The first thing to know about Construction Safety Week is that it is a huge free giveaway of training, motivational material and wisdom about preventing injuries and accidents. Ignoring it is like walking past a valuable gift offered you by your local department store.

One thing you will find on Construction Safety Week’s abundant website is the Hensel Phelps CARES program, a new way of engaging employees.

Companies “can take whatever they want from it; it’s theirs to use,” says Michael Choutka, CEO of the contractor-construction manager, and this year’s chair of Construction Safety Week.

Hensel Phelps is one of the founding companies of Construction Safety Week, which is now in its 11th year. Choutka’s firm has evolved its approach to safety, adopting or adapting ideas from all of the new major safety theories and approaches of the last 30 years. Using them, he says, has enabled employers to make measurable improvements that in turn have made construction sites safer.

“It’s remarkable how the whole industry has rallied around creating a better work environment,” says Choutka, noting that at Hensel Phelps, “incident rates that we track have come down significantly over time,” with efforts continuing “to drive the rate to zero.”

Part of that involves using the energy wheel, which involves recognizing and controlling gravity, mechanical, temperature or other sources or creators of high energy that pose risks of more severe injury.

Photo: Matt Good/Shoots for Good; courtesy of Hensel Phelps

Hensel Phelps’ recent efforts include standing up the program it calls CARES, an acronym for Craft Awareness, Recognition and Engagement in Safety. In the program, all project contractors send a representative to a committee that can bring concerns to managers. Committee members “meet and talk about their jobs and help give guidance to leadership on ways to improve work conditions,” says Choutka. “There are some really exciting innovations.” How to form the committee and best practices for its success are spelled out in detail on the Construction Safety Week website.

Also on the website homepage is a section inviting craftworkers and managers to make eight pledges, by clicking on them, for eight consecutive weeks with a new pledge revealed each week. The pledge invitation is under the banner of “Our Plan, My Part,” with completion of all pledges making the viewer eligible to win a prize of $1,000. As of press time April 22, more than 8,000 individuals and 100 companies have been engaged. Whatever you do, make your own commitment to jobsite safety.