National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW) is an annual spring campaign held at the start of construction season to encourage safe driving through highway work zones. The key message is for drivers to use extra caution in work zones. I Build America – Ohio is celebrating the people in construction who work hard to make these work zones as safe as possible. Read more about them below!
Name: Keith C.
Company: John R. Jurgensen Co.
Title/Position: Senior Safety Manager
How do you contribute to the overarching safety of your company’s workforce? For me personally building trust and rapport with our tradespeople because this helps foster positive relationships and outcomes. Progressing our JRJ culture requires we prove we care. We don’t do “safety” because the regulations tell us to we do it because it is the right thing to do!
What does your company do to ensure safety on the job? Well, Safety is the most plagiarized thing in the world, so learn from others, but if I had to narrow the list I would say the four most important things to us is:
- Provide Effective Training
- Create and Enforce Clear Policies (seek employee input on these)
- Engage Your Workforce
- Secure Frontline Supervisor Support
How can the public help keep construction workers and work zones safe? Listen to and follow all of the NWZA campaign guidance and construction related signage. Not just this week, but whenever on the road. Motorists need to know that contractors go to great lengths to ensure the safety of their employees, but the one thing we can’t control is the traveling public!
