Knowing how to stay safe on the job is just as important as the job itself. To help stress the importance of staying safe at work, Korellis hosted its annual Safety Fest on Wednesday, April 6 to help employees stay on top of the game.
The Safety Fest consisted of seven different classes over the course of the day. Each class touched on a different topic that employees encounter at work, such as securing a harness or working with equipment and ladders. The event served as a refresher on important safety precautions, as well as showcasing new tips and tricks to take into consideration for upcoming projects.
“Safety Fest covers refresher training for our field employees,” said Korellis Safety Coordinator Meredith Moran-Pruim. “They get a variety of classes across the board that cover fall protection, fall rescue, load securement, DOT training, our emergency action plan, and asbestos. John Ziolkowski, our president, hosted ladder inspections and the new water infiltration protection program (WIPP). Safety Fest gives us the chance to bring in qualified individuals, so our field has the opportunity to get the proper training they need when it comes to safety.”
Safety Fest also explains the ‘why’ behind the safety precautions all employees are practicing.
“It helps educate them to understand why they need the equipment, and why they're wearing it to prevent injuries, and keep a safe record,” said Chris Byrd, a representative from Circle Tool Supply, which supplies fall protection and other tools for Korellis.
When it came to planning the content for this year’s Fest, the Korellis staff wasn’t looking to just hit a certain number of checkpoints, but instead really looked at what happens on the job and go in-depth as possible to explain the best safety precautions for those situations.
“Myself and the safety coordinator, Meredith, got together and came up with a plan of what we thought were the biggest trainings that we needed to do,” said Korellis Safety Manager Joel Barnes. “A lot of it is annual refreshers and expanding upon things that we do train on a lot, especially in a construction company like ours, with a lot of fall protection and a lot of our compliance training that we try to really go into depth about, and not pick the bullet points in the same refresher training every year, but really try to get it more hands on.”
Barnes invited multiple people with experience with these various topics so Korellis employees can learn the best ways to stay protected straight from the source.
“We have a lot of partners; we're associate members of a lot of organizations, including big ones like NRCA (National Roofing Contractors Association).” he said. “So we've invited trainers, people that I've known personally and professionally, people that we've had, I've been invited out for the day to tend to a lot of the training. I’m taking trainings myself, including long-term trainings with people from the NRCA. So my role in the entire day was making contact with all those people.”
“For our DOT training, we have the Indiana State Police hosting that class,” Moran-Pruim added. “For our fall rescue. We have the NRCA, and for asbestos we have Amereco Engineering, so we have professionals coming in and providing that training for our guys.”
Additionally, Dave Banas, who worked with OSHA for 32 years, was there to instruct a course and speak on his own experiences as well. Barnes and Banas have been meeting previously to work on Korellis’ Voluntary Protection Program (VPP).
“It's a direct partnership with OSHA, and it's for strong professional companies that have a strong emphasis on safety,” Barnes said.
Safety training at Korellis also goes beyond one day a year. In addition to the annual Safety Fest, Korellis also holds monthly training sessions as well. Barnes said hosting these multiple training events not only keeps everyone updated and safe, but also allows for that face-to-face interaction and to meet other faces within the company. This was a huge factor at the Safety Fest this year, as the event was previously on a two year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We do it at this time of year because the very heavy part in construction is coming up with the warmer months in the summertime, and so this is the best time to just do that refresher,” Barnes said. “We haven't been able to do it for a couple years. Every single year we were looking at March or April and seeing in 2020 and 2021 if the pandemic would break, we'd be able to meet as a company, and this is what we finally got to get it done.”
Moran-Pruim noted that it was challenging to find alternatives to in-person safety meetings, and while they were able to make do with digital resources, it was great to be back to normal and have the Safety Fest up and running again.
Barnes added that the continuation of Safety Fest is allowing Korellis to work toward numerous safety goals like the VPP, and knows Korellis is definitely heading in the right direction.
“We have some very lofty goals, but they are attainable,” he said. “It's going to take a lot of work, but we're not going to give up. We're not going to quit; this is something that we will attain. It doesn't matter if it takes a year or two years from now, this is something that we are going to achieve and we're going to just keep driving that train until we get it.”
To learn more about Korellis, visit korellis.com.
