Ep. 276: Real Talk on Safety - Perspectives from Five Trades Leaders

Speaker A: Welcome back to out of the Hourglass, the podcast for small business owners and leaders in the trades industry. Every June, the National Safety Council designates this month as National Safety Month, a time set aside to raise awareness, share resources, and recognize the people who show up every single day committed to making sure their teams go home safe. This year, we wanted to make sure that we marked the occasion. We reached out to five different companies within our client community, contractors from across the country who are part of our summit safety peer group. And we asked them a simple question. What does safety look like inside your business? What came back wasn't a policy manual. It's something much more real. It was safety managers and operations leaders and project coordinators talking about the moments that shaped how they think, the challenges that they're still working through, and the stories that remind them why this work matters. You're going to hear from Romel at Alpine Painting, Hernan at Nolan Painting Vicente, and Raul at mv. Jessie Chris at APAP Painting and Renovations, and Jasmine at All Covered Painting. Five companies, five different roles, one shared commitment. We start by asking them how the focus on safety has evolved, not only in their business, but in the work that they do.

Speaker B: My name is Christopher Barnett. I work, I am the safety coordinator for George APAP Painting, uh, and renovations. Uh, I haven't even been here a year yet. I started Labor Day of uh, last year. Um, I was, I was a parachute rigger in the army. So that was my first introduction to safety equipment. I used to do electrical work from 87 till 92. Uh, so I have some, you know, I've gotten my hands dirty in the trade, so to speak. And uh, that's it.

Speaker C: My name is Rommel Perez. I am the safety manager for Alpine Painting and Sunblasting. So we are based in Patterson, um, New Jersey. We have businesses, we have jobs across, uh, Connecticut, um, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and uh, New York. So with Alpine, um, we do have five divisions. We have um, commercial painting, industrial painting, uh, we have um, specialized flooring, welding and fabrication as well. We have like shop jobs as well.

Speaker D: Hey, my name is Hernan. I work here at Nolan Painting. I am the safety manager. I've been here this fourth of July will be five years. Um, I've been in the safety industry for about 10 plus years now in construction. Originally started off in Texas with the heat and my wife kicked me up here to, to the northeast. So now I'm up here. Nice. A little cooler, A little more colder than, than the south, but I'm enjoying it.

Speaker E: My name is Raul Marino. I've been with the company two years this month. Uh, I am the production manager. So I see a lot of our internal processes and um, a lot of things that uh, our guys are using, the technology and the safety, uh, programs that we have out in the field. Uh, so that's pretty much what I do.

Speaker F: Yeah. My name is, uh, Vicente Verdusco. Um, my position now is, uh, director of Operations. I of overlook, uh, all departments but focus, uh, on.

Speaker C: On.

Speaker F: On production. I been in the company for a few years now. 20. I'm going to 22. 22 years.

Speaker D: Wow.

Speaker F: Yes.

Speaker D: That's great.

Speaker F: Yes.

Speaker G: Thank you for having me. My name is Jasmine. I am the project coordinator at All Covered Painting and we are located in Seattle.

Speaker E: I think. As MB Jesse continued, uh, to grow, uh, safety naturally became a much bigger focus as a company. Um, we started taking on larger and more complex projects. And you know, with that, uh, comes more responsibility, uh, not only to our clients, but especially to our field teams. So, um, over time, safety became more than just meetings and paperwork. Uh, it became a part of how we plan projects, how we communicate with crews. Um, and leadership has really pushed for consistency across all sites and it helped, uh, create a stronger culture. So working towards the summit safety certification, um, it gave us a standard to work towards and it helped us tighten uh, a lot of our internal processes, uh, from an operations standpoint and improved communication, planning. And one of the things that we really liked and we really noticed is that safety, um, the safety systems actually help support production. So when projects are planned correctly, expectations, uh, are clear, uh, we're working safely and projects run smoother.

Speaker D: I've worked with, uh, previous companies where we've had subcontractors and here in Olina we do all the work. Um, it cracks me up a little bit because I was trying to

Speaker C: figure,

Speaker D: uh, out a good way to explain why that is. And the one example that kept coming into my mind was, um, you know, when you were a kid and you went to like your friend's house and they said something that at your house would get, you know, a slap upside the head. And you're like, how can you say that? Like, that's how it is. That's, that's like a great example of explaining it to people. Because here we have our rules, we have our boundaries, and we have our uh, way of doing things. A subcontractor, you will have a safety meeting with them. Hopefully you'll tell them these are all rules and regulations, but their culture might be the opposite of what your Culture is they may not be safety conscious while your company is. So because of that you're going to have to stay on top of them here. Don't have to worry about that. Uh, the culture here at Nolan is, has safety deeply embedded into it. So when I say something or a manager says something or a issues presented, my guys know what to do. It's either, well, we, if they have a new guy in front of them, was like, well, we can't do that because we don't have the rpp, therefore we're not going to touch that. Or this is an issue. We don't know how to take care of it. Let's contact our manager in safety.

Speaker G: The Summit safety certification process has really helped us uh, at all covered, um, really elevate the way we approach a job and how to prepare for it. It's helped us become much more intentional with um, our jobs. And proactive safety is no longer something that we address only when an issue arises. It's built into our whole planning from the very beginning. And I think that um, Summit has really helped us set those standards with your guides and your templates. Um, really having uh, the guide on how to have our crews run their like daily safety trainings or um, doing the JSA at the beginning of every job. All of this is something that we had initially had working like in the background. But with Summit, I've, we've really like engraved that into our culture now.

Speaker A: Now building a CT program is one thing. Getting your team to actually live it every day, we all know, is a whole other situation. One theme that came up across nearly every conversation we had, and it might be the most honest thing said about safety in the trades. Let's talk about complacency and getting buy in.

Speaker C: The hardest part of maintaining consistent safety behavior, um, in the field, on the site is, you know, when you're um, when you have overconfidence and complacency. These M2. Yeah. These two are, yeah. The biggest obstacle. These two behaviors are very, um, they can spread throughout the workers if you don't address this one. So, you know, uh, we have to um, you know, an employee. What happened is that even the most complex job, okay, can be routine, you know, if they keep on doing this or if they routinely doing this one. And that's when overconfidence and um, complacency comes in, when the employee thinks that oh, this is a routine job for me is the same thing over and over again. And yeah. And we have to work through it, you know, and and to combat or to fight against this um, obstacles, this over um, complacency and um, overconfidence that we have to um, um we have to promote a safety culture. We have to promote a safety culture and you know, the positive safety culture. We promote this one by first, um, um, developing ownership, sense of ownership, um, in each employee and safety. Now, um, safety is teamwork. But it begins in each and every one, in each individual on the side. So it's not just the four months or the safety manager's duty. It begins with everyone. So with ownership also we train employee, we make sure that um, we inform them. No we'll talk them and make them realize that for Alpine, safety is non negotiable, you know. Yeah. So yeah, it's non negotiable and everyone is aware of their stop work authority. Okay. And they, you know, they know that when they speak up for safety they will get support. They will get support. And we reward also positive um, you know, um, positive um, behaviors like when somebody report an unsafe condition, okay, and he intervene and correct that and safe uh, condition, you know, then we reward them, you know, we acknowledge them.

Speaker D: So for example, in my previous companies it was extremely difficult for guy for just guys to wear pbe. This is just as simple as that. Um, I remember walking into a job site and I got guys in trenches that are not being boxed. And well I, you know, we have profit, we got to reach, we got, we're delayed on this project and this and this and excuse after excuse after excuse. And in that company I remember always hearing, well safety comes first. But I never saw it come first. And honestly that that's a horrible saying. Safety never comes first. If you're being honest. Profit, uh, you got to have profit in everything you do. But for some reason during the last couple of years or decades we, we separated safety from profit. Safety is in profit. You gotta make be keep your guys aligned and safe so that you maximize your profit. If you got a thirty thousand dollar job and you got a twenty thousand dollar injury, you just almost fully, you know, removed all that profit from, from that job. So um, what keeps us aligned and uh, you know, uh, helps me overcome these challenges is that I have a team above me. CEO, president, company owner, head of hr. All the managers that I sit down and I say hey look, here are issues, right? So for example, two years ago eye injuries were skyrocketing. So I sat down and looked at it, looked at all of the eye injuries that we had. I looked at the cheapest one that cost us $500 to the most expensive one that cost us like 20 grand, uh, 20, 15 grand or something like that. And I said, so all of these eye injuries are coming down to the fact that we're buying the cheapest, worst safety glasses that only protect like 30% of your eye, while the top and bottom and a little bit over the side of the are completely exposed. And we don't work in environments that are free of, you know, when or gust of wind or anything like that. So they're not being fully covered. So when I came and presented this to the team above me, it was, it's my fault, but this is what we're going to do. This is what I'm seeing, and this is what's happening. It made sense to them. And then they grabbed that message, took it down to their guys and said, hey, this is the change that's coming. It's costing us so much money because we don't have the correct safety glasses. Here's the new one.

Speaker G: So one of the biggest areas where safety communication can break down is when the crews feel the pressure to work faster in order to beat the hours budgeted for a project. Sometimes that can lead to our, uh, crews cutting corners, which is exactly what we want to avoid, because that's where accidents happen. We've worked really hard to reinforce the message that there may be like, a fast way of doing something, but the safe way is always the best way and should be the only way. So if completing a task properly and safely takes more time, then we want our crews to know that that is time well spent. Um, another challenge can be with our more experienced team members who have been in the industry for many years. That experience can come with, um, some overconfidence, but sometimes that, ah, overcomes confidence that they already know everything can lead to, um, accidents. So our approach is to create a culture where everyone's continuously learning. We know that we can't. We have people who come from several different backgrounds and several years of experience, but we make it a, uh, point to provide regular safety training, have conversations about safety daily so that everyone, regardless of how much experience they have, whether they're coming in new or have several years behind them of experience, they stay current and aligned with all of our safety standards.

Speaker F: I think definitely number one is, uh, complacency. You know, uh, we work with lots, uh, of equipment, uh, starting with ladders, uh, on the daily basis. Sometimes, uh, that equipment involves, uh, climbing a scaffold or using, uh, a boom lift, but, um, working, um, repeatedly every single Day using the same tools, uh, you create some sort of a habit of being uh, feeling more relaxed. And um, that's the number one, uh, wrong thing, you know, to really not think about. So the one uh, thing we use to prevent that is um, daily huddles. Daily huddles. Every single day, uh, we talk about the plan, what is the plan for today, but also include that safety topic. Okay guys, don't forget, uh, we're going to be using ladders today. And uh, respect the rules and every, everyone had noticed anything that we need to know, uh, that can cost, you know, uh, we don't want to wait to discover that something happened. Uh, let's uh, do an inspection on the equipment, let's do an inspection on the tools and uh, I think, I think, you know, uh, focus on creating um, that sort of uh, uh, uh, uh, knowledge that uh, we need to think about it all the time.

Speaker B: With regards to newer hires, one of the things that we do at orientation is we go through everything, um, especially working with ladders because ladders are our bread and butter. Uh, we have a carpentry division and a painting division. So ladders are being used by everybody every day. Not only do we have a step by step guide, visual guide, which we walk them through, but I narrate, for lack of a better term, and one of the reasons why we do that, and I explain this to them several times during the process, is that if you brought a bad habit here from another job, we want to root that out immediately and it's explained to them that we see it once. You get a verbal warning. If we see it again, depending on what it is, maybe you'll get written up. Okay. Yeah. And the write up will be a verbal, you know, will be a warning as well. If you keep it up then, you know, it's, you get called on the carpet and it's like, okay, you know, this is how we do things here. You're going off script. Please explain why.

Speaker A: So how do you keep a safety program from going stale once you've built it? The answer, turns out, isn't a big overhaul. It's something much more consistent and a lot more human.

Speaker D: It's over and over and over. Uh, when you, when you get hired, you're going to hear something about the epa. When it's your first day of orientation, I'm going to go over a 45 minute presentation about the EPA. When it's lead month, which I think it's February, you're going to have another EPA presentation. Like I said, I am a broken record. I repeat myself 100 times. But is that, is that constant, repetitive, uh, education that we're giving, not just by me, but by the managers and our president, um, that can it. It just sticks. So people know and understand.

Speaker E: One of the biggest thing is understanding that safety is never really a finished product. Um, so certifications are important and it's something, uh, to be proud of. But, um, maintaining the consistency across multiple crews, multiple projects, going all at once, that's the real challenge that I think a lot of us, uh, can talk to and face. So our focus is staying engaged, uh, continuing to improve. And one of the things that, uh, for me and Vicente, that has really helped us is being part of the monthly, uh, safety meeting, uh, that we do with Summit. Uh, uh, we hear about different things other companies are going through. And maybe we haven't gone through that, but it's something that is like a red flag, like warning, this can happen at your company. Um, so that's our, um, the way we look at it is always trying to hear feedback from other companies. Always trying to get ideas and improve what we already have. Um, we love that we have the level one certification and we'll definitely work to a level two. But, um, our biggest challenge is maintaining consistency, um, and building forward. And again, having that mentality that it's not a finished product. Um, it's something that is going to be growing every year, um, based on what we do. And you know, we have a lot of, we're growing as a company so it's a bigger challenge for us to make sure that everybody buys into the culture as well.

Speaker G: Yes. So because I'm helping coordinate projects from start to finish, I kind of get a broad view of what is happening across different job sites. So I, along with my operations manager, we pay really close attention to reoccurring issues, near misses and feedback we get from our crew on the field. So if we're noticing patterns, such as certain jobs, needing additional equipment that is not commonly found in their vans, or repeated questions about certain procedures, or any repeated near misses that all involve like, similar tasks, we bring those observations to our safety committee and we talk about what is leading to these, um, situations. We talk about how we can adjust our processes or update our trainings, um, what we need to improve on. So, such as, um, adding hours, extra hours for these like, situations we're running into so that our crew doesn't feel stuck the next time they're on a job site. So in many ways, um, project coordination helps kind of serve as an early warning system. So by identifying, like, these patterns and these trends and then having the conversations with our crews and our committee, we can make improvements for our team and for them to be safe while they're out on the field.

Speaker B: We have an. I just came from one before, uh, we started the podcast this morning. We have a leader meeting every. Every other week where the boss, the operations manager, myself and hr, if there's a topic that needs to be brought to everybody's attention, um, it will be brought up there. So that way they have all the information and it's disseminated down to their crews and, you know, so everybody understands, uh, what's going on. Excuse me. One of the other things we do is we have a company mount wide meeting, uh, every other month. Attendance is mandatory. I always have a subject. HR always has a subject. Operations always has a subject. And what I don't want to do is I don't want to go over stuff that everybody is already knows and has heard 10 times already, because they're going to tune out. So what I try to do is I try and keep everything, uh, timely to what's going on at the moment. For example, the last one we had, which was back, um, in April, was. Was, uh, lightning protocols. During a thunderstorm like that, it's starting to get warm. We're going to start getting thunderstorms. Here's what you need to know. The next, uh, month, the topic is going to be. It's going to be between two things. It'll be, uh, it'll cover proper hydration and the warning signs of heat stroke. Yeah. So that's. Something like that will get everybody's attention. Especially because last month we had a couple of warmer than normal days for where, you know, for where we live. I mean, temperatures were close to 90 degrees where.

Speaker D: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: And, uh, we had guys doing a lead job on a house outside where they were all suited up in the Tyvek suit and the gloves and the respirators and the hoods. And I was constantly there. Who needs water? And a couple of guys are like, if you could get me water, that would be really, really great. Five minutes down the road is a gas and sip. I grabbed two, you know, two big gallons of, uh, polar spring. Bring it back. Here you go, guys. Um, and it also develops a rapport with the crews because they understand what I'm there for, but they also understand that I'm not their enemy. And I'm not looking to trip people up. Uh, it's. Look, if you get out of line and something happens. Yes, I have to do something about it. But that's not why I'm here. I'm m here to make sure things don't get to that point.

Speaker A: If you're listening to this and wondering where to even begin, here are some things these leaders want you to think about.

Speaker F: Uh, is definitely a team project. Uh, it's not, uh, one or two person project. Um, the team, um, everyone has to bond on it. But I think that the number one difference is are you demanding the change or you are what I call cultivating. Cultivating the change, you know, um, so I think we, we, we pass, uh, from that transition of uh, you guys got to do this, you guys got to follow, uh, these procedures and steps. But uh, I think the right message is why it's important for everyone. Not only for me on my position or not only for the company, but why is it important for everyone? What is important for you? An apprentice that uh, come to work and work safely and go back to your family at the end of the day, right? It is important. Uh, it's also important for your family. Um, so I think, I think that's the difference. Uh, demanding the change or cultivating that change.

Speaker D: Um, a lot of the times, and this goes from my previous, uh, uh, experience, a lot of the times they, companies want to hire a safety guy and say this is, this is your program. You, you fix it, you stop all these injuries. And they're like, okay, we can, um, but in order for them to get anything class, you got to go through the higher ups. So hey, I'm going to give you a perfect example of a scenario that occurred here at Nolan Painting and then a scenario that occurred to me at another company. Um, here at Nolan Painting. The month of February. February is a very scary month. And not just because of Valentine's Day, but because, um, it, it's cold, we don't have much work. So it's a red month, right. And because of that we got to be careful how much money we spend. We just also had a guy back in December fall and uh, from a two foot ladder and it completely needed a new rotator cuff surgery. So he was, it was a pricey surgery. Um, yeah. I walk in in that month of February, uh, I look at my company owner and I tell him, hey, I need $10,000 because I need to get rid of all your current 2 foot ladders and replace them with a new one. Before then I got 5 new different 2 foot ladders went up to my guys and I Gave them out and I said hey guys, try these out, let me know what you think. And we, we, they all rotated them. I got their input. One came out as like this is the one. Um, as soon as I told him that, as soon as I showed him the new ladder that we were going to use and I explained to the owner like the reason why you want to use this ladder is one, it allows your, your guys to have a wider standing so they're more stable. Uh two, it's double sided so they can use one side or the other side. Um, and also the big is one of the major reasons why is because the footing, the steps from the first step to the second step match the extent extended ladder. And that was muscle memory that was confusing our guys when they're just going up and painting thinking about it. They kept tripping and falling.

Speaker E: Oh wow.

Speaker D: So as soon as I made that change, we went from um, six to eight injuries per year from a two foot ladder to just one in three years.

Speaker C: Oh wow, that's awesome.

Speaker D: So, so if you are a business owner and you're like hey, I want to have a safety program like yours, uh, ask yourself, are you again, are you willing to put safety into your profit and are you willing to say hey, we need to drop some money to fix this problem? A lot of the times like in my previous business, it's been always um, I will never forget this, uh, to the day that I die because it was the biggest just, I just biggest safety awakening moment I've ever had in my life. I'm sitting on top of our mechanic uh, shop. This is a diesel engine repair shop, uh, along with gas powered engine repair shop. I mean anything that has an engine, you bring it in there, they fix it and it rolls out. The group of guys were phenomenal. The CEO walks up to me screaming at me to my face, why aren't these guys wearing safety glasses? Why aren't they wearing vest warrants? Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Take a step back because he was really close to my face. I take a step back and I look at him. He has a Tommy Bahama T shirt on, he has flip flops on, he has no safety gear on. Then he goes to the shop floor wearing the same thing that he, that he was screaming at me. Walks under a crane that was uh, that was hoisting a, an engine and is just screaming and yelling at everyone. And I was like. And in my mind, um, I wanted to tell him the reason why is because you were, you don't care about it if that guy was wearing safety glasses, his, his steel, uh, toe boots, his hard hat on, and was not getting on these guys cases, but just fixing the problem by handing out the safety glasses. Everyone will be up to code in a second. But because the head honcho does not care, he just cares about being compliant so that OSHA doesn't drop a big lawsuit on him. Everything that I say is dead underwater. I was always constantly down there handing out safety glasses, but the guys would pick them up and just throw them off to the side because they, this. The, the CEOs over there, uh, wearing his Tommy Bahama shorts and grinding. I'm like, you're not helping the situation. So again, you know, any business owner that wants to have a successful safety program, you. You gotta be the one that shows the workers how to do it.

Speaker G: So I would say one thing that is often overlooked is how much influence the office has in setting the tone for safety. I may not be out on the field every single day or, um, probably hardly ever, but I'm always communicating, uh, with the team. So safety starts long before the crew even arrives on site. It always starts from the top. So here at the office, with myself, our office manager, operations manager, and our estimators, we can support the safety of the crew by building enough time into estimates, ensuring that the right equipment is available. So that means making more a bigger budget for safety, or clearly documenting job hazards on our estimates, making sure that these conversations are being had before the crew arrives on site, and really, uh, encouraging the crew, even if we don't see them every day, to come to us if they need anything, come to us if they don't feel safe. It doesn't matter if you're not a crew lead, if you're an apprentice, if you're just starting off with us, we really want everyone to feel safe and comfortable. So we've made it a point to have a huge group chat with all of us, where we're constantly checking in on everyone, reminding them that if they need anything, we are here.

Speaker C: It is not only just, um, a legal obligation, but it's also a moral obligation to make sure that you, as employer, make sure that, um, your employees go home safe at the end of the day.

Speaker A: We closed every conversation with the same question. What gives you hope as you think about safety in the industry? And honestly, the answers are the reason why we made this episode.

Speaker D: Coming here at Nolan has been phenomenal, because it's been great to just be able to sometimes get stumped by a problem and then walk up to my, my, my Wednesday meetings with, with all the higher ups and say, hey, here's a problem. I don't have a solution. And then we try to figure out a solution. It's phenomenal that I get called constantly, get text messages constantly, pictures sent to me constantly about how issues and problems. So these guys are, are willing to show me their issues. Um, they're not afraid of me. I can go to a job site, I'm greeted with a smile. In my previous. In my previous life, uh, in Texas, uh, I would show up to a job site, and all of a sudden everyone became a smoker and had to take a smoke break. Right. So, you know, it's. It's that kind of thing. It's. We did the National Safety, uh, uh, questionnaire. Uh, it's a big safety questionnaire for your business. And it was. A lot of people gave props to the safety program that we had developed here. Now many people said, oh, I have issues and problems. Uh, they had recommendations, uh, which is phenomenal. We, we. We listen to those and we made changes. But a lot of people were just saying, you know, this is the best safety culture we've been to. People actually do listen to us. We feel appreciated here. Um, so, so, yeah, so the future, uh, of safety is going to be great if we keep what we have going. Every year, we stop, we look back, we find our issues and problems, we adjust to them, we continue that education. I continue to be a broken record, and we just carry forward.

Speaker C: It gives me pride and hope and safety when I visit the site and I see the impact of, of the safety influence, you know, on the site. So you can see this one, you know, from the. Let's say housekeeping. See a very good housekeeping around the site. Okay. And when they, they, um, they apply what they have learned in trainings, they follow safety procedures, uh, precautions that were given to them, as well as, um, you know, when, like, I was on one in one site, you know, wherein I visited the site and an employee came to me and told me, romel, have you read the GSA jab hazard analysis for this job? Yeah, I was part of that. You know, I was part of the group that created the job hazard analysis. But having an employee, um, showing ownership. Ownership, you know, telling me, hey, Raml, let's review the gha. And I'm gonna discuss. He's got, he discussed to me the current operations, the hazard associated with the present operations, and the safety precautions that were in place. So, yeah, it gives me pride, you know, when. Especially when People are, uh, when workers show ownership, you know, and you see that the impact that you are making to their lives and work and even. Jen, I have uh, instance wherein we have like a party, company party, and like a family member of our co worker approach me and say, ramel, thank you, thank you. You know, because he, yeah, his uh, our employee shared that, you know, about the safety and how, how uh, how it is, you know, how safe our environment is and the safety program that we have and how it changed his uh, the way he work.

Speaker G: Being bilingual, I'm like very fortunate to be able to help the crew with any questions or concerns that come up. Um, recently I reached out to. I went onto Washington's LNI website and I looked for someone who was certified in doing OSHA trainings in Spanish. And so I reached out to him, kind of gave him a little bit of background of what, who we were, who all covered is, and asked him if he was willing to ever come to our shop and train our crews. And he was more than happy to do that. He actually, um, worked specifically with myself and the field supervisor to get a list of all the equipment we use, all the different kinds of um, jobs we do from exterior to interior, commercial, residential. And he built out a whole safety like course for us, um, to share that with our, Our crew. And we invited all of our team. He came over, he trained them on fall safety, ladder safety, and it was all done in Spanish. And I think everyone was able to participate. And it was just really nice seeing that they could have those conversations without there being any obstacles. And so I think safety is a journey and we still have a lot of work to do. But helping our crews, um, as much as we can and providing them with as many resources as we can is something that I can say. I'm really proud of how we've progressed this last year.

Speaker E: It really makes me proud to be, uh, to be part of a group that not only cares about, uh, being productive, you know, earning more, but also taking care of those that are driving the company. So it makes me really.

Speaker F: Including. Including mental health, right?

Speaker E: Yes. Mental health was a bigger problem. Yeah, thank you for mentioning that because, um, that's something that. It's the elephant in the room. Uh, you know, a lot of, uh. I can see a lot of other companies or uh, other places are not talking about that. And it's very important because the construction industry, the painting industry is a stressful industry, but raising awareness where the support is, training, uh, bringing in that training, how to be first aid, um, People in mental health is something to be very proud of.

Speaker B: The work that I'm doing in APAP now I have a barometer for, uh, or metric, for lack of a better term for what things. Like now, again, to compare to when I started doing construction work in 87. Uh, so I'm at. I don't want to bring my H into this, but I'm at an age where it's not so much pride. It's okay, everybody gets it, everybody understands. Nobody got hurt. Um, you know, nobody, you know, nobody went off script, nobody did anything stupid. Everybody went home at the end of the day and they were all in one piece. Okay, My. My job done.

Speaker A: What strikes me the most after hearing from all five of these leaders is how consistent the message is even across companies of different sizes, different markets, and completely different roles. Safety isn't a checklist. It isn't a compliance requirement that you satisfies for OSHA so they don't show up at their door. It's a culture. And the culture doesn't build itself. It gets built by the people who show up and reinforce it every single day. The safety managers are broken records by design. Project coordinators catch patterns before they become incidents. And operations leaders understand that safety, um, and profit aren't in competition. They are the same thing, but it also gets built at the top. One of the most powerful things in this conversation was simple. If you want to see safety culture, you start with yourself. Your team is watching, and what you model matters more than anything in your policy manual. So if you're an owner or a leader listening to this and you're thinking about where to start, or how do I take what I already have and bring it to the next level? The resources are out here. The National Safety Council has a full toolkit available at nsc.org for national safety Month, including free downloadable materials, weekly themes and tools you can bring directly to your teams this month and months to come. And if you're interested in what a structured safety program looks like inside a trades business, our Summit seat certification is built specifically for companies like yours. You can learn more@nolancg.com True. Ramel, Hernan, Vicente, Raul, Chris and Jasmine, thank you for sharing your voices and giving us your time, sharing your voices, your stories, and your commitment to our community. The work that you're doing matters not just for your companies, but for every family waiting at home at the end of the day. And, um, that's what it's all about. So thanks for being here for this one, guys. We'll See you. Next time on out of the Hourglass.

Speaker B: It.