Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/699963
H ansen Bros. earned this year's year's Caterpillar Safety Award winner by taking its safety program to a whole new level. "Our experience mod rates used to bounce around in the mid-90s to 100," says Hansen. "But 100 is average. I don't want to be average. Average kind of sucks." A key element to the com- pany's safety success is being adamant about their drug- and alcohol-free work place as well as having a full-time, dedicated safety officer, Scott Wetzell. Having started off with the crews as an opera- tor and laborer gives Wetzell great credibility in the field. He knows the challenges and the dynamics of the jobsite. In his new role as the company safety officer, Wetzell is now a certified OSHA instructor and outreach trainer. He does all the company's training in-house, face-to-face, and structures the training to be job and project specific. "I get to interact with each employee and follow up on every job in every department weekly" says Wetzell. "I go out and watch them practice it...or not. And when they come in for the next training they know they're going to be held accountable. They take ownership." The company's safety committee meets every three months and is made up of rank-and-file workers, one from each of the company divisions and Wetzell. All the discus- sions are confidential. This empowers the people on the crews to speak freely, eliminates the tendency of managers to gloss over issues and brings new ideas to the table. Hansen Bros.' approach is to stress prevention, not punishment. Give workers the safety tools and training needed and make sure they understand that this is as much a part of the job as any other spec. As a result, the the crews don't scatter when the safety officer shows up, they come to him for advice. They volunteer ideas. They want to know how they're doing. Before he took this present position, Wetzell said he had to be sure of one thing – that the company would structure the safety program so that it got employees to buy into its philosophy. "We were able to start this program by saying: 'you don't get hurt and you don't hurt somebody else.' If there is a possibility of injury, then we're not going to do it." Struggling with the recession, emissions compliance The recession hit Northern California hard, construc- tion in particular. "We probably saw 20 construction companies go under in this area," Hansen says. "I stepped into that whirlwind and it forced us to look at ways to cut costs, but without changing the qual- ity of our work. We also wanted to give our guys a fair wage and keep all the benefits. We tweaked a few things here and there, but we made it through and kept our wages competitive." California's strict emissions regulations have also been a hurdle to overcome. "CARB (the California Air Resources Board) forces you to buy new equip- ment when they want you to, not when you want or need to. It does bring new technology and hope- fully better production and fuel economy. But it still irritates me that the government can say I have to sell this backhoe. But that's the hand we've been dealt and we're going to play it and not lose. The ones I feel sorry for are the mom and pop contrac- tors. In 2018, they're going to have to sell everything and they can't afford the new equipment. That's not right, in my opinion." Friends and customers Being a third generation construction contractor in a small town like Grass Valley, means you have to make and keep both friends and customers, and there's no doubt the company has excelled at both. "Jeff is on our board of directors," says Barbara Bashall, Nevada County Contractors Association. "They are a great local company and a really strong employer. "They support the community a lot with the non- profits. Jeff is very involved in 4H with his kids. He recently chaired a project where they rebuilt a build- ing at the fairgrounds." "They are a great company, genuine and hard- working," says Alicia Brenner, BT Consulting, a stormwater compliance consultant. "They care about the community and give back a lot. There have been quite a few projects where they've done things for the adjacent property owners to leave things in a better state and keep good neighbors in the community." At a recent community meeting where the com- pany proposed an expansion of their sand and gravel operation, the company brought in dinner for everybody at the town hall meeting and took the time to stay as long as anybody had questions and made themselves available, says Brenner. "They even joined the neighborhood online group and offered to give anybody a tour of the facility to better under- stand the project to make sure the community was comfortable with what they're doing." EquipmentWorld.com | July 2016 73 Cat Safety Award: "I don't want to be average" Hansen's safety officer, Scott Wetzell, uses the ex- perience he gained work- ing in the field to tailor the company's safety training specific to the needs and jobs at hand.