are in the early days of the new decade, we are extremely excited. We look forward to completing the safest and most professional construction work for our clients. Along with this, we eagerly anticipate the chance to make our already-stellar safety record even better.

If you are interested in learning more about our safety record, don’t hesitate to visit our website. You can also contact us by clicking here.