Author: oeconstruct

On July 19th, OE hosted twelve young women, to show them the value of a career in construction. The result was a positive experience for EVERYONE involved.

When we sponsored and exhibited at Construction Girl’s event in September 2019, we saw first hand the positive impact the event the HOYA Foundation was having on career choices for women in construction and transportation. 

Our decision to participate in Career Days last month was the next logical step for us, to continue our commitment to opening up opportunities for women in construction.

The reality is that construction is a growth industry with an existing labor shortage, but the percentage of women in it is still hovering under 10%. “Of the women currently employed in the construction industry, 45 percent are in sales and office roles, 31 percent are in professional management roles, 21 percent are in natural resource, construction and maintenance roles, 1.5 percent are in service occupation roles (including cleaning and maintenance jobs) and 1.4 percent are in production, transportation and material moving roles.” (Source)

Construction Girl events are focused on growing that number in the next decades, showing girls and young women that a career in construction is not only lucrative but, with a huge range of options, it’s a challenge that rivals more traditional options for women.

Our event included general information and overviews on the type of work that OE does and the roles that are available with us, and companies like ours. We also had some hands on opportunities so that the girls could really get involved: 

• Setting Grade, Working with Lasers & Drones
• Using Technology with Smartdirt Application
• Operating a Loader (hands-on with instructor)

The girls learned a lot about what it takes to be successful in the construction industry, including the importance of a good attitude: 

https://www.facebook.com/OEConstruct/videos/454649748447297/ 

They also discovered, from OE’s Senior Earthwork Estimator, Joe Bergles that: “No job is the same and every day brings something different. It is ever-changing and ever-evolving.”  Terri Olsen, VP at OE Construction had this to say: “We are only as successful as our employees, from the office to the field”: 

https://www.facebook.com/OEConstruct/videos/2267922920126633/

With events like Career Days, we aim to create more opportunities for girls to learn what options are open to them in the industry. We want to hear about more success stories like this one:

“Schillivia Baptiste, who owns the construction firm Laland Baptiste, says that as a kid who loved STEM classes, she had no idea that she could find a career in construction as an engineer. Her introduction to the industry came in high school when she attended a summer program at Manhattan College and learned about the different type of jobs you could get with an engineering degree.” (Source)

The future for women includes hard hats!

Risk management is essential in construction, as in most other industries.

Benjamin Franklin said it best: ““If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”

The key to successfully avoiding failure is to plan for it. Sounds wrong, doesn’t it? Why would you want to plan for failure rather than success? Your most likely way to avoid pitfalls that lead to failure is to account for them in your planning strategy for every project. Yes, you need the positive overall goals, but not planning for possible failures / risks is almost asking for them to happen!

Why should you plan to fail?

Part of any project management plan needs to be a clear path from beginning to the end goal, with milestones to achieve along the way. When you plot out a clear course, it’s important to not only look at the success / milestones to achieve but to plan for what to do if something gets in the way of achieving them.

In other words, you need to plan for what you’re going to do if the project goes off the rails. For example, if there is bad weather that is preventing you from finishing a part of an excavation plan, what are you going to do? Hopefully, in the planning process, you’ve planned some contingency time to allow for this kind of ‘act of god’ intervention.

You also need to look at intentions. If there is a point where a project needs to stop, what is that point? Is it based on resource usage? On safety? What is the point where a project needs to be halted—and there could be several—and what is the contingency plan to work through the problem?

If you plan how you’re going to handle problems that come up in a project, you’ll know what to do long before you hit a snag. If you don’t? You might end up going into project survival mode: instead of working the problem, you’ll either throw solutions up without thinking them through or perhaps not even deal with the problem at all. The downstream consequences of avoiding issues in any project can be expensive, and potentially dangerous, particularly in the construction industry, so running around like a chicken with its head cut off is not a solution.

You want to establish a clear cut strategy for possible risks that will affect the project’s timeline so that you go directly into action mode, should the need arise. That means really understanding what the risks are. Sure, a tornado might not be in the offing in June, but if your project is underway at the height of tornado season, not having a contingency plan for dealing with one is a risk not worth taking.

How do you plan to fail?

Look at your project details and goals closely, including when you are supposed to have completed it by. Then work backwards and evaluate any possible failure points / risks. How will you deal with these if they come up and does your plan account for them, both in terms of resources and time management?

Document the plan, the triggers and what the solutions will be in as much detail as you can. The more specific you can be, the better. For example, if site flooding is a concern because of the location and the predicted weather based on time of year, it’s important to not just plan for “If there is flooding, do this…”. Be specific: “If there is 1” of flooding, do this. If there is 2-4” of flooding, do this.” and so on. Every person on your team should know almost instinctively what to do in the event of a trigger that could lead to a real project problem.

By doing this, you are effectively training everyone to look at the project in terms of positive goals and risks that could impact them. The reaction your team needs to have when a risk is taking shape needs to be practically automatic. This will help your project plans to be more effective and accurate, with the ability to deliver on your timelines as expected, and within budget.

At OE, our commitment to seeing more women choose to get into the construction industry isn’t just lip service.

“…according to the Peterson Institute, companies who were in the top 25% in gender diversity of their workforce were 46% more likely to outperform their industry average.” (Source)

Let’s not forget that construction jobs are some of the best paying career options out there, with salaries ranging up over $80K per year. Despite this, there is an industry wide presence of women of only 9% of the total workforce. That’s a low figure and we aim to do our part to change this.

At OE, we recognize the need for diversity: it benefits us, it benefits our industry and the economy as a whole. We also recognize that there are barriers to women entering the construction industry, not the least of which is perception. Bias in hiring and toxic work cultures aren’t unheard of either. 

The kind of shift that is needed to create a more diverse work environment is the kind of change that only happens when the company as a whole sees the benefit. At OE Construction, we believe in a gender balanced workforce that better reflects our society. 

OE attended last year’s Construction Girl’s event in September, as a sponsor and exhibitor. We discovered that so many of our customers are involved in this event each year, including Wagner Equipment, that we wanted to do more to educate young people about the career opportunities in construction. 

We will be hosting a group of 12 young women for the day, on July 19th, to show them the ins and outs of roles that are available at OE Construction. This Career Day event happens over the course of one week, where girls—ranging from eighth grade to 20 years old—make five stops at different companies to engage with team members, ask questions and tour work sites. The four other companies for this session are Fiore, Brannan Sand and Gravel, Adolph & Peterson and Swinerton —but it’s our goal to be the best of the five!

Our presentations by various staff members will include:

• Who is OE and what we do.
• Commercial and civil construction.
• An overview of various job descriptions, opportunities that exist in our industry and what skills they will need to acquire.
• A demonstration of Earthwork and 3D plans, and what all the symbols mean that are included in them.

We’ll also have a series of hands on activities for the girls to really get a sense of the work we do, starting with a review of the safety rules:

• Setting Grade, Working with Lasers & Drones
• Using Technology with Smartdirt Application
• Operating a Loader (hands-on with instructor)
• Building a Loader with Legos

Overall, it’s going to be a busy day of activity, learning and networking, demonstrating to all the participants that ours is an industry worth considering! This is one of the many activities we aim to participate in each year, with a view to educating young people—men and women—about the career opportunities in construction.

We believe in Safety First, and so do the people who work with us.

Back in February, Dave Ruddy shared his 2019 wish list for safety and this is what he had to say:

“Focusing on safety is as important as focusing on craftsmanship, quality and production. My sincere desire for 2019 is that each employee would be strong enough to say no to unsafe work environments, that each employer would be diligent in providing each employee the knowledge and tools they need to conduct their work in an efficient and safe manner and that safety professionals would be encouraging to employees and employers. Safety is not about compliance, safety is all about the human desire to accomplish a common goal while performing work efficiently and safely.”

While many experts are more talk the talk than walk the walk, it’s our honor to work with a professional who clearly does more than provide lip service to a fundamental aspect of our business: safety.

The Associated Builders and Contractors Rocky Mountain Chapter (ABCRMC) gave Dave this award for his active work in making changes to the safety record at Pinkard Construction.

What safety endeavors earned Dave this award?

• Dave created a Silica Safe work process;
• He helped to establish a subsidized purchasing program for prescription safety eyewear for field employees;
• He developed a personal pre-task safety plan that includes hard hat tethers to lessen or eliminate injuries or property damage;
• He created audio-visual site-specific safety orientations in English and Spanish that are far more impactful and address different learning styles, bringing greater employee engagement in overall safety.

One of the things that Dave does particularly well is to share his knowledge, best practices and unwavering focus on worker safety. He wants to engage everyone in an organization, from the newest person in the field to the executive suite, in understanding and embracing the importance of field safety for workers and for the organization as a whole.

Dave’s past and present work with local organizations drives home this last point:

Dave is extensively involved in local and national safety organizations, including ABC Rocky Mountain Safety Chair (two years), NUCA Safety Chair (four years), member of ASSP (11 years), and a member of ASAC (7 years).

The ABC’s annual award event looks to recognize an individual who has an exceptional commitment to safety in construction. The award is judged by a group of industry professionals including representatives from insurance and bonding, safety consulting, and other safety professionals from the general contracting and subcontracting communities. The award is named for the late Tony Dietrich of dcb Construction, who helped pioneer dcb’s safety program. Tony was also a past chairman of the ABCRMC safety committee.

We here at OE Construction Corp. are proud to work with Dave Ruddy: he represents the best in our field and his level of excellence was rewarded accordingly. Thank you Dave, and congratulations!

“Safety doesn’t happen by accident”

When it comes to a construction work site, there are various ways workers can be injured, or worse, that must be mitigated so that we can all enjoy a safe work environment. Unfortunately, for many companies, the adage that ‘time is money’ takes precedence over safety.

Project managers and field supervisors are put under tremendous pressure to meet deadlines within a budget and schedule, and the result can be that safety is ignored for the sake of expediency. The construction industry is growing in this country, so finding the right people to do the jobs is presenting a challenge. Add to that is the fact that there is a reasonable amount of turnover in construction staffing, which opens up the risk of safety concerns when people are hired who have less experience.

“In a perfect world, industry across the board would have a zero injury rate. It’s a reality however that construction in particular is a physically demanding industry where long hours, large machines and dangerous situations are all part of the package.”

During National Safety Month, there is a focus every week, for organizations to concentrate on:

Week 1: Hazard Recognition

Week 2: Slips, Trips and Falls

Week 3: Fatigue

Week 4: Impairment*

A huge part of maintaining a safe work environment is by planning ahead and making sure that all employees see safety as not only a priority but a fundamental part of the business structure, a part of the core values of the organization.  Each employee must be held accountable for safety and good work practices, never assume it’s the next guy’s issue.

In excavation, for example, it’s important to remember that cubic yard of soil weighs the same as a mid-size car and even a small project, like digging out a foundation, can result in serious injury or worse, if proper precautions aren’t taken.

Indeed, it’s not the size of the job that dictates the likelihood of injury but on larger worksites, with more people, equipment and activity going on, the importance of safety processes being taught, and reinforced constantly, can’t be overstated. Regular safety meetings and ‘toolbox talks’ are a good way to ensure that errors are reviewed, and safety procedures are known by everyone on the site. Toolbox talks don’t have to be long and exhaustive, but they do have to be regular and consistent.  Every job site work task or phase involves a written pre-task planning meeting with the entire work crew. The information communicated to the entire crew happens at lease once per day, based on the work plan/task being executed for each part of the scheduled work.

“Safety needs to be a value, not a priority.” ~ Steve Wiltshire, Safety Director at Associated Builders and Contractors

Safety starts at the top

As with all management styles, company missions and values, the drive for organizations to put safety first comes from the top, and flows down. It takes a willingness to look at work practices to see what changes can be made that will benefit everyone and make those changes part of an ongoing work culture. After all, there is no such thing as ‘good enough’ when it comes to injuries and fatalities. The goal of zero injury needs to be part of the fabric of the industry.

Organization leaders, as well as project and site managers, set the tone for how seriously the rest of the team will take safety procedures. It’s a question of ‘walking the walk, not just talking the talk’. Beyond that, each worker has a responsibility to ensure that they, and those around them, are operating as safely as possible.

“The most dangerous phrase in the language is: ‘We’ve always done it this way.’” ~ Grace Hopper, Rear Admiral, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

At OE, we take safety seriously. We train and support the STOPTM  program on every job site: Safety Training Observation Program. This includes weekly safety meetings, OSHA and other safety topics in classroom and hands-on training on a regular basis and on the job site, regular job site safety audits, weekly job site safety meetings and daily pre-task planning by everyone on the job site.  Remember, “Safety doesn’t happen by accident”.