Better Safe Than Sorry

Jim Suttle, executive vice president of HDR, Inc., talks about safety with verve and passion, and for good reason.

In June 1997, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped the Omaha, Neb.-based firm with almost $1.4 million in fines for 23 safety violations it made during the demolition of the old Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, a project Suttle piloted. (Fines totaling slightly more than $250,000 were incurred by an engineering firm and five subcontractors working the job.)

�There we were, little ol� HDR, amongst billion-dollar companies, number seven or whatever in the most fines [that year],� Suttle recalls. �I vowed never to let that happen again.�

Easier said than done. After all, work sites�as well as offices�are dynamic spaces that present numerous, if not countless, safety challenges. With one eye focused on the project and the other scanning the landscape for the long arm of OSHA and signs of litigious sinkholes, design firms face a climate in which safety issues are assuming an importance more profound than ever before.

First Steps

HDR was among the first, if not the first, design firms to have a full-fledged safety program. But what is a �safety program�? Is it a three-ring binder, stuffed with OSHA pamphlets, collecting dust on a storeroom shelf? A dog-eared poster taped to a wall? Meetings where water cooler talk supplants shop talk?

Gary Bates, vice president of Cincinnati-based consulting firm Roenker Bates Group, believes safety must be engrained in a company�s character. �It is a thing that starts with the culture of the organization,� he says. �Whether it�s a five-person or 5,000-person firm, it must literally build safety into personnel manuals, discuss safety and have their own safety plan for when anybody�even if it�s the CEO�goes to the field.�

To create such a culture, A/E firms must scrutinize every aspect of their operations, from the space around photocopiers to the contracts they negotiate, then apply a generous dose of common sense. For instance, HDR discovered employees were cutting their fingers on paper cutters. The solution: steel gloves placed at every cutter; the result: zero injuries. At the more sophisticated end of the spectrum, firms should consider building specific safety requirements into project plans.

Other Considerations

HDR, which in May 2002 submitted to ACEC five safety program guidelines entitled �How A/Es Can Develop an Effective Health and Safety Program,� runs everybody in the corporation through safety training. �We are managing the risk of our people when they are exposed on the job, with the full cooperation of our own employees,� Suttle says.

Though in-house training is the foundation of an effective safety program, firms must also look outward to identify issues and learning opportunities. When putting a team together, ask pointed questions and put specific safety requirements into writing. �If we are employing a survey firm, we want them to certify that they have an OSHA-compliant safety program,� Suttle explains. �We may even request a copy of their manual. We may send our safety person to their site to see how they�re doing. We will put responsibilities on them.�

Bates says it�s a good idea for designers to sit in on contractors� �toolbox meetings,� during which on-site safety, including both accidents and near-misses, is discussed. �Engineers and architects are paranoid about not wanting to be responsible for a safe site,� he says. �I understand that because it has to do with liability and it�s a contractor�s responsibility. But it wouldn�t hurt them to be more aware of what the contractors are doing to create a safe site.�

Firms should also train employees to report, in writing, safety concerns they observe in the field. Not, as Suttle says, �nickel-and-dime things like a hardhat on backwards,� but more critical gaffes, such as a trench with no shoring or a wobbly railing. �We�re not there as policemen,� Suttle clarifies. �We follow common sense and the good Samaritan approach. [But] we put a copy of [our reports] in a folder so if there is a problem, we have a paper trail on what was done at the time.�

Ensuring Fiscal Safety

Tom Porterfield, vice president and senior consultant at Chevy Chase, Md.-based Victor O. Schinnerer and Co., Inc., an underwriter for a professional liability insurance program for design professionals, says A/E firms are often the target of lawsuits. In addition to compensation for injuries, these can entail asking design firms to pay for budget overruns and other unexpected costs.

This said, firms need to be aware of their rights. �The law does allow that, because [engineering] is an inexact science, perfection is not a realistic standard,� Porterfield explains. �The standard is reasonable care, skill and diligence.� Part of this standard, he continues, �is taking the responsibility to properly protect [employees] from unnecessary injuries [while they�re] providing their services. It is a constant matter of training and retraining and identifying and addressing new exposures.�

Still, exposure to legal action remains a pressing concern for purely financial reasons. To complement any existing liability insurance policies, Chuck Kopplin, a principal of Milwaukee-based consulting firm Graef, Anhalt, Schloemer Associates, Inc., suggests negotiating to be named an �additional insured� on the general contractor�s liability policy. �By being named, [firms] have protection against the contractor�s employees and/or some third party being injured on the jobsite and then having their professional liability policy being eroded or attacked.� Even though it may not always be possible, Kopplin says it�s good practice to try to do this on every job.

What About OSHA?

According to Bates, �The best thing to do is to invite them in and have a sit-down safety planning meeting with OSHA representatives in your region before you have a problem.� Firms should work with OSHA �to reach a consensus on what is the best way to create a safe environment and a culture of safety at each site or within a plant or wherever.�

Suttle, who says he has enjoyed a close�and frank�relationship with OSHA administrators, believes the agency needs to rethink its �hammer-and-stick approach� and stop �treating everybody as the enemy,� but concedes that �they have a legitimate role.� Engineers need to work with OSHA to try to replace punitive guidelines in contracts with incentives while understanding that OSHA�s main concern, no matter what, is always safety. �Remember, OSHA is happy for you to plagiarize their material,� he says.

Into the Future