At Kurt Bland’s landscape company, being safe is second nature. Over the past 31 years, the safety program at Apex, N.C.-based Bland Landscaping has resulted in fewer accidents, discounted insurance rates and national recognition from organizations like the Professional Landcare Network. Bland’s employees appreciate the company’s no-nonsense approach to safety and realize their safe behavior benefits everyone. “All too often, people see safety as a way to crack down on employees,” Bland says. “We try to get our guys to understand that we want them to leave work everyday with all of their limbs and appendages attached – not just get better rates on our insurance. To us, it’s just a humane approach to working with people.”
Most landscape contractors view employee safety and training as a responsibility in addition to an invaluable way to keep workers productive. Many also see it as an important step toward earning a professional reputation. While some contractors factor safety into their annual budgets, most do what’s necessary to keep their employees safe with little thought about the financial impact. “When it comes to safety, if it needs to be done, we do it,” says Mary Archer, horticulturist and HR specialist, Bever Landscaping, Forest Lake, Minn. “We don’t put a cost on safety.”
STARTING OUT SAFE. As landscape companies grow, a focus on safety is imperative. More equipment and more people increase the potential for accidents. Kyle Webb, owner of A to Z Lawn & Landscaping in Centerville, Ohio, admits to having a less-than-perfect safety program when he started his company 18 years ago. Five or six laborers were relatively easy to keep an eye on, he says, but now that he has 17 employees and counting, a consistent and effective safety program is a must. “The more employees you have, the easier it is to forget who knows how to do what safely,” he says. “As we grew, I knew I had to reassess how to do training.”
Today, Webb’s crews are trained around what he calls a training matrix, which is divided into different modules. A check mark in a module indicates the employee has been properly trained in that specific area. The matrix hangs by the time clock so everyone can see who is trained in what. Each employee’s pay rate is determined by how many check marks he has, so everyone is motivated to be trained as thoroughly as possible. For example, those who become proficient in 10 or more of the matrix’s roughly 15 modules can usually expect a raise of $1 an hour by the end of the season. “I believe that our safety policy creates an incentive for the guys who want to learn,” Webb says. “It’s not costing them anything and, in the end, we all benefit.”
A to Z Lawn & Landscaping is a member of PLANET’s STARS Safe Company Program, the free initiative designed for companies to lower injuries and costs by eliminating hazards. Despite his current safety success, Webb wishes he’d incorporated his safety program from the get-go, and advises all landscape contractors to do the same. “Don’t wait until you grow to think about safety, do it right away,” he says. “Safe practices can be a major cause of a company’s growth.”
WHAT IT TAKES. Validity is one of the most important components of a successful safety program, says Laurie Bishop, safety manager of The Bruce Co., Middleton, Wis., adding that employees sometimes need to understand why they have to do something in order to do it willingly. Building safety programs upon credible research and data from organizations like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration also helps give them merit. “Landscape contractors need to build their safety policies with regulatory compliance in mind,” Bishop says. “Justify the reasons for the regulations and show them there is authority other than you behind what they are required to do.”
Contractors stress the importance of practicing what they preach. Whenever he visits a job site, Bland dresses properly and has the appropriate eye and ear protection. “Having a great safety program is not enough – the manager also has to lead by example,” Bland says. “I want my guys to see me walking the walk.”
Costs of safety and training vary drastically from company to company. Bland’s company spends about $10 per employee per hour with a minimum of 40 hours of on-the-clock training per year. With 168 employees, he estimates spending more than $500,000 on training annually. A large portion of that cost – more than $20,000 – is dedicated to the company’s annual safety day, he says. On this day, regular productivity is replaced with eight hours of written, verbal and hands-on training. The event takes place after H-2B workers arrive and is conducted in both English and Spanish. Employees also are provided breakfast and lunch. “Some people ask how I can justify paying for that, but I don’t know how I could not justify paying for that,” Bland says. “My guys get so much out of our safety day that I couldn’t imagine doing away with it.”
Webb spends between 25 and 35 hours training his employees on the clock each year, and also ensures the equipment he purchases has added safety features. Bishop’s company employs a full-time bilingual safety instructor who can communicate the importance of safety to all crew members. “Many landscape companies are smaller and it’s hard to justify the salary for someone to think about and enforce safety full time,” she says. “But often the person enforcing safety is already wearing more than one hat and safety is not something that can be done halfheartedly.”
Many contractors also take advantage of the plethora of free safety training materials, literature and videos available from organizations such as PLANET and OSHA. Archer compiles a lot of Bever Landscaping’s safety information from the Internet, and couples it with hands-on demonstrations by company veterans. Once a week at Bever Landscaping, foremen conduct tailgate meetings to discuss a relevant safety issue for five or 10 minutes at the start of a workday. Crews then sign a form indicating they attended the discussion.
ALL IN FUN. Keeping safety interesting is a major component of a successful program. Getting people involved in interactive games is effective, particularly if there are monetary prizes. Some contractors also benefit from singling out people within the company. At safety meetings, Bishop presents photographs taken throughout the workweek of employees’ right and wrong behaviors. “They like to see images of themselves or guys they know,” she says. “It brings it home.”
The “shock factor” is another method of keeping a crew’s attention during safety training, Bishop says, adding that she often shows videos of gruesome accidents that result from unsafe behavior. Archer agrees that the gorier the image, the bigger impact it will have. “Guys seem to love that stuff,” she says. “It shakes them up a bit knowing that it could happen to them if they’re not careful.”
But it’s not all fun and games. Enforcement is necessary for an effective safety program, and employers need to make sure their crews are aware of the repercussions of unsafe behavior. While the punishment will depend on the violation, most employers first give a written or verbal warning. For example, a common violation is failure to wear proper ear or eye protection. Webb supplies his crews with earplugs each day, and also provides them with their first pair of safety goggles. If employees lose them, it is their responsibility to replace them. This year, Archer implemented a safety violation form that supervisors and employees can fill out when they see someone practicing unsafe behavior.
Bland immediately stops unsafe behavior and explains why it was wrong. Explaining how and why a particular behavior is unsafe is a good way to ensure that it won’t happen again, Webb says. “When you’re training someone you have to take enough time for them to get it right,” he says. “Not everyone has the aptitude for every job so you have to make sure the employee and the specific task are a good fit.”
BOTTOM-LINE-ADVANTAGE. Aside from sending employees home all in one piece, enforcing a safe company can benefit the bottom line. Insurance companies often take into account companies that go the extra mile to prevent accidents and workers’ compensation claims. The experience modification rate, also known as the E-Mod rate, determines the percentage of workers’ compensation insurance premiums a company has to pay. Each company’s rate increases or decreases depending on its number of accidents.
Bland’s E-Mod rate is currently .86 and has been as low as .76, he says. Because of this, he pays 14 percent less than the state’s regulated insurance premium. In fact, Bland Landscaping was recently deemed one of its insurance agent’s safest customers, Bland says. “We get a better workers’ comp insurance rate because of our lack of accidents and proactive approach,” he says. “We can demonstrate a history of safety which is appealing to an insurance company.”
Webb is convinced his safety program works based on the company’s new-found efficiency. After just two weeks of training, his 10 new employees hit the company’s weekly budgeted time – a goal that used to take six to 10 weeks to reach. Archer has never dealt with a workers’ compensation claim in the four years she’s worked at Bever Landscaping and says the company’s seven-plus safety awards are proof it’s on the right track.
Most contractors agree that no company becomes safe overnight. After about a year of continuous work, Archer says her company’s safety program is finally written and organized to the point where the company knows where it wants to go and how to go about getting there. Likewise, Bland’s safety program has been years in the making and is still not where he feels it could be. “We’re seeing benefits and rewards from our current safety program, but as long as we’re in business we’ll continue to work on it,” he says.
The general consensus among contractors is safety in the landscape industry needs improving. But as more companies strive for a professional edge, information and education to promote a safe working environment become readily available. “The industry is making strides in the right direction, but there is certainly room for improvement,” Bishop says. “And with the current efforts toward education and information sharing, it’s bound to get better.” PLD