Matt: So, at Pressure Point Roofing, the culture of safety, that has taken years to develop,
is one that we find important because we find that it provides our employees a more secure
feeling of safety.
Working in a very dangerous field, it's not a job that you can take lightly, because it
can happen that fast where you're on the ground.
I've been roofing since I was 15 years old, and some of the safety things we did when
I was 15 years old would not have qualified as safety.
But, the culture is completely different than what it used to be.
It used to be you did what you had to do to get the job done even if it was just tying
an air hose around your ankle and your buddy lowering you down to get the job done.
Fortunately, in today's world, the safety equipment has gotten to be a lot better.
It's gotten to be a lot easier to use.
It's a lot lighter, it's not as cumbersome, there's more options to choose from; and so
really getting our employees to buy in on safety has been beneficial for our company,
in that we have very, very low modification ratings with our workman's comp policies,
because we don't have very many injuries, knock on wood.
So, we have found that it's improved just the overall, how long guys can keep working,
you know, how long the crews can keep working, and how long the employees can stay doing
what they do because they don't have the injuries that used to be so dominant in the roofing
industry.
So, if you are a person that is in this industry or are looking to get into the industry, safety
starts with you first.
You have to start with yourself.
So, if you are working with a company that hasn't embraced a safety culture, hasn't taken
the steps to really get into this, take the steps yourself first.
Show that initiative, show that you can wear a harness, show that you can wear a rope and
harness, that you can perform the job just as well as anybody else.
That is where it starts.
You have to do it yourself.
If you get to a job site and you see the ladder is not tied off, grab a rope out of the truck,
climb up there, tie it off.
It starts with one person doing it, and then, as far as you continue to grow, and as you
continue to learn, and as you set the example for other people, it makes it easier for them
to buy in.
And the same thing is true on the business owner side.
If the business owner hasn't bought into safety, hasn't bought into making sure that the employees
are doing what they're supposed to do, employees aren't going to do it either.
The employer has to set the standard for what's going to happen in that company.
As our company grew, I brought in more management.
And that management, one of the first things we talked about is safety, safety, safety,
safety, safety.
It has to start with the owner, it has to start with the employee being responsible
for themselves.
Between those two, if you do that, then your company can start to embrace that safety culture,
and start to follow those policies and procedures that help everybody get home.
So, in order to get where Pressure Point is today, as far as our safety program, has taken
years to get to.
Unfortunately, when we went through many visits with OSHA, and we went through many citations,
and working our way through that, it wasn't because we didn't want to be compliant.
It's just, again, teaching employees, and getting employees to buy into that culture
of safety, takes a long time.
And again, when you're working with employees that are on average 18 to 30 years old, they
just got out of high school.
They don't want to be told what to do a lot of times, and they feel safe working on a
roof.
They feel safe walking around, they don't feel like they're going to fall off.
It just takes time, and it takes a constant effort to get your company to be safety conscious.
Not only safety conscious and following the OSHA rules, but looking for ways to improve
on what the rule is.
And so, the rule is the minimum standard.
What we're trying to do is we're trying to be better than the minimum standard, whether
it's on the install, or whether it's being safe, we want to be above that minimum standard.
So, getting employees to buy into, you know, the near miss reports, communicating with
other foremen as to what they found a problem.
If we have an employee that's constantly having to be told put your harness on, put your harness
on, that's not an employee we typically want to have around, because we want someone who's
going to buy into that program of safety.
So, it helps the crew, it helps the company, it helps everyone to be better.
So, in order to follow up on the safety procedures to make sure that they're being done, you
have to basically enforce them.
You have to go out to the job sites.
You have to check in on the employees; that everybody is doing what they're supposed to
do.
You have to have a penalty phase, basically, if they're not following the rules, aside
from OSHA's enforcement policies.
You have to have your own enforcement policies within the company, and you have to follow
them.
Because if you don't, everybody's going to know that it doesn't matter.
So, you have to have an enforcement policy in place.
The way we do our enforcement policy is, it's a graduated: first time, it's a verbal; second
time, it's written; third time, it's written with possible suspension; and depending on
the severity of the infraction, it could be termination with the first time we see it.
You have to have an enforcement team in your company to be able to follow up on those procedures,
to make sure that everybody is doing the minimum that's required, but that's I think that's
where the enforcement and that trust, knowing that something will happen if somebody's not
following the procedures, but then also knowing that they can tell us something without getting
in trouble.
It is helpful in getting them to share more of what they see out in the field.
So, as far as the industry, it has been beneficial in that it's opened up careers for people,
rather than just roofing for a little while.
There's not too many people that I know that are, you know, a little older, that didn't
say they at least tried roofing once, you know, I did it for a little while, I did it
for a summer.
Well, now, you have it as a legitimate trade that people are staying in for years because
of the safety improvements and the buying into the
safety.
I know the steel industry, the steel workers, and things like that, have always been real
big on safety because of, you know, the weight, and because of things working above their
head all the time.
Roofing has always been a little bit different because we are typically above that, and we're
not worried about things falling on us, they only have to worry about us falling off.
But with the culture of safety and with the, regulations came first before the buy-in happened,
it just did, and it's taken awhile to get employees to buy in to the purpose of safety
and why we feel it so important, and as an owner, I take a lot of pride in knowing that
my employees are buying into that culture of safety.
They are taking the time to set up the fall protection.
They are taking the time to check their ropes and harnesses, and they are talking to each
other and saying �hey, I need you to put your harness on, I need you to put your rope
on,� because I don't want to have to call your wife and kids and say �Joey fell off
the roof today, I'm sorry, but he's paralyzed.� I never want to get that call.
And so, the fact that we have a multitude of options as far as safety for people to
choose from, and for our employees to use to train, to teach, and help others, enables
us to get more employees, and enables us to get employees that are committed to safety
and committed to doing a good job in providing a service to the public that not many people
do.
And so, roofing is a very difficult trade to work in.
It's hot, it's dirty, but you can look back and say �I did that job,� and take a lot
of pride in it.
Our employees are doing a good job.
They're installing the roofs properly, they're doing it correctly, and they're going home
and they're coming back the next morning to do it again.
So, that's the culture of safety that we are really trying to embody in our company.