Setting the standard for a safety culture

NexGen Transportation practices a top-down cultural approach to safety that empowers workers to strive for success and pay it forward. Photo: SC&RA

Throughout the construction and specialized transportation industries, the stakes are high and the risks ever-present.

Both sectors are integral to economic growth and infrastructure development, yet they’re fraught with potential hazards that can have severe consequences for workers and the public. From towering cranes and onsite machinery to the intricate logistics of transporting oversized and hazardous materials, the need for robust safety protocols cannot be overstated.

SC&RA members around the world routinely take these risks in stride to literally lift and move the world, doing it with an unmatched focus on the safety practices required to get these jobs done successfully, and send everyone home safely at project’s end.

Each year, the Association makes a point to recognise its members for their commitment to safety, and at the recent SC&RA Annual Conference (April 2024, Austin, Texas, USA) dozens of companies and individuals were celebrated for such commitments across numerous crane, rigging and specialized transportation categories.

Leadership at Olori Crane Service understands the long-term value of supporting and protecting qualified personnel, especially in a time when good workers are harder to find. Photo: SC&RA

Olori Crane Service Inc. (Nanuet, N.Y., USA) took home both a Crane & Rigging Zero Accidents and a Crane & Rigging Safety award this year. Ronald Olori, vice president, believes part of the reason for this recognition is because his company doesn’t just treat safety as a “check the box” item on a compliance form.

Ronald Olori, vice president, Olori Crane Service. Photo: SC&RA

“We look at it as safety first out of genuine concern for the health and wellbeing of our employees and the customers we work for and with,” he explained. “We also involve all parties and personnel participating in the work. It’s much easier to get people to buy into the hazard-analysis plan if they are involved in the process from the beginning.”

Olori also sees safety as a worthwhile tool for companies involved in navigating the skilled-worker shortage. “As we are all aware, construction has been struggling with a shortage of young people entering the industry,” he added. “This has created a lack of qualified personnel who understand the potential hazards in the crane and rigging business. Which makes it all the more important to identify any potential hazards, beginning with the planning stages through completion of the work.”

Echoing Olori, JR Moran, director of crane operations at Brasfield & Gorrie (Birmingham, Alabama, USA), understands that, while recognition, and the focus that garners it, is paramount to success in both construction and transport, continued education is just as important when it comes to safety.

JR Moran, director of crane operations, Brasfield & Gorrie. Photo: SC&RA

“Workforce development – training the next generation – is imperative, and more challenging than ever,” he indicated. “The work continues to become more complicated and diversified. Providing the necessary training and experience to equip the next generation to make proper decisions and impact the industry in a positive way are some of the things employers face.”

Brasfield & Gorrie serves as an example of an SC&RA member, engaged mostly in crane operations, winning an award for driver safety. Moran pointed out that much of the company’s success can be traced to daily practices that ensure a safety-first culture, including the following: incorporating operators and drivers in daily safety meetings; holding company-wide quarterly safety meetings; performing daily and weekly equipment safety inspections; and asking for daily input.

In it together

NexGen Transportation, from Acheson in Alberta, Canada, earned both the Transportation Safety and Transportation Zero Accident Awards for 2024. In the 15 years that health, safety and environmental manager, Holly Jones, has been working in safety, she emphasised that NexGen walks the walk more than any company she’s been associated with.

“Management lives and breathes it – safety is undeniably top-down here,” she confirmed. “They have their finger on the pulse, and leadership would never ask someone to do something they wouldn’t do themselves. It goes a long way, and I think that empowers the workers to want to do well, and even pay it forward.”

Jones added that NexGen’s safety culture is a company culture. “I believe that principle really sets us apart. You find it in the office, the field, in the shop … and I think it contributes to both safety and the overall success of the organisation. Everyone here really cares about each other – and with that comes cohesion, focus and, truthfully, a lot of happy people.”

Meghan McNally-Wininger, marketing director, McNally-Nimergood Crane Rentals. Photo: SC&RA

Family collection

Meghan McNally-Wininger, marketing director at McNally-Nimergood (Saginaw, Michigan, USA), can relate. She believes that being a family company with around 40 employees often means people know each other better, work alongside each other more – and share a collective sense that absolutely everyone needs to make it home every day. McNally-Nimergood achieved safety wins in the Crane & Rigging Zero Accidents, Crane & Rigging Safety and Crane Operator Safety categories at the Annual Conference.

“Everyone here is very close – so winning awards like this for safety means we all win,” she assured. “And it motivates us, inspires us even, to be recognised – but more than that, it urges us to keep working for each other. It’s a reminder that we’re in this together.”

McNally-Nimergood president Jeff McNally presents an SC&RA Operator Safety Award to LTM 1450 operator, Eric Prenzler. Photo: SC&RA

One advantage her company affords its workers, according to McNally-Wininger, is employee empowerment. “One of the things most important to us is that our employees are confident in their ability to stop work and make sure they’re doing things safely – and they know we’ve got their back with the customer, every time,” she said. “It’s the nature of our business as a rental fleet – so we educate and inform them completely and prepare them with all the equipment they need. It gives them confidence, which allows them to do their job in a way where they have control and don’t feel a need to take unnecessary risks.”

The team at McNally-Nimergood embodies the family-company spirit and believes it instils a collective sense of safety and care throughout the company. Photo: SC&RA

Risks being what they are, she continued, “Complacency is a big one for us. We’re setting up and taking down cranes every day. Maybe a pin got missed, or some near-misses on the safety walk-around. We endeavour to bring things to the forefront – never in an accusatory manner. And we make our safety-awareness moments available to everyone across multiple jobsites via our communication app. It allows us to provide our teams training, as well as our ‘Safety Minute Mondays,’ and we can see who is looking at everything.”

Jones agreed, building out the notion that ideas are pointless without buy-in. “Safety is getting better in recent years, though it’s tough,” she said. “But these days, I find myself talking more with people about whose life they might have saved simply by being safe today and paying attention to safe practices.

“When people walk the walk, they may cause others to pay more attention and think about hazards in their own day-to-day, which could save them or those around them from an accident, or worse. So, the positive recognition, the affirmation, is so important – as well as using it as a milestone to build upon and aim for in the future.”

Learn more about SC&RA awards at: www.scranet.org/awards and submissions open next January.

SC&RA member company McNally-Nimergood took home recent SC&RA safety awards for Crane & Rigging Zero Accidents, Crane & Rigging Safety and Crane Operator Safety. Photo: SC&RA