Safety starts with ME out of respect for my family.
What safety means to H.W. Houston
- Every employee owns safety by pledging to self-directed safety…we are all safety professionals
- Our employees are our friends, work families, and the future of our company. We take every opportunity to promote health and safety.
How we promote safety
- We educate, train, and support our employees’ ideas and needs by operating with an open-door policy.
- We provide professional growth and guidance through safe practices.
Our safety protocols and standards
Safety starts in the hiring process. New employees are put through new hire orientation, then a review of our Employee Safety Responsibilities letter that sets the expectation for working safely at HW Houston.
Protocols
- Site orientations
- Safety inspections of our projects
- Safety Committee to add safety support to our project teams
- Non-electrical Hot Work Permit (HWP), Fire prevention
- Soil disturbance / dig permits, utility damage prevention
- Many types of safety trainings
- Incident management protocols
- Near miss recognition program
Standards
- Trainings (OSHA 30, Orientations, Fall Protection and Prevention, Confined Space, Lockout Tag Out Trench and Excavation, Craft Apprenticeship Program)
- Brother/Sister keeper (The Buddy System)
- Safety Committee ran by employees
- Family (shown by a picture in each employee’s vest. Ensuring everyone returns home injury free)
- Leadership driven and employee accountability
Why these protocols work
- These work because they educate, set clear expectations for employees to know, understand the value and follow. These also allow the employees to manage and take ownership in their own and their teams safety.
How our safety protocols affect our clients
- Our safety culture helps keep the overall cost of construction at its lowest rates possible. We also have the reputation of being the safest general contractor in the industry.
- We are committed to the safety of our employees, subs, clients, and community. We aim to have an injury free environment providing safety for all and diligence in accident prevention.
Our safety goals
- Send every employee and subcontractor home safely.
- Plan our work to avoid undesirable outcomes.
- Keep EMR’s and insurance cost at the lowest possible rates.
- Be the top employer in safety .
- Focus on employees and subcontractors not statistics.
- Provide education, planning, execution, prevention, follow up, support, and guidance on every project.
Safety Committee
The safety committee is comprised of six Houston employees. Their purpose is to visit projects evaluate the projects safety requirements i.e. pre-task plans (PTP’s), orientations, preconstruction meeting, flex-n-stretch meets, plan of the day (POD’s), subcontractor compliance with our programs, and over-all buy-in by all. Then the committee is to provide ideas, tools, and support for improvements.
They really help to drive our company safety culture and values downward to the project level and improve consistencies throughout the company, projects and our subcontractors.
Hard Hat Program
Any new craft employees to H.W. Houston receive a blue hard hat for their first five years of employment with Houston. Any new management employees receive a white hard hat for their first five years of service. After the fifth year of service, they then will receive a gray hard hat that signifies their years of service that also has a years of service sticker identifying their number of years of service.
