Winter Training: Safety Has No Off-Season

The construction lifestyle certainly has its challenges. We’ll be the first to admit that here at Emery Sapp & Sons (ESS). No BS here! That’s why safety is always top of mind. At ESS we believe learning really hasn’t taken place until behaviors have changed. That’s why we continue to develop and teach our industries best safety practices.

January and February usher in colder weather and typically signal a slow-down for many of our crews. However, our employee-owners convert a traditionally idle time into an opportunity to brush up on safety best practices and level up their safety performance before the next work season begins. The common goal of this training is to make sure that safety is infused into every job that we do. Matt Cowell, Director of Environmental Health and Safety for ESS says in order to achieve this, employee-owners must be properly trained to do their job correctly. “The cost of performing work incorrectly can translate to injuries, unexpected costs, project delays, and general frustration on the job. That’s why it’s so important that we proactively train our teams. We want to keep our people safe and productive.”

Safety managers encourage those who attend training to share their experiences from the field. This gives employee-owners the chance to ask for advice while teaching fellow crew members different ways to approach situations. At one of the week-long training sessions in Springfield, crews heard from industry experts in a classroom-style setting and received on-site training at an ESS asphalt plant. Asphalt Plant Operations Manager Ricky Baker said it’s important to provide informative training while also keeping it fun. “There are a lot of young, less experienced workers coming on board to work at asphalt plants. This is why we decided to provide more hands-on and in-depth training to bring everyone up to speed for this year’s production season.”

The safety training at ESS is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The winter training sessions are geared towards an employee-owner’s specific role and their crew’s scope of work. Kevin Smith, ESS Safety Manager, says it’s a way to keep our company operating effectively, “Safety training is an important part of our culture here at ESS. All training has been hand-selected for each individual based on the job duties they perform. This will help crews work safely throughout the year and is beneficial to their success.”

All training materials offered at the training sessions are custom-tailored to ESS and meet or exceed all OSHA standards. At the end of the day, we all benefit from working safely and protecting our most valuable asset, our employee-owners.